Help!! New to betaflight need advice!

FDS

Elite member
First set up is the hardest. Getting it 110% right on the bench will pay dividends when you fly it though, there’s enough to think about on that first flight without having technical issues as well.
You might be able to get the TX unlocked by Spektrum customer service.
 

ElectriSean

Eternal Student
Mentor
Acro mode on the Tx is fine, IIRC it only changes the names of channels etc, it is functionally identical. I'm still thinking it's set to the wrong UART in the ports tab, or an incorrect serial provider in the configuration tab. Try both of the spektrum types, and try each UART remembering to save & reboot after each change.
 

Kflight17

Member
So I’ve tried everything my receiver binds up correctly and I tried every uart port there is all my settings are correct for my spektrum serial receiver and I’m still not getting any movement in my beta flight configurator from my radio even with battery plugged in maybe my solder connections are wrong ?
 

Kflight17

Member
Here is a pic
 

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ElectriSean

Eternal Student
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Your connections look fine. I've looked and cannot for the life of me find anywhere that actually says which UART is tied to that pin. Did it come with a manual or a link to a manual anywhere?

Can you post screenshots of your config, ports and receiver tabs? Also can you confirm on your Tx channel moitor that it is actually sending signals? Grasping at straws here ;)
 

Kflight17

Member
Well I actually got the receiver to finally get a signal I cut the signal wire away from the first pic and put it to rx3 and that seemed to work but now my motors won’t arm I checked status in cli and first it said throttle so I changed the endpoint and I tried again with nothing and no more arming flags in cli as well I’m getting nothing from the motors I hold the stick full left or right at no throttle and nothing I soldered my “servo” wires to ground and just signal to m1,m2,m3,m4 no power wire in the middle and I’m not getting anything from the esc or motors, chimes or anything I’m so lost with this I threw a pic in of my esc “servo” wires soldered to the board are they soldered to the right pads? Excuse the crappy booger’s haha
 

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ElectriSean

Eternal Student
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You are connected to the right place, though I would try to clean up those solder joints. The motors should play some tones when the ESC's power up, which they should do as soon as you connect the battery. I'm guessing there is a connection problem either on the ESC power wiring or on the motor wiring, as it is actually the motors that produce the tones as instructed by the ESCs. Pictures of both would be helpful :)
 

Kflight17

Member
I figured that I’m getting a red light on the flight controller. What is the proper way to arm this fc? Also have new motors older escs I soldered each esc power connection to the bottom of the board and the main power out the back of the board when I plug my battery in the board and receiver power up but I get no chimes or anything the motors and power all seem to be hooked up correctly and not lose
 

ElectriSean

Eternal Student
Mentor
By default, Betaflight uses stick arming, which should be changed to use a switch in the modes tab. Set up an arming mode, and stick arming is disabled.

As I said, if the motors aren't making tones when the ESC's are powered up, they either aren't getting power or the motor connections are bad. It's also possible that the ESC is toast, but the chances of all 4 going together are slim. In any case, if they don't chime, they will never spin.

Post some pictures :)
 

Kflight17

Member
All my connections look to be solid in there however I did have an old kk2 board setup first which I did lay flat on my carbon frame with no standoffs which is also a power distribution board (main reason why I bought the betaflight) so I’m not sure if I possibly shorted the escs by doing this Only one gets kind of hot when I plug a battery in but not super hot unless it’s plugged in for minutes and it’s only one esc don’t mind the mess in the pics I’m still trying to figure this all out but the last pics you can see how I think they shorted but I’m not sure if it can short an esc if it’s just signal and ground
 

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ElectriSean

Eternal Student
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Shorting the signal wire to ground won't cause any damage, but shorting the positive to anything can. ESC's should only get warm when they are driving a motor, sitting disarmed on the bench they should remain room temp. If you have a meter, confirm that you are getting battery voltage at the ESC power pads. I suspect you are, and that the ESC's are indeed toast :(
 
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Kflight17

Member
Shorting the signal wire to ground won't cause any damage, but shorting the positive to anything can. ESC's should only get warm when they are driving a motor, sitting disarmed on the bench they should remain room temp. If you have a meter, confirm that you are getting battery voltage at the ESC power pads. I suspect you are, and that the ESC's are indeed toast :(
Now what if I plugged one in and it worked on my old pwm receiver? What would the next step of action be? I plug the battery in and the flight controller powers up but no chimes or anything from the motors...
 

ElectriSean

Eternal Student
Mentor
As I mentioned earlier, you should have set your ESC/Motor protocol to PWM in Betaflight. But even with no signal at all, the motors should chime when the ESC's are powered up..
 

Kflight17

Member
As I mentioned earlier, you should have set your ESC/Motor protocol to PWM in Betaflight. But even with no signal at all, the motors should chime when the ESC's are powered up..
So I switched to pwm now they chime but still won’t spin I think I’m arming it correctly when I throttle up the board blinks red so I’m still lost haha
 

Kflight17

Member
If it's not arming, the answer is in here:

Hey electric Sean!!! You figured it out thank you so much man you saved me such a headache no blown esc’s I appreciate that so much if I was able to buy you a burger or something I would figured out all the settings and motors finally spun up I really appreciate it again!!
 

ElectriSean

Eternal Student
Mentor
Hey electric Sean!!! You figured it out thank you so much man you saved me such a headache no blown esc’s I appreciate that so much if I was able to buy you a burger or something I would figured out all the settings and motors finally spun up I really appreciate it again!!

Awesome, glad to help :)