Newbie: Help throttle calibration!

[Dadalorian]

Newbie here,

Building a Flite Test Mighty Mini trainer. New Spektrum ar620 receiver, used dx6e transmitter. Throttle channel is 1 and (to the best I can tell) throttle cutoff switch is off (or in other trials "inhibited" on settings). Cannot seem to calibrate the throttle: Just get continuous brrp...brrp motor vibrating and slowly turning.

Video of what we are going attached. EDIT: Could not attach a .mov file. Picture of setup attached. Sequence of what we are doing:
1) Transmitter on with throttle "up" position
2) Lots of musical beeps then a pause
3) Move throttle to "down" position"
4) Lots more beeps
5) Move throttle up: series of brrp...brrrps....

Then musical stuff repeats some more, and so on.

Help! My 9 yo and I have been struggling with this intermittently for weeks before I discovered this forum

Thanh you in advance!

 

[Merv]

Sounds like you have a broken wire between the ESC & motor.
Try unplugging each of the 3 wires, one at a time. If you find a wire that does not change the symptoms, that is the broken wire. Gently tug on the bullet plugs, sometimes one is not solder on, it will just fall off in your hand.

If all of the wires are sound, It’s likely a bad ESC or motor. If you have extras, try different one until you can isolate the problem.

Make sure the prop is removed while you are sorting things out. You don’t want it to startup unexpectedly.

Try uploading the video to YouTube and posting a link to the video.

 

[quorneng]

Dadalorian
Not quite sure what your 'brrrp' is representings.
Is the motor rotating but quickly stopping or is it just kicking but not rotating even a complete turn? If it is just kicking then it is either a bad motor connection or the ESC itself has failed.
With a Spektrum you don't need to set the Tx throttle to max. Most ESCs are quite happy with the throttle at minimum and the trim set to full low as well.
With the throttle full up on ESC power on you are likely entering the ESC's programme mode hence all the repeating musical notes.

I would expect an ESC on connection to give 3 rising tone beeps, followed after a sort pause by a number of constant tone beeps as it 'counts' the number of battery cells followed by a single beep as it 'arms'. It is then ready to go and will remain silent. I have just checked the beeps from an ESC/motor combination as I type this.

 

[Bricks]

Is the receiver bound properly? Do you have all other controls working except motor?

 

[Dadalorian]

Wow, what a cool forum that I already have some speculations. Thank you all. I will more thoroughly try the wire diagnostics again in the am, but a quickie does not reveal any breaks or meaningful changes by unplugging individual wires.

And I do think it is bound ok. We did bind while plugged into the "bat" channel then disconnected power and moved moved the plug to channel 1, then did the sequence in the video, since that is the channel assigned to the throttle....

Thanks for the Youtube idea: Here is a link to the steps / sounds / "brrpp" movement

I know my son's throttle moments may be hard to see / a but fast; we get the same result with longer pauses at the top then bottom positions...

Thanks again, Merv, quorneng and Bricks...

 

[Hai-Lee]

I am a little confused by the throttle stick positioning as shown in the video.

Normally I simply leave the throttle stick at minimum until the ESC has finished its beeping and then try the throttle. If the throttle range is poor due to a calibration issue I simply turn off the receiver, advance the throttle to maximum, and then apply power to the receiver.

Just after the first two beeps I quickly return the throttle stick to minimum and wait until the ESC finishes its beeping sequence. When the ESC goes silent I advance the throttle to test if the calibration was performed properly.

Having said all of that the noise sounds like there is either a broken connection on one of the outputs from the ESC to the motor or within the motor itself OR the motor is not free to rotate and the ESC driving the motor is disconnecting the drive because the current does not match the rotational feedback received.

Have fun!

 

[Bifi.baarlo]

The throttle calibration did work, there is another problem, when you turn the motor by hand, is there any resistant? Aren't the mounting screws to long? If those things are not the case, then there is a problem with motor, esc or one of the three wires that are between the motor and ESC, maybe you can try another motor and/or ESC?

 

[Matthewdupreez]

Or if you purchased it from flitetest.... contact them and request a new one

 

[Ketchup]

Or if you purchased it from flitetest.... contact them and request a new one

You could, but it might be better to find out what’s wrong first to completely rule out user error and avoid this in the future.
Based on the other comments here, this might just be a bad motor or ESC, but I still think it’s better to find out first. FT should still send over a new part once the issue is found and if it can’t be fixed.

 

[Merv]

....And I do think it is bound ok. ...

After seeing the video, I agree with Bricks, Im not sure the Rx is bound.

Try plugging in a servo to the one of the channels, maybe the aileron channel, then move the sticks. If the Rx is bound, you will to control the servo.

 

[Bricks]

Can you plug in a servo into the throttle channel and have the servo work? If not then there is something wrong with the receiver setup if it does work then there is a problem in the motor ESC. You can plug the ESC into any channel to supply power to the receiver for the above test.

By looking at your picture it looks like you have your throttle connected to the Data port throttle is the third set of pins from what I see about the ar620 receiver, by looking Spektrums web site. I don`t have one to verify this.

 

[FlyerInStyle]

Newbie here,

Building a Flite Test Mighty Mini trainer. New Spektrum ar620 receiver, used dx6e transmitter. Throttle channel is 1 and (to the best I can tell) throttle cutoff switch is off (or in other trials "inhibited" on settings). Cannot seem to calibrate the throttle: Just get continuous brrp...brrp motor vibrating and slowly turning.

Video of what we are going attached. EDIT: Could not attach a .mov file. Picture of setup attached. Sequence of what we are doing:
1) Transmitter on with throttle "up" position
2) Lots of musical beeps then a pause
3) Move throttle to "down" position"
4) Lots more beeps
5) Move throttle up: series of brrp...brrrps....

Then musical stuff repeats some more, and so on.
View attachment 204753
Help! My 9 yo and I have been struggling with this intermittently for weeks before I discovered this forum

Thanh you in advance!

You might have punched through one of the coils with a screw I had the same problem with Ft's ppa motors. I got a dys/flash hobby 2300kv motor: and it has been working amazing, as it has that cushion of space before the screw reaches the coils

 

[Dadalorian]

Hi all.

Problem solved.

What tremendously helpful comments. What a cool community.

Comments drew my attention to motor: As a last ditch effort, I backed the mounting screws out and bingo, it worked. I had used the long mounting screws. Now mounted with short screws and seems to be working. (bifi.baarlow, Hai-lee special props).

Now to try and get servos / rudder / elevator going...

Thank you all very much.

 

[quorneng]

Surely the receiver is bound. It would not respond to the transmitter in any way if it wasn't.
The fact there is a response of sorts puts the fault at either the ESC, the motor or possibly the transmitter itself.
The only way to know for sure is to have a working spare to substitute one at a time.

 

[quorneng]

Dadalorian
I was still at typing at your last post.
If the long screws were having the effect on the motor as shown in the video I would test the motor most thoroughly before committing to flight. It is possible the ends of the screws had pressed through the winding laxquer insulation and were causing an intermittent short circuit. You may be lucky and the motor performs normally but the damaged insulation might cause problems when the motor is working hard and heats up.

'Long screw' issues are well known but don't worry we have all make mistakes.
The first rule after installing a motor is "does it still turn as freely by hand as it did straight out of the box".

 

[Mr NCT]

Dadalorian, welcome to the madness! Glad you got your problem sorted.

 

[Matthewdupreez]

'Long screw' issues are well known but don't worry we have all make mistakes.
The first rule after installing a motor is "does it still turn as freely by hand as it did straight out of the box".

yea.... that may be... but also remeber that on many brushless mototrs the winding dont move.....they are in the centre and the permanent magnets are the parts that spin.... meaning that even if it does turn freely the screws could still be shorting the coils

 

[chrisvdv]

Newbie here,

Building a Flite Test Mighty Mini trainer. New Spektrum ar620 receiver, used dx6e transmitter. Throttle channel is 1 and (to the best I can tell) throttle cutoff switch is off (or in other trials "inhibited" on settings). Cannot seem to calibrate the throttle: Just get continuous brrp...brrp motor vibrating and slowly turning.

Video of what we are going attached. EDIT: Could not attach a .mov file. Picture of setup attached. Sequence of what we are doing:
1) Transmitter on with throttle "up" position
2) Lots of musical beeps then a pause
3) Move throttle to "down" position"
4) Lots more beeps
5) Move throttle up: series of brrp...brrrps....

Then musical stuff repeats some more, and so on.
View attachment 204753
Help! My 9 yo and I have been struggling with this intermittently for weeks before I discovered this forum

Thanh you in advance!

@Dadalorian look at this.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=flite+test+beginner+series

 

[Dadalorian]

Thanks all. We have been building off the Flite test videos, but those linked are different.

Quorneng, what would a "thorough test" before flying look like? Running it a while to see if it overheats? Honestly, I suspect we will crash the plane long before the motor gets a chance to overheat.

 

[quorneng]

Certainly run it up to full power for say 15 seconds, check nothing is getting too hot to touch. Then repeat a couple more times. That will work the motor a bit harder than when flying where there is airflow to help keep the motor and the ESC cool. If it doesn't fail after that sort of test the chances are it won't at least in the short term!
Just remember to re charge the battery after the test before you fly.