Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Don Brooks on February 2, 2012 at 7:39am

After reloading the code, make sure that you are erasing the eeprom. The erase does not happen automatically when you reload the code unless the new code requires it. Redo the radio setup, AND the ESC calibration.

Out of curiosity, if you do the radio setup, the beeping stops, and then things should seem normal. The beeping comes back only after you remove battery and USB, and then powering up again? Is this correct?

I will have a look at mine when I get home and try and find out where it is, but I'm pretty sure there is a flag or parameter that is set once the radio setup is completed. I'm just not sure why yours won't seem to accept that.

Permalink Reply by Michael Krader on February 2, 2012 at 8:40am

 Just go back and recalibrate your esc's individually going off the radio reciever. went throught the same thing and the only way was to recal the esc's. it might still do it once and while after this, it seems to happen more when cold. it could be a issue with diy-drones esc;s as ive lost 2 allready.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Tinacci on February 2, 2012 at 1:00pm

@Chris - I can't seem to calibrate the ESCs. When I plug the lipo APM boots up in rapid beep mode. If I try to complete the steps to auto calibrate all 4 ESCs nothing seems to happen except the beeping and twitching motors. I don't hear any confirmation beeps. The ESCs are the standard from Udrones. 

@Don - I did erase the eeprom after the reload, and went through the radio config. (during the radio config I did have the 4-wire PDB cable disconnected per the instructions). All radio inputs registered but the beeping continued through the remainder of the setup process. Once I complete the last tab of the setup process I close the pop up window and I'm back to the APM planner. Still beeping. I disconnect in planner, then disconnect USB, then disconnect lipo. If I power back up with the lipo the beeping is still there. If I power with the lipo while keeping the 4-wire PDB cable disconnected, the beeping is slower. When it's connected, the beeping is rapid. There is no beeping when I boot the APM just with the USB.

At one point it did stop before reloading the code but once I powered off the APM and back on, the beeping came back. I tried various combinations of the config process - starting with USB first then lipo and lipo first then usb. 

So frustrated at this point, and on another note - Udrones doesn't seem to care to help anyone once they've sold their goods. Pretty crappy customer service if you ask me. But that's another story!

Anyone in the SF Bay Area care to give me a hand with this??? Drinks on me! Or I can pay for help :)

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on February 2, 2012 at 1:11pm

I work in SF and live in Berkeley. Happy to look at it. Just PM me and we'll arrange for a time/place.

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Permalink Reply by Don Brooks on February 2, 2012 at 1:27pm

I'm curious what this is, if you can post back and let me know?

As for help, you won't get much better than having the founder of the project offering to have a look!

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Permalink Reply by Jason Tinacci on February 2, 2012 at 6:19pm

Hi all,

Got an update... 

I calibrated the ESCs individually and got some good and some odd behavior:

The first ESC calibrated fine - the second and third didn't respond as the instructions said they would with the series of beeps. Instead they made the music tone followed by single beeps every couple of seconds. I retried 2 and 3 and had the same result. I tried the first one again and it calibrated fine but this time there was now a low ticking sound. 

I tried 2 and 3 again and they calibrated with the proper beep tones but also had the ticking. Esc 4 also calibrated in the same manner, including the ticking. 

Once I connected everything again, triple checking my connections, it doesn't seem the ESCs are able to arm. I ran the radio calibration through Planner, which went fine. Also the constant beeping is gone after running the individual ESC calibration - one small victory :)

What am I missing?!

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Permalink Reply by Michael Krader on February 2, 2012 at 8:51pm

how long are you holding the stick to the right when trying to arm.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Tinacci on February 3, 2012 at 11:05am

Update #2...

Turns out it was the ESCs. I manually calibrated each individually. Not sure if this is normal, but I had to perform the process on each one at least two sometimes three times before it worked correctly. Don't know why that is. 

So once the beeping stopped and the ESCs were calibrated, I tried to arm them but was having no luck. I was holding the throttle to the bottom right and no matter how long I did made no difference. By chance, I held the pitch/roll stick to the right and guess what?

They armed!

I'm using a DX8 in mode 2 so I'm not sure why throttle is reversed. I swapped the throttle and aileron cables on my receiver and that seems to work for now. Does this sound like my radio is configured incorrectly or can there be another wire crossed?

On yet another note, the folks at Udrones have yet to respond to any emails, and I'm annoyed that they claim the quad was configured and tested prior to delivery. Guess they have my money already so no need to respond. What crappy customer service! The one positive is that I'm learning more about how the system works. 

Jason

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Permalink Reply by Don Brooks on February 3, 2012 at 11:27am

If holding the pitch/roll to the right arms things, then there must be something up with the channel inputs or some mixing in the radio. Are you 110% certain that the right stick shows yaw on the radio setup screen?

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Permalink Reply by Jason Tinacci on February 3, 2012 at 12:27pm

I know the inputs on the receiver were correct, and near positive about the radio config. I'll have to check when I'm back at home. 

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Permalink Reply by Jason Tinacci on February 4, 2012 at 11:13pm

Well it seems the controls on my DX8 and in MP were somewhat mixed up. They're functioning correctly now. 

Did a little test flight earlier to test my training system. Nothing too exciting :)

Thanks again for all your help! 

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