For the last couple weeks, after upgrading to the latest firmware, I can’t get the quadcopter to take off - everything seems fine hardware wise, but the motors just won’t spin up past about 20-30 percent throttle (guess - the frame starts to get just a little bit “light on it’s feet”).
Anyway in trying to track this down, (and after trying everything I could think of and erasing all my previous parameters as the nuclear option) I see that on my Extended Tuning page (APM Planner 2.0 until I get home and back to Mission Planner), ALL the settings are zero.
The page is not “greyed out” - but that said, I cannot type in changes (weirdly(?), I can make changes on the Basic Tuning page).
Why are all these fields set to zero? Why can’t I type in changes?
Can this be why the motors don’t spin up fast enough for takeoff?
I don’t have a log file right now (left the micro SD card at home - duh).
If I recall (the 4-in-ine ESC is buried in the frame), it’s a Lumenier 35amp 4-in-one. It’s on whatever firmware it shipped with maybe 5 years ago.
I’ve tried ESC settings of PWM (with a couple ESC calibrations), as well as DShot 150 and DShot 300.
This frame flew fine last time I flew it maybe 2 years ago - then I changed the motors (from Sunnysky 4108S to 2806), updated the FC firmware, went thru the complete MP setup and calibrations, and I haven’t been about to spin the motors up past maybe 30% - my all-up-weight is only about 1300 grams, so those smaller motors are more than capable.
Why don’t you like APM Planner? Any other recommendation for MacOS?
What kV for the 2806 and what size props? When using Motor Test in Mission Planner do the motors spin up faster as you increase the throttle percentage up to 100% (props off obviously)?
No development. Use QGroundControl. But, stick with Mission Planner until it’s completely tuned.
Yes, same ESC - and yes the motor test increases throttle. Same as when I try to actually take off - the motors increase RPM, but then quit increasing at something like 40-60% throttle.
Using PWM is should make no difference assuming the calibration was done properly. Using Dshot requires a few parameters are set correctly.
As usual post a link to a .bin flight log of a take-off attempt.
Dave I’ll have to check and reaffirm when I get back to my Windows PC about Oct 20 (and no, I was referring to when trying to take off, not with the motor test, sorry that sentence was worded poorly. Thanks for your help - I’ll check in and report back to this thread then.
Motors B and C spun up - but again - only to maybe 40 percent.
I lowered the DShot setting from your suggested 600 to 300, and ALL the motors spun up, but again, maxed out at about 40%.
An observation from yesterday’s log files…
The max current sent to the motors was about 2 amps (I’m no expert at reading logs) - not sure if the 2 amp reading is indicative of other parameter settings.
Post your parameter file. It’s not making much sense what you are reporting. Can you connect to BLHelisuite and check the ESC configuration?
Flash the Bdshot version of firmware to that board by going here Kakute F7-bdshot and downloading the .apj file. Then use Mission planners “load custom firmware” to flash it.
OK Dave - it appears that changing LOW RPM POWER PROTECT from ON to OFF has fixed the throttle issue - this is just from using MOTOR TEST - rpms above 40% are now actually higher and higher - I’ll go out later and try to actually take off.
I would have NEVER thought to change that ESC setting in a million years - I mean after all, I’ve never had to change ANY esc setting, so why would I now?
Is this something that going forward with Arducopter, ALL esc’s will require LOW RPM POWER PROTECT to be OFF?
