How to get all four motors to spin the same at arming

ArduCopter Copter 4.6
1

Howdy all! I have an Arris m900. I built it from a kit. It came with Eagle Power motors and Fly Color 40A ESCs. I’m using a Pichawk 6c flashed with the latest Arducopter.

In order to get these ESCs to work I have to use OneShot as the ESC protocol. When I do a motor test, it takes 15% throttle input on the motor test page to get them to turn. I’m not sure if that’s an issue or not. I’ve read that it shouldn’t take more than 4-5%. The drone does fly. When I arm it, however, two of the motors start spinning and the other two sit idle. When I give it a little throttle, then the other two will spin up. Obviously they all must get somewhat synced or it wouldn’t fly. With other quads I’ve built, all four motors spin nicely after arming. I’m wondering if I need to calibrate the ESCs. I don’t know if they support BL Heli. I doubt they support AM32. Any ideas on how to calibrate them? I really can’t do the raise the throttle to full and plug the battery thing in like I can on my simple single ESC planes and such. I’ve tried to read the ArduPilot literature but I really don’t feel like I was finding anything that could help me with these ESCs. I’m even wondering if I should get four new ESCs. I’m f I go that route, any suggestions on a good one that is easy to use that would be a good replacement for the Fly Color 40A?

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Those don’t support any blheli protocol. Use the semi-automatic calibration detailed here:
ESC Calibration
Then follow this:
Setting Motor Ranges

4 Likes
3

Thank you Dave!

Those two steps helped a lot. This forum has been so helpful. It really makes building and learning about these machines so much fun.

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Good to hear Alex. For replacements ESC’s can you use a 4-in-1? With regards to a mounting location that is.

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I’m sure it’s possible to use a 4:1 ESC with this frame as it’s rather large.

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These days there are many more 4-in-1 options than single ESC’s. Your best choices would be Blheli_S flashed with Bluejay or AM32. There are Blheli_32 units still around but it’s a dead end.

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I’ve done a little reading about the BLheli thing. I was looking at these ESCs: DYS Aria 70A 3-6S AM32 ESC — RaceDayQuads

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Those look OK. I see HolyBro has single Tekko’s with AM32 but not many around to be found.

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I have the same package you bought,Arris M900 combo with EaglePower 5215 220kv motors. My came with 40amp FlyFun ESCs. You can connect to MissionPlanner >Mandatory>Advanced >Motor test with your main battery connected to everything and push the safety switch. Probably best to remove the props. You can check each motor individually to see what throttle percentage is needed by each motor to start spinning when armed. I have 2 motors that will spin at 6% one that needs 8 and one that needs 10. So i set arming speed at 11 and 14 for motor minimum. When my battery start to get weak the slower motor sometimes doesn’t spin at first when the others do. I use a SIYI MK32 all in one ground station with 7 inch touch screen. It has DJI style center return sticks. So i had the same problem calibrating the ESCs that you had. I bought a Hobbywing ESC programming card. It lets you program 4 ESCs at once and you can set the minimum and maximum to match the output if your FC.

I just had my first test flights. The last flight the quad was climbing while i had the throttle all the way down. Fortunately, i eventually got it on the ground without crashing. The FC has a micro sd card for BlackBox data. Hopefully i can figure out what my issue is. It may be vibration.

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I’m building the same combo as the OP. Your advice was helpful. Thank you.

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I’ve really enjoyed this quad. After following the links that @dkemxr posted all four motors spin up at the same time when armed and it flies nicely. That ESC programmer from Hobbywing sounds cool. Does it work with AM32 ESCs?