The page at https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/tuning-process-instructions.html suggests that for 30" props, a value of around 0.85 is a good value. However, I am concerned that the FOC ESCs might have totally different linear/exponential relationship between PWM and thrust, as they have a totally differnt method of controlling the motor.
Does anyone have any expierence of this with FOC ESCs?
Also, what will happen if I set the MOT_THST_EXPO to 0.85 and it proves too high? What about if I set it too low? Which runs the risk of uncontrollable climbing on first take off?
I am looking at using a thrust stand but for something so big this will cost more than the multicopter!
“MOT_THST_EXPO is the linearization of thrust vs PWM. If this is set too high we see an increase in gain at the lower end of the thrust range and a decrease in gain at the upper end. Therefore when set to high you can see instability at low throttle and if set too low you can see instability at high throttle”
…so you could experiment somewhat and see what MOT_THST_EXPO works best.
Thanks Shawn. Am I correct to think that an incorrect curve could cause hover throttle to be way too high or too leading to the copter climbing or descending at mid throttle?
If you use ALTHOLD (for example) and have MOT_HOVER_LEARN set to 2 it should be OK. Arducopter doesnt take very long to learn the hover value.
What is more likely to cause uncontrolled climbing is Z vibrations. Have STABILIZE mode ready.
Try changing MOT_THST_EXPO a bit at a time and look for the effects that Leonard mentioned.
I am having trouble getting these ESCs to work. They are all beeping once per second even when the PWM value is set to 1100 which is meant to be the minimum value. Same result when plugged into a servo tester.
I think they aren’t supposed to be calibrated as the max/min pwm values are apparently fixed.
The specs say the ESCs have no BEC but they seem to be outputting voltage to the pixhawk output rails and will power the servo tester. Perhaps I still need to add a UBEC?
You very likely plugged the wrong cable, all you need is the ground and the signal wires, the long black and white wires. The short wires are for programming and firmware update, the yellow/white is for telemetry. (Dont’ ask, it looks like a proprietary protocol, no info is avail)
Thanks, yes you were right about the cables although they’re all the same length on mine. I eventually found a hobbywing manual after a lot of searching!
Hi Evgeny
Are you still flying this drone? Did you get those parameters by autotune or manually trying things?
Can you share more up-to-date screenshot of the parameters or anything that might be helpful and prevent me from crashing my drone again? Thanks
