Quad arms but no ESC throttle beeps

ArduCopter Copter 4.5
1

Greetings!

I’m running AC 4.5.4 on a Holybro Kakute H7 V1.3. I ran through the basic configuration and setup, following along with @andyp1per 's 7" LR build guide and the AC documentation guidance for this autopilot board.

I was just about ready to do my maiden flight when I found that while my quad would arm (I could see that it was armed in MP over my telemetry link), I never got my last two ESC long beeps indicating the presence of a min throttle signal. I spent some time researching and troubleshooting this with no luck. Here’s what I found so far:

  • Quad’s ESC does arm up (I get the last two beeps) when I am connected to MP via USB BEFORE I connect the battery
    -When I connect the battery first with no USB connection to MP, I never get the last two beeps under any circumstances
    -I have a good RC link (ELRS) in all these cases
    -RC calibration successfully performed in MP and all channels behaving as expected
    -I’m in standard AETR channel 1-4 config
    -Safety switch is disabled (I don’t have one)
    -Motor test tab works fine in MP, as long as I’m connected to MP over USB before I plug in my battery, I can spin the motors using motor test in MP

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
Pre-maiden full param list_with_IMU_TCAL.param (21.8 KB)

2

If it arms post a link to the .bin flight log file.

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4

What ESC’s are they?
Disable SERVO_BLH_DEBUG
Set SERVO_BLH_MASK,0 (Not needed)

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5

Holybro Tekko32 running BLheli32

6

OK, one of the more common ESC’s. Should be no problem. If the problem continues create another post with the Internal Errors shown in the log messages.

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Thank you and will do. I just made those changes and I still get the same thing. I appreciate you looking at it.

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8

Worth playing with SERVO_DSHOT_ESC in case its a timing problem

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Thanks Andy, I’ll give that a shot. This is still kicking my butt. I think the internal errors in the log messages just happened to be in that one log; I have many other logs that didn’t have any errors where this same issue was happening.

10

I experimented with SERVO_DSHOT_ESC to 1 (plain old BLHeli32) and that did not change anything.

But on a whim, when I rebooted with battery power for testing I tried just having the USB cable connected to the FC board (no actual connection to MP yet) and under this condition, I got the last two ESC arming beeps.

Same exact condition with USB cable unplugged and no beeps.

No connection (TM or otherwise) to MP for either of these scenarios.

No connection to my RC link in either of these scenarios, just the USB connection to the laptop or not. Very strange. I don’t think I have any 5V converter issues as far as I can tell on the ESC/FC combo but I can’t think of what else might cause these symptoms.

11

Try different SERVO_DSHOT_RATE also.

So, if you connect a battery it will arm and fly regardless of what beeps and USB connection you have?

12

Sorry for the late reply!

If I am on battery with no USB connection, Arducopter itself will arm (as indicated over telemetry) but I never get the last two beeps on the ESC and motors will not move.

If I am connected to MP over USB, as soon as I plug in my battery I get all the beeps (including the last two) from the ESC and I can spin the motors in the motor test tab.

13

I also tried switching SERVO_DSHOT_RATE to all the other possible values and this didn’t make a difference.