ESC just beeps

[Mikdys]

Can anyone here shed some light on this for me?

Just bought a new plane and fitted the Spektrum RX, bound it, checked the servos worked OK, set up dual rates etc and then went to program the ESC. Put RX on full throttle powered on then connected battery on plane. ESC didn't make the tones expected in the manual and I waited but they didn't stop after 5 minutes. I also noticed that there is now no power to the RX (from the ESC BEC). Re-booted it all and the same. The ESC just beeps and no power to the RX. Called tech support at retailer and he said try fully charging battery (was on 35% as sullied new). Once charged tech support had gone home but full battery made no difference.

Duff ESC or have I killed it? Why did it power the RX to begin with though?

[flyguysc1]

When you plug in the battery and you hear the first beep you’re supposed to lower the throttle to the lowest setting

[Gilatrout]

Can anyone here shed some light on this for me?

Just bought a new plane and fitted the Spektrum RX, bound it, checked the servos worked OK, set up dual rates etc and then went to program the ESC. Put RX on full throttle powered on then connected battery on plane. ESC didn't make the tones expected in the manual and I waited but they didn't stop after 5 minutes. I also noticed that there is now no power to the RX (from the ESC BEC). Re-booted it all and the same. The ESC just beeps and no power to the RX. Called tech support at retailer and he said try fully charging battery (was on 35% as sullied new). Once charged tech support had gone home but full battery made no difference.

Duff ESC or have I killed it? Why did it power the RX to begin with though?

Throttle cut will prevent the esc from seeing the throttle range

[Mikdys]

Thanks but it's neither of those things. The RX is no longer getting any power. I think the BEC in the ESC has gone down (I read on a Google hit just now that a constantly beeping ESC means no control signal is getting to it - it won't be getting a signal if the RX isn't powering up!).

It's evening here now so I'll have another look at it tomorrow. I don't have a separate UBEC handy but I do have a spare ESC. I think I'll remove the plane's ESC lead from the RX and connect the lipo and check to see if any voltage is at the + wire. If not, I'll replace this plug in the RX and then put a spare extension lead into a spare port on the RX. I'll cut the signal lead on the extension lead and connect this lead to the spare ESC and power this up with a separate battery. I'll then power up the plane's battery and see if the ESC will program then (EG running a separate power supply to the RX). If this works, effectively using a spare ESC as a UBEC, I think I'll just buy a UBEC and plug that in (it will be easier than taking the plane's ESC out to swap it out).

I have a plan now. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Mikdys]

Checked it out further this morning with a multimeter. There is power coming from the ESC BEC but the receiver (SPMAR6610T) doesn't boot up. So I pulled the throttle lead and powered it with an old fashioned 4 cell AA battery box as a double check. It looks like (the brand new) Spektrum RX failed shortly after having bound it and checked all the servos were working OK. The next stage in my setup was to programme the ESC and that's when it all went wrong making me think it's the ESC when it's the RX failing at the front end of the "bathtub failure curve" (it's electronic so it will either fail soon after put in use or after a lot of use and not in the middle). I've never had a problem with Spektrum kit before (apart from a dodgy throttle pot on a DX6i).

Never assume anything - I thought the RX wasn't getting power to it but it's just that it doesn't work. Turns out when an ESC doesn't get a throttle signal for a short period of time, but is still powered up, it beeps incessantly (probably to help you find a lost model in a tree!).

I'll be onto the supplier as soon as they open today!