ESC not receiving throttle on F16 64mm EDF --- thoughts?

[PMantix]

Greetings all,

I'm putting together my first RC jet in INAV (coming from a few years building betaflight drones) and encountering some issues with setup.

Problem: I believe the ESC is not receiving throttle signal. After plugging in the battery, ESC performs the 3 ascending startup beeps, then 3 short beeps, then 4 longer beeps (for 4S), then 1 long beep, after this there is a repeating beep about every 1 second or so. According to the ESC manual, it seems this indicates the ESC is not properly receiving the throttle signal.

Here's some details about my setup:
-Freewing F16 64mm
-TX16S running edgeTX / ELRS 2.5
-4S 2200mah charged to @ 4.2V per cell
-INAV 5.1.0
-Matek F405 WTE w/ ELRS 2.5
Servos / motor wired up per the following:
-Throttle on S1 (white wire to S1, black wire to G, red wire NOT connected to Vx per the WTE manual)
-Ailerons on S3 and S4
-Rudder on S5
-Front wheel on S6

The FC can connect to the radio, and for sure throttle signal is being received in INAV. As a test, I was able to assign the throttle to command the rudder servo - so I'm sure it's at least possible for the throttle to be assigned as an output. I have NOT been able to spin the motor using the output tab in INAV, which seems very suspicious. I'm not sure if I have a setup problem in INAV, or a hardware problem with my Matek, or a hardware problem with my ESC, or possibly with the throttle wiring in the jet.

I've checked most of the simple things I think, and now I'm a bit stumped. Thoughts on how to troubleshoot?

[SanExup]

Calibrate your ESC?

[PMantix]

Calibrate your ESC?

I've tried calibrating the ESC a few times but it's still acting strange. Here's what it does:

Turn on transmitter
Set throttle to 100%
Plug in battery
ESC gives x3 ascending startup beeps
ESC then gives the x2 quick beeps (for accepting max throttle position, I believe)
I then quickly move throttle to 0%
ESC gives x4 short beeps (for 4S)
ESC then beeps continuously about every second or so

The ESC is getting the throttle signal, but since I did not get the confirmatory long single beep after moving to 0% throttle I believe the ESC is not seeing that I gave the min throttle position.

This seems strange, right?

[PMantix]

Here's a video of my attempts to calibrate the ESC by controlling the throttle in the outputs tab of the INAV configurator: https://imgur.com/a/omJ3TBg

First I set the throttle to 100%, then plug in the battery. Once I hear the 2 beeps, I set throttle to 0%. We then hear 4 beeps for 4S, then the continuous beeping starts. I then disconnect.

For the second plug in, I left the throttle at 100% to enter the ESC programming menu. This seems to work at first, but then the ESC begins rapidly beeping.

[kallend]

Did you try lowering your throttle trim? I'm unfamiliar with your particular system, but many others need the throttle to be lowered below the default "closed" value in order to arm the ESC.

[PMantix]

I was actually just in the middle of checking the trims. Throttle goes from 988 - 2011, which is similar to what I've used in betaflight for multirotors. Does this seem reasonable?

I was about to try adjusting my Tx to get throttle between 1010-1990 and see if that makes a difference. Although maybe I need to go even lower than 988, like you suggest. I'll try that too

Thanks!

[PMantix]

Increasing the throttle trims to 1010-1990 didn't make a difference. Neither did decreasing the low side to much less than 988. With my original settings the receiver tab in INAV shows the FC is seeing 1000-2000, so I think the trims were probably OK.

My FC has a blackbox logger. I'm going to see if I can put an SD card in there and get any more insight on what's going on here - as for now, I'm a little lost

[kallend]

I was actually just in the middle of checking the trims. Throttle goes from 988 - 2011, which is similar to what I've used in betaflight for multirotors. Does this seem reasonable?

I was about to try adjusting my Tx to get throttle between 1010-1990 and see if that makes a difference. Although maybe I need to go even lower than 988, like you suggest. I'll try that too

Thanks!

988-2011 is perfectly reasonable, and a greater range than the default for Spektrum systems, for example.

You could try plugging the ESC lead into a servo tester and seeing if you can get it to arm that way (assuming you have a servo tester).

[PMantix]

I don't have a servo tester, but maybe time to get one since I do intended to fly more fixed wings (..eventually, ha)

Any recommendations on a servo tester? I see there are some cheap options on amazon..

[kallend]

I don't have a servo tester, but maybe time to get one since I do intended to fly more fixed wings (..eventually, ha)

Any recommendations on a servo tester? I see there are some cheap options on amazon..

I have 2 of these. The pulse length readout seems to be pretty accurate and I use them a lot.

https://www.amazon.com/Globact-Digital-Consistency-Helicopter-Airplane/dp/B08DM2CP3T/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=1HCGEX2YGZA3Y

[PMantix]

I have 2 of these...

Ok cool, that's the one I ordered 😉. Amazon prime will deliver it tomorrow, so should have an update soon.


Also I found this FAQ from the ESC manufacturer (https://support.hobbywingdirect.com/...librate-my-ESC) which has comments that makes me wonder if my ELRS receiver is somehow incompatible with this ESC. I think that servo tester idea, independent from my potentially incompatible receiver setup, is definitely a good thing to check - thanks for the suggestion.

And lastly - the troubleshooting section of the ESC manual is a little unclear about the meaning of the beeps (https://www.manualslib.com/download/...er-Series.html), but I think the sound in my video is closest to the tone for "the throttle position is not in the lowest position", which would be consistent with what I've been seeing. We'll see

[PMantix]

I have 2 of these. The pulse length readout seems to be pretty accurate and I use them a lot.

Got the servo tester this morning. I seem to be having the same issue as when I use my transmitter or INAV.

https://imgur.com/a/nK9nDrJ?s=sms

I tried stopping at several different ranges between 800-1200us on the low end and 1900-2200us on the high end, but always got this same result. Bad ESC maybe? Am I calibrating the throttle range with the servo tester correctly?

[kallend]

Got the servo tester this morning. I seem to be having the same issue as when I use my transmitter or INAV.

https://imgur.com/a/nK9nDrJ?s=sms

I tried stopping at several different ranges between 800-1200us on the low end and 1900-2200us on the high end, but always got this same result. Bad ESC maybe? Am I calibrating the throttle range with the servo tester correctly?

I am not familiar with that particular ESC but in general they arm at a pulse length around 1000us or so. Certainly it should arm at 800us. From what you describe it appears that the ESC is bad.

[JEKA]

Hi guys! Actually I also have a problem with receiver-esc signal, moreover I have such situaton:
1. Matek ELRS r24v+noname 30A esc - motor works
2. Bought Hobbywing Skywalker 50A esc, tried to calibrate esc, all my dances around that esc didn`t give a result. Motor doesn`t spin, also I can`t even enter the calibration mode.
3. Tried this Hobbywing Skywalker 50A esc with another receiver (not ELRS) - ewerything works just fine.

So, my ELRS receiver doesn`t work with Hobbywing esc. But this hardware is not broken because it works in another configuration just fine.
Tried to change throttle on different channels, to change pulse length, nothing helped.

Does anyone has idea about it?

[PMantix]

I never could get the Skywalker ESC to work with my ELRS receiver. I noted that changing the update frequency of the ELRS link had an impact on how the ESC beep sequence behaves, and I suspect there is some kind of implied clock frequency being picked up by the ESC from the receiver signal. Somehow I think the signal this ESC wants to see is not the kind of signal the ELRS receiver is giving it - leading to issues like what we’ve experienced.

I can only speculate though, and wasn’t sure if this was an issue on the ESC side or the ELRS side, or a combination of both. Either way, the path of least resistance is to not try pairing a Skywalker ESC to an ELRS receiver. Either choose a different ESC (as I did) or choose a different receiver (as JEKA did).

Cheers!

[Evan D]

Are you both plugging in the reverse lead to a channel that has -100/+100 travel (what ever that means to your receivers)?

This ESC will not arm or calibrate without that.

Jeka, you may have a different problem. Sounds like you are not using the ESC that came with this F-16, a 40A reversing one.

[PMantix]

Yep, I tried with and without the reverse lead plugged in and was never able to get it calibrated. Also tried setting the reverse lead to a range of positions from iNAV and also using a servo tester. There could be something I still didn’t do correctly there, but at the time I ruled it out and moved on.

[JEKA]

Can you imagine, I just put Packet rate on my ELRS TX to 500 Hz (I had 250 before) and motor started to run!

PMantix, thank you for the idea! Problem solved!

[F16viper]

I also have the same problem on the same plane. It could be the esc in general that is causing this problem