Cannot get APM 2.6 to come to life

[exeter_acres]

Posted in a couple forums... but still lost

Setup

Flamewheel 550 frame

Torque 930 motors

Airboss 35A ESC's

APM2.6 controller with 3DR power module (positive wire disconnected on all ESC's)

Futaba RX

Futaba MZ Tx

Ok...at my wits end...working on this for two days..... firmware loaded(APM 2.6...latest stable firmware) (several times) everything calibrated (several times) sorry... but every time I try to arm the motors.... all I get is a rapid loud beep... and no response...
troubleshot all I can think.... I have tried arming and plugging in the battery while connected to Mission Planner... and there are no errors in the flight data screen and the display says its armed when I move the throttle to the right, It arms (according to the flight data screen)but all I get is the rapid beeping.... but wait... here is the weird thing. The Airboss ESC's do not calibrate like others...they do it automatically

but I thought I would go through the motions of the process.... so..TX stick at full... plug in.. unplug... plug in.. as predicted, the ESC's go into programming mode....... so I let the ESC's go through the process...and when it gets to the tones to Reset Factory Defaults... I pull down the throttle.... and then I get the appropriate tones from the ESC's that they are armed and the tones counting the cells in the battery... and I get throttle, etc... all motors spin, respond to throttle, etc. etc... but the lights on the APM are still blinking blue/red alternate...... (this is repeatable) but once I unplug the battery, and re-plug it in...back to square one... just the rapid beep with no response from the motors.... at a bit of a loss

any ideas?

Tried multiple batteries, voltage is good. Set cutoff voltage very low, so not a throttle failsafe
GPS says 3D Lock....
In Stabilize mode

Just not sure where to go

 

[Old Man]

Check the transmitter end points at min throttle. May need to be at 1000. Oh, you said Futaba. Have you reversed the throttle channel yet? That's like a necessity for Futaba. If you change end points you'll have to calibrate the transmitter again.

 

[exeter_acres]

thanks..
Throttle reversed.
Throttle calibrated. Tried several times..
PWM low values anywhere from 953 to about 1100.
all with same result

 

[PKNEC]

Did you calibrate the esc all together or individual.
Also try moving the throttle trim 8 clicks down and try re-arming

 

[Bartman]

anytime one is calibrating ESC's the throttle trim should be all the way down.

rapid beeping of standard ESC's either means the ESC's are not receiving a signal (red wire) or the throttle position being sent at start-up isn't low enough to allow them to arm. Reading your post though it sounds like you've got multiple issues with one being the ESC's and the other being the red/blue alternating LED's that won't stop blinking.

Here's the meaning of the LED's
Flashing red and blue: Initializing gyroscopes. !! Hold the vehicle still and level while it initializes the sensors.

Is there an initialization or calibration step that you might have missed to make the flight controller ready for flight? Is there a Gyro calibration or something that needs to be done with a new system?

I'd also try moving the throttle trim to zero and calibrating again to see if it changes anything but it sounds more like you need to clear the LED's issue first. There's got to be a reason why the gyro's won't fully initialize.