HELP! Quadcopter ESCs Do not beep

[ImCole]

Hello,
Recently I have decided to build a quadcopter from scratch. I thought it would be somewhat easy considering I have been researching this stuff for about a month. Here is my parts list:

-Hobbyking 2.1.5 Flight Control Board : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=54299
-Hobbyking F650X Frame : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=54299
-NTM Prop drive 28-26 1100kv / 252w : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=54299
-Turnigy Multistar 30A ESC : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=46306
-Turnigy Multistar ESC Programming Card : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=43918
-Turnigy 2200 mAh Battery : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=14975
-Turnigy 9x transmitter and receiver : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=43905

Okay so I have strong suspicions that my ESC/KK Board area is the problem. I think this because when I plug in the battery I get no beeps from the ESC and a small red led flashes on the board. I can only hear my ESC beeps when I try programming the ESCs individually. I have gotten the motors to run once yesterday. My excitement was short lived because after I tried to calibrate my ESCs, my receiver started smoking and blew. I don't know how this could have happened. I have ordered a new receiver and also an ESC flashing cable. Today I flashed my KK board with some new firmware and messed around with the board a bit while I wait for the replacement receiver and the ESC flash tool. I also cut all the red wires on my ESCs except for one thinking that could have been the problem being that I have seen people say that you need 3 opto and the 1 that supply's power to the KK board.

In conclusion, I just want to know if anyone has had this problem because I cant find any similar one. I'm wondering if I got faulty ESCs or if flashing will really work. Thanks

 

[Motopreserve]

Wow. Let's slow down here....

first, welcome to the forum. And while we are at it, go put your location in your profile so we know where your at.

Ok. It seems that you are really going to want to figure out why the RX smoked before you get too far ahead of yourself. Are you confident in the power distribution board and your soldering? Is the KK board lighting up as it should? Did the RX light up and bind ok before it blew up?

you said you were able to get the motors to spin once - what was the circumstance then?

 

[Craig@GHDynamic]

Hi!

First of all I agree with Motopreserve that you need to find out why the Rx smoked!

In relation to the ESCs not beeping, I have had customers with this problem (albeit with different ESCs). Do these ESCs have an inbuilt BEC on them? I.e, Does the ESC power the Rx? If it doesn't you will need an external BEC to power the Rx and the ESCs. Secondly, some ESCs that are designed especially for quadcopters can require a low PWM to arm them, lower than what your Tx starts off with. To see if this is the problem, trim your throttle setting down as low as you can and then plug the battery in.

I hope one of these ideas helps, they have helped me in the past!

 

[Motopreserve]

Those BEC definitely have an internal BEC. If you have snipped (or removed) the red and black wires from 3 of the ESCs, make sure you have heat shrink over them individually to avoid shorting them out. If the flight controller has power, then the BEC should be working correctly, and should be sending power to the RX through the servo connections.

Im wondering if you had the servo leads to the RX reversed? Maybe that smoked the RX?

i see that you bought the programming card for the ESC. Did you program them to the suggested settings? I would make sure you get the system powered correctly before you get into reflashing them.

 

[ImCole]

Wow. Let's slow down here....

first, welcome to the forum. And while we are at it, go put your location in your profile so we know where your at.

Ok. It seems that you are really going to want to figure out why the RX smoked before you get too far ahead of yourself. Are you confident in the power distribution board and your soldering? Is the KK board lighting up as it should? Did the RX light up and bind ok before it blew up?

you said you were able to get the motors to spin once - what was the circumstance then?

Okay got my location updated
Now, the KK board works fine (it lights up and does what it is supposed to).
The RX was fine and was bound before it blew.
Lastly, I was able to get the motors to spin once after I had programmed the ESCs, but after I had unplugged the battery and restarted the ESCs didn't make any sounds when it turned on. Also when the motors did spin, the motors did not start at the same time. I have a programming cable for the ESCs coming in so hopefully once I put SimonK's firmware it will fix them. The power board that I use is a Hobbyking for quads so I didnt have to solder anything.

 

[ImCole]

Thank you for the reply! I have to wait for my replacement RX. I will put some heat shrink on the ESCs as well. I also did program them to the suggested settings right before the RX blew.

 

[Motopreserve]

Thank you for the reply! I have to wait for my replacement RX. I will put some heat shrink on the ESCs as well. I also did program them to the suggested settings right before the RX blew.

If you have the cheaper PDB from hobbyking (under $4) I would replace it with either a homemade squid or a new, better PDB. I had one of those fail on like the 4th flight causing quite a bit of damage. They are worthless. Better to play it safe.

Make sure you heatshrink the wires individually - and I would double check the orientation of the servo wire that plugs into the RX to make sure you didn't have it upside down (signal to ground/ground to signal). That shouldn't have burnt it up, but stranger things have happened.

 

[ImCole]

If you have the cheaper PDB from hobbyking (under $4) I would replace it with either a homemade squid or a new, better PDB. I had one of those fail on like the 4th flight causing quite a bit of damage. They are worthless. Better to play it safe.

Make sure you heatshrink the wires individually - and I would double check the orientation of the servo wire that plugs into the RX to make sure you didn't have it upside down (signal to ground/ground to signal). That shouldn't have burnt it up, but stranger things have happened.

Thank you for the help so far! I have overcome the original problem, but now I have a new can or worms opened. So here is my problem, when I take my KK 2.1.5 board and plug in all of my ESCs and then plug in the battery, the board works fine. But next when I start to even touch my RX cables to the KK board it goes blank. Here is a video by me showing the problem (dont worry about the messy build so far, I have to neaten it up once I'm done):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ7_YUyjWpI

So if I cannot find a solution to this problem, should I buy a DJI Naza M Lite w/o GPS or another KK 2.1.5 board or even THIS?

 

[Motopreserve]

I can't really make heads or tails of that video. Are you sure you are plugging the servo wire in the correct orientation? Make sure you're not swapping signal and ground.

I would try try to figure out what's happening to this board before investing in another. I've never heard of that last one. Plenty of people using the KK2.1 so I'm sure you will find some answers.

Most people suggest skipping the Naza Lite and saving for the V2 for more features and expandability.

 

[ImCole]

Here is a bit more information that might help:
So I just checked my wires and they turned out fine. I have my 4 ESCs pluged into the motor spots on the KK board and then my 5 Servo wires going from my RX to my board. Then I tried booting it up all wired and ready. A few things happened now: All four ESCs kept beeping(not synced) twice and then repeating after a few seconds. Also then every now and then, my front two of my motors would speed up and then stop randomly with the beeps. I really don't know what is happening now. I reset the FW on the board to the stock 1.6 and nothing changed. Do you know anything that might help? I will be flashing my ESCs with simonK in the next few days once I get some black heat shrink so maybe that might help... I really dont know.

EDIT: I just tried powering my quad with the USBAP programmer and the thing seems to get the board working. None of the ESCs beep though when it turns on which I can expect since the powers going into the board and not the ESCs.

 

[Motopreserve]

Here is a bit more information that might help:
So I just checked my wires and they turned out fine. I have my 4 ESCs into the motor spots on the KK board and then my 5 Servo wires going from my RX to my board. Then I tried booting it up all wired and ready. A few things happened now: All four ESCs kept beeping(not synced) twice and then repeating after a few seconds. Also then every now and then, my front two of my motors would speed up and then stop randomly with the beeps. I really don't know what is happening now. I reset the FW on the board to the stock 1.6 and nothing changed. Do you know anything that might help? I will be flashing my ESCs with simonK in the next few days once I get some black heat shrink so maybe that might help... I really dont know.

Always make sure that you are powering the Tx before the RX. I think you did it opposite on the video.

You seem to be having issues and then solving them on your own, at least partially (for instance you were somehow killing power to the FC before - bit it seems it's working now???). Without any explanation of what it is you are changing along the way - it's hard to really diagnose.

I would suggest starting from scratch. Disconnect the wires from the FC and plug them in one at a time. Make sure they're labeled and are going to the correct pin headers. Then see where you're at.