Herkules II

[ichwillnix]

Sandor the board did not work ever since i got it with the original connector before i cut it off.
No throttle response from any of the motor outputs. LED's and beeps yes but no throttle.
After i chopped off the connector ( i think it may have been 1 or 2 days later) and soldered the wires inside the two bullet female like parts still soldered to the boards, same thing, LED's came on as before, beeps but no throttle response just as before.
So there was no difference in the behavior of the board.
I made a second mistake after desoldering to wires by cleaning the inside of the female bullet like connectors just prior tp packing it and shipping it which might account for the copper dust.
Anyway here and now i ask you to try the board.
Power it up and see if you get the blue LED's to come on and a beep or more from a motor connected to any of the outputs.
If there is than it is the same board that i received before i cut off anything.
If it goes up in smoke than it is my fault entirely, i screwed up the board and will apologise to you and everyone else i troubled here and elsewhere.
But if the board does respond by turning on the LED's and the outputs with a motor connected behave just as they did like they did the very same i unpacked it and tried it, then what?

I would not try to blame my mistakes on any one.
I take responsability for my deeds.
If i broke the board, i will send you the 450$ i still have to my name as reparations and i apologise to you.
But if i didn't break anything, except that i removed the original connector and in the process touched and put some marks on the bullet females on the sides will you fix it and show proof here on the forum that it works before you ship it back to me?

Hello guys!

I have to apologize at all for drawing a too fast conclusion and blaming Sandor without having the real board in my hands and finding the rootcause for it.
I think the mistakes done here are distributed on all of us.

@ Victor:
Without having the board in my hands yet (i will receive it soon) and only by listening to your descriptions i believe that the board is still working and is also correctly programmend. The LEDs are only blinking and the motors are only "beeping" when the have

a) the correct firmware installed
b) the connections (motor, PPM-signal and battery supply) are done correctly
c) the Herkules ESCs receive a valid PPM signal.

When the Herkules is beeping and blinking, we have 95% of the job done. The only thing i could imagine is that the PPM-Signal doesnt reach safely 0% (means less than 1.1msec Pulse with). The Herkules has a lock mechanism which prevents the motor from starting when power supply is applied with a throttle value higher than 20%). This avoids the motors from spinning up uncontrolled when the battery is connected. Maybe you should check your signal source. Do you use a servo-tester or the wookong system? Did you calibrate the ESC with the wookong? I don't know the DJI in detailed but i have something in mind that has to be done.

By the way, we are currently building our own Oktokopter with DJI and 2x Herkules Boards and we will do intensive tests and then we will place also a detailed description (manual) with do's and dont's on our webpage.

As i told, this is only an assumption. I will check this in detail when i have the board. Victor, i promise you that you will receive soon a fully working board and we will bring your copter airborne. I will send it to Sandor and he will ship it to you.

Remark 1: The sawing copper dust on the pictures are not good for the electronics. As sandor told, you make shorcuts on a lot of the fine-pitched pins. It will be difficult for us to clean it from all that dangerous dust...

Remark 2: Victor, it is not a good thing to post private email communication with company infos to a public forum. Please never do this again! This does not improve communication lacks!

@ Sandor:
Again sorry for blaming you so quickly. I trust in you that you delivered the board 100% fully working. Nevertheless we have to work together and find solutions to make it as easy as possible for Herkules users to implement the ESC easily without any stress and helping them to bring the copter safely and fast to the air.

We are thinking of providing a "ready to use" ESC by default (maybe boxed) with only connectors for motors, battery and signals with no need of soldering at all.
This helps really all customers who want to spent more time with flying than with building and soldering.

@ Me:
I will still try to provide good support to all of the customers as good as i can. In future i will firstly analyze the problems personally and then drawing the conclusions.
Sorry again for all guys i judged about and i apologize again.

=> Lets concentrate now again on the good technical work and bringing more Copter airborne....

Andreas

 

[*****]

agreed as someone else mentioned , it would be good NOT to solder any bullet connectors on to the board directly.
i also recommend first soldering a piece of large gauge then the bullet connector.
or leave just wires from the board and customers can solder the bullet connectors onto the wire.

Victor don't worry we will get this sorted for you , i think this is a case of all going wrong at the same time.
i can't and won't fire up this board any more , as it needs a good cleaning meaning a ultrasonic bath and hope the copper falls out.\but then i don't know how the board hold with the xtal on the boards.

so i will send it as is to andreas.
will keep you informed

 

[andrebandre]

I am using a Multiplex Evo 12 with a Dragon Link transmitter module and receiver.
People familiar with the Multiplex radios know they can output universal 1-1.5-2ms or multiplex format 1.1-1.6-2.2ms PPM signal.
The modulation i am using is the standard universal.
Every device that i ever connected to that receiver be it servo or ESC works just fine.
I connected the Herkules directly to the reciever after i tried it connected to the DJI FC and got no throttle response.
Why would the Herkules not work?
I also replaced the original Multiplex 72MHz Tx module back in the radio and tried the Herkules with the Multiplex RX both in UNI and Multiplex modulation with same result.
Every electronic device that i have works just fine and always did with either system. It worked just fine with the MK electronics, with a DJI XP3.1, absolutely everything.
This is the very first time that a device is not responding or working as supposed to, so if it is something to do with my radio and the Herkules did work all along from the very beginning, if this is truly the case than i do owe apologies to several people.
But how am i to find out if my radio is the culprit?

 

[ichwillnix]

Victor,
without having your board everthing failure analysis is only speculation. Please give mit the time to analyse what went wrong.
I will come back to you when i know more.

 

[*****]

Hi Victor

see this : http://youtu.be/IwaJ7rFDV_c

i will ship it back on monday

exept for the dust and cleaning , and making a new connector the board works just fine

 

[andrebandre]

I just got back from work.
Upon reflecting all night long upon the matter, i would like speak my peace.
I just opened the computer and noticed Sandor's reply so what i have to say was or is not influenced by his latest findings regarding the board.

First of all i would like to state that had i known i damaged the board in any way after the time of connector removal or later on when i removed the wires and cleaned the solder left inside using a drill and scraping quite good to leave them clean i would not have had the audacity to send it back and ask for a refund.

If anyone out there doubts me, speak up.
In return i demand the right to defend my honor and unless you can prove otherwise, face me in a duel.
I am prepared to to put my life on the line and i think any man would the same.
As crazy and weird this might sound i won't stand for such an insult.
Not even if it came from God Almighty.

Secondly, this whole turn of events may have affected some indirectly involved parties and i would like to beg their forgiveness if i have caused them any discomfort in the light of the yesterday's developments.
I have asked for help and an unbiased opinion about the whole matter, nothing more nothing less.
The purpose of pasting my email exchanges with Sandor was only to seek that opinion.
At no time have i blamed Sandor for any purposely wrong doing.
The only gripe i had with him was the lack of communication.
I suspected all along that although he may have done everything according to the book, somehow the programming didn't go as planned and that he didn't check if the board worked as supposed to afterward and just packed it and shipped it assuming all is well.
If i was wrong in that assumption i beg his pardon and apologise from the bottom of my heart.
Because of the skimpy communication (if you ask me), and the seemingly reluctancy to send me the programming cable, it only made me think even more about something not being quite right..
I thought that he may have realized it too and is trying to work his out of it somehow and not acknwoledge the fact.
So there is is.

So to Sandor, Boris, Andreas, Sebastian and anybody else concerned, my apologies to you if by any of my behavior i have caused any harm to you.
I will do whatever in my power to correct the wrong doing if you can think of a way to do it.

I hope to find out if my radio is the problem that has triggered all this chain of events.

Victor Andrei Carayorgopol

 

[andrebandre]

Well Sandor, i am glad the board survived my atrocities because that might shed some light into what the problem really was. I thought i bricked it and it will never be recoverable.
I was making plans on ordering another one just to get to the bottom of the cause although it would not have been the same.
If the board worked just fine and dandy when you first sent it then i can only think that my radio is malfunctioning and doesn't go to 1mS and doesn't allow the ESC the arm.
I am sorry for any headache or trouble i may have caused you.
I hope you can understand.

 

[andrebandre]

Hello Sandor,

WOW the picture say it all.....
thats really crazy ....

we have 8 pcs of the Herkuless and we hare very happy with it ;-)
with near the same setup as Sandor....
lg Michael A.

Say what you mean and don't beat around the bush.Come out with it.
What does the picture say?

 

[*****]

i did find a small error on my side.
one cable that goes to the PPM made no contact , it was a small fault in the connector (servo).
i fixed that , i tried all ports with engine connected and all of them spin up

 

[Droider]

@everyone..

Sorry I have not seen this thread and not jumped in sooner with a white flag!.. It all seems to be resolved.

Thanks for keepig it sort of civalized.

Again apologies for not moderating sooner but I have been working away until today with limited access.

@sandor is there any bits you need removing to protect personal details.. post number etc

Dave

 

[*****]

@everyone..

Sorry I have not seen this thread and not jumped in sooner with a white flag!.. It all seems to be resolved.

Thanks for keepig it sort of civalized.

Again apologies for not moderating sooner but I have been working away until today with limited access.

@sandor is there any bits you need removing to protect personal details.. post number etc

Dave

well all that shows my email address , i am getting bombarded with spam at the moment
cheers

 

[Droider]

We have removed personal contact info..if you see anything else please text me or drop me a PM

Dave