Intermittent Motor Interruption

L

liquidlightning

Member
Hello. I just built a quad with the KK2.1, HK BlueSeries 30A ESCs, Turnigy L2215J-900 motors, and Spektrum DX5e Tx/AR600 Rx. I finally got the gains tuned properly, and now I am having this weird issue where every few seconds, the motors cut out for something like a quarter second, then recover. It is flyable, but pretty annoying. I have no clue what is causing it! Anybody seen something similar?
 

Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
Make sure your power connections are all good. Seems basic, but cold solder point, defective PDB could make for some intermittent power to the motors/receiver.
 

L

liquidlightning

Member
Okay, I've double checked all of my power lines, replugged all the plugs, and re-flowed my PDB. No dice. I'll try winding the ESC wires around some toroids tomorrow. Another thing I think it could be, is that my receiver antenna is pretty close to power cables, I will try to re-position it.
 

Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
Do you have the receiver antenna at 90 degree? I think that's just safe practice. And putting them away from power won't hurt either.

Quick question: if you spool up the motors on the bench (no props!), does the loss of power happen??
 

L

liquidlightning

Member
Unfortunately, I had a bit of a hard landing yesterday, and snapped an arm and the wire tore out of one of the motors, so I won't be able to test until replacements arrive. My antenna is mounted in an L shape, the small end is straight, and the long end is straight until the middle (parallel to the small one), at which point it bends 90 degrees horizontally. I have not noticed it happening with the props off, although it is a bit hard to tell because there isn't resistance on the motors.
 


Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
I have not noticed it happening with the props off, although it is a bit hard to tell because there isn't resistance on the motors.
Click to expand...

you may be able to get a decent idea of whether it's cutting out with some tape on the motors. The key is to narrow down when exactly it's happening. If it isn't happening on the bench w/o props, it may be load causing the issue. Also, on the bench you should be able to keep an eye on any lights connected to power that can tell you if there is intermittent power to the board.
 


L

liquidlightning

Member
Okay I've flashed my KK2.1 to Steveis 1.9, and I'll try flashing my ESCs to SimonK tomorrow. Finally found a use for my Arduino (Arduino as ISP). My motor and frame parts arrive Friday, so I'll try to get this firmware business done before then.
 

T

t smith

Member
liquidlightning said:
Okay I've flashed my KK2.1 to Steveis 1.9, and I'll try flashing my ESCs to SimonK tomorrow. Finally found a use for my Arduino (Arduino as ISP). My motor and frame parts arrive Friday, so I'll try to get this firmware business done before then.
Click to expand...

Let us know how it works out, I'm still waiting on my USB programmer...
 

Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
liquidlightning said:
Okay I've flashed my KK2.1 to Steveis 1.9, and I'll try flashing my ESCs to SimonK tomorrow. Finally found a use for my Arduino (Arduino as ISP). My motor and frame parts arrive Friday, so I'll try to get this firmware business done before then.
Click to expand...

You won't need the arduino for the ESCs - but flashing them with the USBasp is a snap. There are some pretty decent instructional videos out there. I was a little nervous at first - but it's really all about lining up the dot on the tool with the correct corner of the chip. And holding it firm. For all the described improvements/benefits, it takes an amazingly short time to flash.

Good luck.
 

L

liquidlightning

Member
Motopreserve said:
You won't need the arduino for the ESCs - but flashing them with the USBasp is a snap. There are some pretty decent instructional videos out there. I was a little nervous at first - but it's really all about lining up the dot on the tool with the correct corner of the chip. And holding it firm. For all the described improvements/benefits, it takes an amazingly short time to flash.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I do not have a USBasp, or a socket flashing cable. I'm using an Arduino with the ArduinoasISP sketch, and it is recognized as an AVRisp. I already got one ESC flashed, seems to be working great. It is a bit of a pain to solder on those pads though.
 


L

liquidlightning

Member
I wrote up this windows batch script for flashing ESCs or any other ATmel chip using an Arduino. Just upload the Arduino as ISP example sketch, and then hook up your mosi/sck/miso/rst/gnd/vcc and it should work. For some reason the kk multicopter flash tool did not work for me with the Arduino, so I made this. Hope it helps someone out there.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d55ijjltgja4p4l/liquidlightning_arduino_flash_tool_1.0.zip
 
Last edited by a moderator:

L

liquidlightning

Member
Okay, the problem is gone. I'm not sure what exactly fixed it, but here is what I did:

1) Wound ESC servo leads around a toroid.
2) Put receiver antenna in proper orientation.
3) Moved power distribution board to lower section of my frame, so no longer right next to ESC wires.
4) Balanced propellers.
5) Flashed ESCs with SimonK (bs_nfet.hex)
6) Flashed KK2.1 with Steveis 1.9. This did NOT want to fly (immediate flip, I tried resetting, x mode, ESC calibration, and a lot more) so I flashed the HexTronik 1.6 firmware, now flies perfect.

I don't know if a single thing was responsible, or a combination of things, but my problem is solved and it flies immensely better. (Smoother, easier, faster response, more "locked in?")
 




You must log in or register to reply here.
Top