Help with problem re newly purchased ESCs and motors

[Mannyroad]

Piers, thanks for that. it's bought. In the meantime i think i will have a go at lowering my throttle trim to -25%, the lowest it will go and see if this makes the difference.

One thing I'm not quite certain of is: if setting the esc throttle range, when I switch the tranny on and put the throttle stick to full throttle, should I be adjusting the trim also, to +25% before powering up the esc, or should I leave that at 0% and only adjust the lower end trim to -25% when I move the throttle stick to low throttle?

I find all this a wee bit frustrating because everything worked 'plug & play' so to speak when I connected the motor to a Turnigy Plush 40A esc. I can't see whay the HK ones are being so difficult.

[Mannyroad]

By the way, my radio gear is a Hitec Optic 6 tranny with Spektrum 2.4Ghz module and an Orange 6Ch Rx. I'm using 3s lipo too.

Edited By Mannyroad on 29/06/2016 13:24:11

[Mannyroad]

Posted by Frank Skilbeck on 29/06/2016 09:10:14:

Posted by Denis Watkins on 29/06/2016 09:02:23:

0% Manny, is not low enough, it does have to be minus. All the tunes are relevant. e.g, Low battery, Throttle high etc.

Wait for your card

Yep I have several ESCs that won't arm unless the the throttle throw is set to lowest point with minimum trim, i.e if your end point adjustments go to +/- 125% then you need to set the end point adjustment to +/- 125% and then have minimum trim.

Frank, are you saying that I need to set all these up BEFORE I power up the esc?

[Denis Watkins]

Yes Manny, lowest throttle BEFORE power up

[Keith Berriman]

I have been on Hitec Optic 6 for years and never heard that orange receivers work well with Hitec. Never had a problem binding or setting up ESC of many makes with matched Hitec gear

[Frank Skilbeck]

Posted by Mannyroad on 29/06/2016 13:19:15:

Piers, thanks for that. it's bought. In the meantime i think i will have a go at lowering my throttle trim to -25%, the lowest it will go and see if this makes the difference.

One thing I'm not quite certain of is: if setting the esc throttle range, when I switch the tranny on and put the throttle stick to full throttle, should I be adjusting the trim also, to +25% before powering up the esc, or should I leave that at 0% and only adjust the lower end trim to -25% when I move the throttle stick to low throttle?

 

No you only need to set trim for bottom end, throttle trim should only work at the bottom end of the trim so you don't need to adjust it for the top end.

Edited By Frank Skilbeck on 29/06/2016 15:47:21

[Mannyroad]

Thanks for that Frank. And thatnks for everyone who has kindly offered their thoughts and help (and patience!). I'm sure with all your help I'll get there in the end. Off to garage now to try out adjusting the trims and seeing where that gets me. Will report back soon. Maybe I should just wait till the programming card arrives......nah!

(RC Plane Flyer, the Spektrum module I've had for about 8 years, so obviously it's DSM2, as is the Orange Rx. I don't think that is the problem because if I use a servo for throttle, rather than an esc plugged into that channel, the servo operates as it should, so the tranny is clearly talking to the Rx and the Rx is understanding it)

[Keith Berriman]

I was unaware you had a Spectrum Module in the Tx

[PatMc]

And what make is the TX ? If it's Futaba the throttle will need to be reversed.

[Mannyroad]

Posted by Mannyroad on 29/06/2016 13:21:50:

By the way, my radio gear is a Hitec Optic 6 tranny with Spektrum 2.4Ghz module and an Orange 6Ch Rx. I'm using 3s lipo too.

Edited By Mannyroad on 29/06/2016 13:24:11

[Mannyroad]

Guys,

I owe all of you a great big thanks for all the patience and comments you've made, helping me with the esc problems. I went out to the garage earlier and dropped the trim setting on the tranny throttle to it's lowest value, which I always thought was -25% but it turns out it's -50%. Anyway once I did that and put into practice all the comments you made the esc's all started performing as thyey should....even a 70A esc that I'd binned the other day because I thought it was goosed. Fished that one out of the bin, re-checked it and hey presto it's fine.

So thanks again everyone.

Now that's sorted out I decided to do some prop tests on the motor to see what watts/amps were being drawn. What surprised me, though you'll tell me this is common, is that there was a noticeable difference in the results, using the same setup but swapping the two HK esc's. Moreover, I have three brand new Zippy 3s 2200 lipos, each charged only twice, and these were all fully charged 3 weeks ago, yet each battery gave a different result on the watt meter when motor was on full throttle, as below:

Motor: Turnigy 3536/5 1450kv Prop: APC-E 8"x8"

Batt 1: 35A / 335w Batt 2: 39A / 405w Batt 3: 41A / 440w

Another surprising result was that keeping the same prop APC-E 7" x 4", but swapping the esc's gave a noticeable difference in consumption:

HK 60A esc: 15A / 176w Turnigy Plush 40A esc: 20A / 236w

So, once a et up has been chosen for a plane it seems the battery, even like for like batteries fully charged can give differing performances. As I say, I'm only just breaking the surface with electric flight, so maybe this is old hat to you guys.

[Bob Burton]

Posted by Mannyroad on 29/06/2016 20:54:03

these were all fully charged 3 weeks ago

People report different effects, but the general advice is not to leave Lipos fully charged for long periods. The definition of long in this context is variable !

[Mannyroad]

Good point Bob. Guess I ought to discharge them a bit. i'm told around 60-70% charge is good. Is that right?

[Pete B]

Most, if not all, of the numerical screen Lipo chargers should have a 'Storage Charge' setting. Just connect the Lipo and run that - it will reduce the charge to the storage value - normally about 3.85V/cell.

Pete

[Mannyroad]

Ha! Of course! I forgot my charger had that. nice one. Thanks Pete.

[bruce batten]

hi Please can you help I have purchased an EDF unit and 80a esc from HK when testing the unit with a 3 s lipo and servo tester as the control the motor just stutters and is very slow .It appears that one or the other has dropped a phase how can you find out which one? What voltage should I see between the esc output leads? mind is very intermittent and not more the 4v. Trying to get replacements from HK but not easy. Regards Bruce

[Denis Watkins]

You have to negate the servo tester 1st Bruce, and try your Tx and Rx set up on the ESC, and this will rule out any dodgy connections on the tester. Report your findings please.

[Peter Beeney]

It’s a good idea to stop the stutter instantly, Bruce, otherwise you might soon be getting some unwelcome smoke signals emanating from somewhere in the power train. The same applies if the motor doesn’t even move as well, find out why first, because it could be that max current is cruising though the system and making things rather warm, and fairly quickly, on the way.

The stutterings, or more probably oscillations, are more often than not caused by a bad connection somewhere, and as such can sometimes be very time consuming to find; If this is new, why not get in touch with HK and find out what they say about it? It’s seems to be somewhat unfit for purpose as it is.

PB

[Mannyroad]

Wow, slick handover there, no dropping the batten there Bruce, sorry about the pun.

[Dave Hopkin]

Stuttering of the motor is frequently caused by a poor/bad connection between the motor and the esc - my first point of checking would be the solder joints on the bullet connectors between motor and esc

[Piers Bowlan]

Have you tried another motor with the ESC Bruce? What make is it? Could it be that the timing is wrong for the motor and the ESC needs reprogramming?