Anyone used the ZTW Mantis rage of ESC & programer

[Christopher Morris 2]

Hi, i purchased 2x80amp & 2x40amp ZTW Mantis ESC & a programing card. I tried to program one of the ESC's with the card & all i got was a red light on the card. So i tried the other 3 ESC,s & the same thing. So thinking i had a duff programing card i told the supplier & they refunded me. I then brought another one from a UK based company & plugged them in with the same problem. Now i am sure i haven't got 4 duff ESC,s. Any suggestions.? Oh, & yes i tried with the ESC plugged into a battery & also from a seperate power supply.

[Adrian Smith 1]

I have one of these cards to use with my ZTW Mantis 120A OPTO ESC.

I know this sounds obvious but once you have the red light as above have you pressed "menu" before going through the settings?

I will have a look at mine tomorrow when I make a trip up to my workshop. I will let you know. My experience of these cards of different makes is if you don't adhere to the set order of doing things they won't work as they should until you do. Were you using the flight power pack or a separate battery with a 5-6.3 volt power range to programme the ESC?

[Christopher Morris 2]

Yep, tried menu & all other buttons. Just re-charged any battery's. Also tried a separate 5v supply. Still only a single red light. Have also sent an email to the manufactures, but in china, so we will see.

[Keith Berriman]

I see Airtek Hobbies sell the above items you could send an E mail to check if you are going the right way

[Denis Watkins]

There should be 2 lots of connections in the end of your programmer, and you ha 1

See the instructions

to Use the LED Program Card:

1.ZTW Program card with LED display is easy to use and convenient to carry. All of the programmable functions are shown on the program card.

2.Turn on the ESC. Remove the signal wire and plug it into the top-socket on the program card wait for 2 seconds until the LED is on.

3.If ESC is not connected with the batteries the program card should be connected with other power supply the range of power supply is from 5.0V to 6.3V.

4.Press the button ”Menu” on the program card and circularly select each programmable function. At that time the number of programmable function will be displayed on the left of the LED the current value will be displayed on the right side. Then press the button “Value” to change the value and press the button “OK” to confirm. At the same time the Red indicating LEDs of both program card and the ESC will blink. Turn off the ESC the modified settings will be saved in the ESC`s memory.

5.Press the button “Reset” to restore the default settings.

[Christopher Morris 2]

I can only hope the manufactures get back as i & another established flyer cant get either of the two programing cards to work. Yes! it should be very simple to use & this is why i purchased the units. But no luck. Will see if they get back to me.

[Denis Watkins]

2.Turn on the ESC. Remove the signal wire and plug it into the top-socket on the program card wait for 2 seconds until the LED is on.

[Christopher Morris 2]

I am now looking at comments on line with this item & quite a few have had similar problems.to what i am getting. I am going to send both back to wheelspin & see if they have the same problem & maybe they can send one that works.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Hi Christopher.

I tried an experiment with the programme card. I know the ZTW ESC is fine as it came out of a working model. However, whatever combination I tried the card didn't work! In other words it's rubbish and it's interesting that other people have had the same problem.

Whatever make of card I have tried which are supposed to match the make of ESC have always caused me problems except HobbyWing which worked first time. I think you will have to programme from the TX which is a pain I know.

[Keith Berriman]

Christopher I see Weelspin do the ZTW Beatles esc ( whoops outof stock ) these are a lot easier to set up with the appropriate card. Always my choice of esc

[Christopher Morris 2]

Ah! i have been told the problem with very misleading info from ZWT that makes them.
They make the Mantis range & also a Mantis slim rage that look very, very much like each other. The programer above only works in the Mantis range. For the Mantis slim range you have to use the ZWT Beatles card, as below.. Now reading their advertising you would assume the Mantis digital programing card would do all the Mantis range. But, no. "Go figure."

 

Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 18/04/2020 19:04:26

Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 18/04/2020 19:05:19

[Adrian Smith 1]

Let me guess I gotta buy another programme card then? I can see nowhere it says on my Mantis 120A OPTO that it's slim type.

[Christopher Morris 2]

Adrian, we are not the only ones to fall for this, but very misleading from ZWT. I have ordered one off ebay & see how we go. I will post back here when it arrives & i have tested it. Its not the money, more the wasted time on wondering what was wrong.
The only shame is there is less configurations with the card than the digital version. We will see when it arrives. Post has still been good, even with everything going on.

[Adrian Smith 1]

As you say Christopher it's not the cost it's the sheer frustration of trying to find out why it doesn't work. Take your point about the card - it looks pretty basic doesn't it. I look forward to your findings. Yes our posties seem to be doing a great job with parcels only taking a day or two longer to arrive.

[Adrian Smith 1]

My ESC appears not to be in the slim range looking at the ZTW website.

Your ESC as you suspect is in the slim category. Which suggests to me that the standard Mantis Programme card we have should work with the ESC that I have. At some point I will have another try using a separate nimh battery as the external power source rather than the flight packs.

[Denis Watkins]

Can you see the extra + and - in this edit

On the left of the ESC plug

What are they for?

[Adrian Smith 1]

Denis.

That is the socket to use a 5-6.3v nimh or such like if you are not using the flight packs to programme the ESC.

On some youtube clips the suggestion is you are to use these ancilliary batteries when programming an OPTO ESC. I will try that. On one of my programming cards, not sure what make, doing it this way won't work if the RX is live using a separate RX power pack too.In this case I left the RX in a non-live state.

[Christopher Morris 2]

On the Mantis range, they all look very similar . On the photos below, i know one is a ESC & the other just a BEC, but look just after the mantis logo & it has the word slim written. I think the slim version is also a bit less on its programing ability's. But is also quite a bit cheaper. But you can see how easy it is to mix them up across the Mantis range. Saying all this as a bit of a pain, many have given good reviews on these ESC. .

[Nigel R]

"On some youtube clips the suggestion is you are to use these ancilliary batteries when programming an OPTO ESC. I will try that. "

surely

the programmer pretends to be the RX

and the RX on an OPTO needs a separate source of power

so perhaps you simply have no power reaching the programmer without the separate battery?

[Adrian Smith 1]

Dunno, Nigel. On my HobbyWing OPTO ESC that isn't the case. It programmes using the power pack directly. It won't do it when the RX is also live as I recall. Will give it a try today.

[Adrian Smith 1]

I agree Christopher, they are good. Indeed I used the ZTW OPTO ESC in a previous project un-programmed (expect for throttle calibration) and it was fine. Just thought I would look at the factory settings using the card given these prolonged periods of indolence.

[Christopher Morris 2]

Laugh! i only wanted to have the motor break on. I should of just used the RX way of doing things.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Yeah, a bit of bind I know. The default setting on my OPTO ESC are:-

Brake off, Auto cell detection, cut off voltage 3v/60% (I would like that to be a bit higher though), timing Auto, Start up strength 30%, Low Voltage Cut off Type is Reduce Power.

Tried the programme card again today and no luck. Not wasting anymore time on it.

[Christopher Morris 2]

Got the new program card to day. Took 2 mins to read the instructions & another 2 mins to program all 4 ESC's. It will give you a loud 1 second bleep to say it has excepted the new parameters & a long 7 second bleep if failed. Thank goodness, i only got the 1 second version. lol Did my one using the planes battery & the Bec/throttle lead.