ESC with built-in receiver - interesting?

[EddieJ]

Testing this with the new bot at the moment, the brushed drive all works great. Cant seem to get the Brushless Weapon to work though. I tried just about everything, aside from desoldering it and testing the ESC - which is what ill do tomorrow

A few questions and feedback:
Wep 2 PWM is default to channel 3 or 4? Just checking!
The PWM weapon 2 and 3 dont need to be activated in any way?
Is there a preset "dead zone" to the throttle and steering? Or is it perfectly linear? (im assigning my own curves)
For me, the channel mapping was different to the manual. I have no idea why. I dont like the electronics side could just be me!
The config commands on the "overview" page of the manual dont list 8 or 9 pulses.
My weapon throttle range i set 0-100. Is this OK? I found it worked well on other builds. Or should i have left default at -100 to 100?

[Kyro]

iirc, the default setting within the esc is for the weapon channel to be set to the 3rd brushed channel... there is a number of pulses (i think 8 or 9 but dont hold me to it) that switches the 3rd brushed channel with w1 (left pad if both are located at the top of the board with antenna board pointing right)
this is the channel i am using for my spinner.

if you have the older firmware, without a reflash you would need to mix a couple of channels on your tx to achieve a simmilar thing...

my mix is:
mix 1
on
master: ch3
slave: ch6
then tune mixes and offset to taste (note this is the mix for my lift and grab and im pretty sure its wired the same but it may be wrong, my spinner has the newer firmware in and i used the pulses to switch channels)

hopefully this helps

[MarkR]

Hi,

The weapon2 channel (you probably want to use that) is channel4 by default on most of the boards I've made.

That means usually the left-hand stick left/right for the weapon speed, which is not ideal. You can swap them with the 8-pulses config command (see the doc) and then the brushless weapon will be on channel 3, which is ideal as that's the axis with no spring.

I'm not an expert on the brushless ESCs, I've never used one in an actual robot (yet) but the ones I have seem to require a range of throttle movement before they will arm, like, zero, 50%, zero, then it beeps and is armed.

So try the swap command, then use the throttle stick, try slowly up, then down, then up again, and it should spin up, or at least try to.

There is a preset dead zone on the drive and steering. The servo outputs are perfectly linear and tries to duplicate the input as close as it can.

[MarkR]

Oh yes - one more thing - the servo pulses outputs (for brushless too) - won't activate when in config mode. So all you have to do is drive the robot (very slightly) and you should be able to start the spinner (also do any arming procedure required by your esc).

When you turn the tx off, it will stop sending servo pulses so the brushless esc will typically shutdown and disarm, and you'll need to repeat the arming procedure. At least, that's what my ones do, I haven't tested a wide range.

[EddieJ]

Man, I think I hit a brick wall with the PWM outputs I must have spent at least 8 hours tinkering with this to try and get the motors to move.
I tried with 3 ESCs, 3 motors. The ESCs and motors were tested the with the Arduino analogWrite PWM outputs and they work fine like that.
But when I connect anything to the nano, none of the channels will move that motor.

So then i thought to just use the arduino to measure the PWM signal being output from the nano, cut out all the ESC and motor stuff.
Wired it up so that if the PWM signal changed, the LED brightness would change, and also displaying the values in the PC serial monitor.
Here it is tested on a FrSky RX, all channels making a nice little light show.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9o1nqEBQbL4ofhRE6

Then with the Nano, Channel 3, 4 and 6 are outputting from the TX on the throttle. Arduino measuring the RX outputs on the PWM pad shows nothing Guess I'll use this board for a pushbot and order another one.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZzuQHzqDTwh8Eaoh6

[minionhunter]

Ben from Team Panic reviewed the nano this Saturday.

https://youtu.be/Tpa0RolOEGo

[engr]

Hi Mark, any chance of a .STP export of the N20 Red Motor Backs? I'm trying model up a few designs and I think I'm going to struggle with space!

[MarkR]

I managed to do a stepfile here http://vectrex.org.uk/mark/redesc-combined.step

[engr]

Thanks again!

[Paulmchurd]

These look amazing Mark, I have put in an order for one.