Quad 450 quad motors won't spin to full throttle

[Derek]

I have a 450 sized quad with NTM PropDrive 2836 750kv motors, Little Bee 30amp esc's, Full Naze32 rev6 (with barometer and magnetometer). DSMX PPM receiver protocol

I've been through the Cleanflight setup and esc calibration and I matched the esc PWM rate in BLHeli Suite. The problem is that, although the 4 motors do spin evenly, equally, and smoothly, they don't go to full throttle (gonna make it difficult to get off the ground, lol). In the Motors Tab, I run the Master slider up and the motors do spin up but the rpm's stop increasing at about 1180. It's like there's a ***HUGE*** deadband.

Any ideas what I've done wrong or what I need to do to fix this? I'm very much hoping to get this fixed because this quad is for my Dad. He's the one that has spent the money for the parts and I really don't want to tell him that his quad isn't gonna work.

Thanks guys!!!

 

[Tony]

Go into your Rx tab and look at your throttle endpoints. I think it is in the Rx tab anyway. Been a while since I messed with Cleanflight. But if it is in there, or when you find it, raise it to 2000, or whatever your slider is showing.

 

[Derek]

Min throttle is set for 1000. Max throttle is set for 2000.

 

[Tony]

So in the Rx tab, it's set for 1000/2000 and when you move the slider in the motor tab it goes from 1000-2000? If so, I would try recalibrating the ESC's again, with the sliders. Also double check your Tx to make sure you are linear on your throttle and that it is going from 0-100.

 

[Derek]

Unfortunately, ive recalibrated the Little Bee esc's 4 times now....same result.

Checking anything in the tx wont be helpful because even in the motors tab, the throttle stops climbing at about 25% throttle.

Ive never had this issue with any of my other 4 quads

 

[Tony]

Have you checked it with the Tx? Just wondering. May have missed it above. It's still early for me lmao.

 

[Derek]

yep...i've tried the throttle with the tx, too. same "less than impressive" results

 

[Tony]

Very interesting. Seeing as it has been so long since I looked at the software I'm about out of ideas. Guess I need to head out and grab a quad to test. What version of CleanFlight are you using?

 

[Derek]

i'm not sure how to determine that

 

[Tony]

In chrome, click on the 3 dots in the top right, hover over "More Tools" and select "Extensions". In there, you will see CleanFlight and it will have the version number out to the side of it.

 

[Derek]

ohhhh, ok...it's 2.1.0

 

[Tony]

Ah, so you have updated your boards lol. That is an issue for me as all of my boards require 1.x.x. But I will see if I can find one that supports being upgraded. Not holding my breath lmao.

 

[Derek]

a while back, Cleanflight wouldn't work. Wouldn't load up or anything. There was a statement at the top that said that my configurator needed updated. Since I needed to be able to configure my boards, I had to update. I have a Holybro 180 with a SP Pro board, ZMR250 and Gravity 250 with Acro Naze32 rev5 boards, and my Sinister 770 with a Flip32 board and I have set them all up with this new configurator. Now, I'm trying to set up this 450 quad with a Naze32 rev6 and I get this throttle issue. I do have a spare Flip32 and I did install it to the 450 quad and went through the whole configuration again.....believe it or not, still the same throttle issue.

 

[Tony]

I have both configurators installed on my computer. Little bit of a pain, but needed for the older stuff that doesn't accept the new software.

And have you tried setting up a completely new model? Two different boards doing the same thing is telling me this is a Tx issue. But of course, testing is needed to confirm.

 

[Derek]

yes, I've tried a different model. I've tried a different tx. My point is that this can't be a tx issue because this is also happening in the Motors Tab of Cleanflight with the tx off.

 

[Derek]

Here is a video that shows the setup that I went though but the motors still only throttle up to about arming speed...maybe 15%. It's about 24 minutes long....I apologize for that. If anyone can help me sort this out, I'd be greatly appreciative because this quad is for my Dad.

 

[Derek]

I was told to flash the board with Betaflight, so I did. I was told to remove the 5v power wires that come from the PDB and then calibrate. I did that. I still haven't gotten the esc's to calibrate.