380/420 ALZRC 380 ESC Calibration

[Harford]

Back on to my ALZRC 380 build project after waiting for a few additional parts - a much slower process these days.

I am unable to successfully complete the ESC/Radio calibration. The ALZRC 60A ESC manual says :
1. Turn on the transmitter and move the throttle stick to the top position
2. Connect a battery to the ESC, the motor will sound "123" to indicate the ESC is powered on normally.
3. 5 seconds later, the motor will beep two short beeps to indicate the max throttle endpoint is accepted
4. Move the throttle stick to the bottom position within 3 seconds after you hear those two beeps, the minimum throttle position will be accepted 1 second later
5. The motor will beep a number of beeps to indicate the number of lipo cells you have plugged in
6. The motor will beep a long beep to indicate the calibration is complete.

Instead, the ESC sounds the "123" upon connection and then just continuously beeps, steadily every second or so. The explanation of warning sounds in the manual for continuous beeps like this says the throttle range is too low. If this is in fact the problem, I don't know how to fix it. I know there is a throttle range setting in the Spirit software General tab, but this is greyed out so I cannot access it even it is the right place to go.

I have made no adjustments in my DX9: I am using linear throttle and pitch curves. The heli is all standard ALZRC 380 except using a Spirit 2 FBL unit and Spectrum SPM4651T receiver.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[RandyDSok]

Increase or decrease ( since it should be the same error if it's too high or low ) the trims on the radio for the throttle. I'd suggest you count the number of times you click a trim up or down so you can keep track of where it started.

 

[Harford]

I was concerned about playing around with this as I regularly read the warning 'Do not use subtrim or trim functions on your transmitter as the Spirit FBL unit will consider these an input command'. However, perhaps this only relates to aileron, elevator, pitch and rudder channels ?

Many thanks

 

[D.O.G.]

Increase or decrease ( since it should be the same error if it's too high or low ) the trims on the radio for the throttle. I'd suggest you count the number of times you click a trim up or down so you can keep track of where it started.

I use the Hobbywing esc on my birds and like Randy mention, I got trim all the way down in order for mine to work.

 

[Harford]

Thank you. Are you able to explain the actual process please, eg do I use the trim button for throttle while I have the transmitter at full throttle with power on to heli with the continuous beep occurring and keep adjusting to the beep stops ?

 

[Smoggie]

Don't change the trims. The beeping is almost always that the ESC is not receiving a throttle signal. This could be because the throttle lead is plugged into the wrong port on the FBL, or plugged in backwards, or perhaps the channel is not correctly assigned.

Also only if you are using a BeastX FBL there is an extra complication because there is a safety system that prevents a throttle signal being output if the throttle is not closed, which prevents end point calibration. You need to use a work around in this case.

 

[Harford]

Thank you Smoggie. As always you provide the solution. The Spirit 2 was not receiving the throttle signal as in the Receiver channel mapping tab the Throttle function was unassigned. When setting up Spirit units previously I have always found that Throttle has a default assignment to channel 1 so I have not had to do anything. Now assigned it to channel 1, undertook the calibration and all working perfectly.

Thank you very much to everyone for helping me solve this.