Herelink and ESC calibration

HereLink
1

Hi,

I like to know how does the user use the Herelink to calibrate the ESC?

In this following website, it shows the user how to use conventional RC to calibrate, we try to follow the conventional method to calibrate but do not hear the step 6. Wait for your ESCs to emit the musical tone, the regular number of beeps indicating your battery’s cell count (i.e. 3 for 3S, 4 for 4S) and then an additional two beeps to indicate that the maximum throttle has been captured.

We are also not sure how to ensure we had entered into ESC calibration mode.

We hope someone flown with Herelink could share with us how do you do the ESC calibration.
we are using the Cube flight controller with the PC QGroundcontrol version 3.5.4 and Ardupilot 3.6.10.

2

I use dshot to avoid calibration. If your esc support that I would suggest going that route

3

Typical ESC Calibration from this website seems to work using a separate power source after ARM.

4

We have finally found an approach to get the “police car siren” with Herelink for ESC calibration.
We used 2 power sources, one for Herelink only, one for FC + ESCs + motors.

We keep the Herelink Air unit always powered on and connected to Herelink RC and follow the steps mentioned here.

1 Like
5

Easiest is actually to use ESC programming card for that.

6

It seems to me that the FC must be involved and it was done after Joysticks and RC calibration.

7

hello Jai,
I did try all the steps but it does not work.
The safety button on the GPS does not displays solid red, which I think is the reason of the Autopilote to not switch into ESC calibration mode. If you can provide any help, it will be helpful on my Project, I am building a VTOL. I am using Pixhwak Cube, mission planner.
Thank you

8

I keep the Herelink onboard RC receiver/ Air unit always connected and powered by battery A.

FC, ESCs, and motors on battery B. I followed these steps from this website.

Battery A never disconnected during the entire ESC calibration process.
Hope that it is helpful.

9

Thank you
Let me try!

10

The problem I encountered is when I disconnect the Battery B (on which the FC is plugged) I directly lose the communication with herelink, How can I solve this problem?

11

Hello Jai,
I am trying to do ESC calibration using a cube powered by my laptop following the procedure in ardupilot website. However, when i measured the main output from cube to the ESC, I have no voltage coming out of this ports. Am i missing something here? please help

12

The Herelink Air unit should be powered from external. isn’t it? mine was powered via a BEC/VR.
Where your Air unit draws the power from?

13

Hello,

If that helps, I do this to calibrate the ESC:

Remove the propellers
I feed the Air Unit independently of the Cube via an UBEC. I have noticed that there is a delay of a few seconds between the moment the Air Unit is powered up and its operation. You have to do this to tell the Cube that you want to calibrate the ESC.

1 Switch on the Herelink
2 Supply the Air Unit
3 Hold the HL throttle stick at the top
4 Power the Cube so that it enters ESC calibration mode
5 Disconnect the power from the Cube
6 You can put the Air Unit, Cube and ESC on the same power supply
7 Always keep the HL throttle at the top
8 Connect the drone battery (Air Unit, Cube and ESC)
9 Wait for the Air Unit LED to light up
10 Press and hold the security button until it turns solid red
11 ESC must emit music signifying that maximum acceleration has been recorded
12 Pull the throttle stick down and hold it, the ESC emit music indicating that the minimum acceleration has been recorded.
13 Following this, the ESC are active and the motors can run.
14 Disconnect the battery
15 Normally, this should work, otherwise repeat the procedure.

More info in the ESC calibration section of this page:

https://docs.cubepilot.org/user-guides/autopilot/the-cube-user-manual

1 Like
14

hi

I hope to do something pleasing to everyone by confirming that the combination:

  • Herelink
  • PixHawk Cube
  • Esc T-Motor Air 40A (family) <<----

is the closest thing to suicide!

I do not say that it is impossible to calibrate these ESCs but these are equipped with some profiles (Intermediate or High timing) whose choice somehow overlaps with the calibration; in this way all the ESCs are calibrated but some in Itermediate and others in High (random) therefore shit!

I spent at least 2 weeks trying, trying again and crashing because I insisted on mounting them and I couldn’t believe they were so critical, then I mounted other ESCs (always SimonK but “normal”) and they were easily programmable on the first try

15

Hi, I’m doing exactly how you explained. The Cube isn’t passing (4). The Cube is not entering ESC calibration mode. I tried several times, no way to get it into calibration mode. No idea how to proceed.

16

I think the best method is simply:

  1. set pwm output to 1000/2000 in Arducopter
  2. deactivate the safety switch
  3. press esc calibration in Mission Planner
  4. connect the battery
  5. enjoy
    6 finished after 2 minutes
17

you need to do the calibration for every esc and only one esc at once…

18

These instructions are good but they could be clearer.

  1. Power the Cube so that it enters ESC calibration mode
    This is a bit misleading because the Cube does not go into ESC Calibration mode at step 4. The Cube needs to be powered up with the throttle stick high (Step 4) then have the power removed (Step 5) and then powered back up again with the throttle held high (Step 8) before it goes into ESC Calibration Mode. And after that you still need to get do Steps 9 & 10 before the ESCs begin to calibrate.
19

Not sure these instructions refer to which.

We do not feel it is misleading from these instructions.

We felt disappointed with Herelink system that there is a timing issue on establishing a healthy ESC calibration stage with the FCU 21 months ago, where the Herelink took too long to boot up. not sure now.

Apologies, there is an error on the link in the previous post.

20

@Jai
I was referring to @Dorian Instructions:

If that helps, I do this to calibrate the ESC:

Remove the propellers
I feed the Air Unit independently of the Cube via an UBEC. I have noticed that there is a delay of a few seconds between the moment the Air Unit is powered up and its operation. You have to do this to tell the Cube that you want to calibrate the ESC.

1 Switch on the Herelink
2 Supply the Air Unit
3 Hold the HL throttle stick at the top
4 Power the Cube so that it enters ESC calibration mode
5 Disconnect the power from the Cube
6 You can put the Air Unit, Cube and ESC on the same power supply
7 Always keep the HL throttle at the top
8 Connect the drone battery (Air Unit, Cube and ESC)
9 Wait for the Air Unit LED to light up
10 Press and hold the security button until it turns solid red
11 ESC must emit music signifying that maximum acceleration has been recorded
12 Pull the throttle stick down and hold it, the ESC emit music indicating that the minimum acceleration has been recorded.
13 Following this, the ESC are active and the motors can run.
14 Disconnect the battery
15 Normally, this should work, otherwise repeat the procedure.

I wrote
These instructions are good but they could be clearer

  1. Power the Cube so that it enters ESC calibration mode
    This is a bit misleading because the Cube does not go into ESC Calibration mode at step 4. The Cube needs to be powered up with the throttle stick high (Step 4) then have the power removed (Step 5) and then powered back up again with the throttle held high (Step 8) before it goes into ESC Calibration Mode. And after that you still need to get do Steps 9 & 10 before the ESCs begin to calibrate.