January 24, 2015:
It's been a while since my last update! A few days ago, I got my replacement battery in the mail, so now I've been trying to get the quadcopter working.
No pictures this time. I didn't have someone around to take 'em.
Battery's plugged in, the motors are armed, they're beeping in wait for a signal, so I turn on the remote transmitter and... nothing.
I puzzled over this for a bit, when I realized I had forgotten something basic.
I never bound the receiver to the transmitter.
Whoops.
In my attempts to bind the two, I found another problem: My flight controller board couldn't power the receiver. I don't know what's going on there, but a little fiddling around and following YouTube instructional videos let me at least bind the transmitter and receiver, taking power from one of the ESCs.
Now, the problem with the flight controller could be from any place, really. The Electronic Speed Controllers could have faulty connections to the board or something.
To test that, I ignored the flight controller entirely and plugged each electronic speed controller directly into the receiver. After a little period in which the motors stopped beeping, they all began spinning.
No problem there.
So I tried connecting everything back to the flight controller, and then supplying it with an external power source. Really, it was just a USB-to-miniUSB wire that led to a outlet. The transmitter is on, the motors are armed and... still nothing.
I even reloaded the software on the board, double-checking the configuration file. It still didn't work.
There's definitely something wrong with my flight controller. This requires further investigation...
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Friday, January 16, 2015
I warrant there's a reason to all this.
January 16, 2015:
Wow, it's really been a while since my last post. I should start catching up, even if nothing has really happened.
So, I asked about my defective battery on live chat. The person directed me to fill out an RMA Form. This was on January 7th.
The form filled out and the battery sent, all I have to do now is wait!
...and keep waiting. What's the holdup?
So tonight, more than a week later, I entered another live chat session with support.
Well, there's your problem! Turns out they thought I was past the 30 day warranty period because of timezone differences! At least that's cleared up, so now instead of waiting for a response, I'll be waiting for the shipment to arrive.
It's still waiting, but hey I'll take what I can get.
Wow, it's really been a while since my last post. I should start catching up, even if nothing has really happened.
So, I asked about my defective battery on live chat. The person directed me to fill out an RMA Form. This was on January 7th.
 |
| Live chat! Hopefully it'll work out... |
...and keep waiting. What's the holdup?
So tonight, more than a week later, I entered another live chat session with support.
 |
| Time zones, how do they work? |
It's still waiting, but hey I'll take what I can get.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Free of charge
January 4, 2014:
No pictures this time, just a quick update.
So some online research over the past few days has told me the most likely problem that's affecting this project. Apparently, if the voltage in one of the cells is too low, the charger won't charge the battery as a safety measure.
Why a safety measure? Well, there are some people who have given advice on how to force a charge on your lithium polymer battery, and they say that you should not attempt this without professional guidance, preferably in an open area.
Because there's a chance that the cell is dead and charging it will cause it to explode.
...I'm just going to leave this to the experts. My dad thankfully has a coworker who can force a charge on it, so I'm trusting him to return the battery in a state that's chargeable, or I'm gonna have to buy either a new battery or a higher-quality charger.
No pictures this time, just a quick update.
So some online research over the past few days has told me the most likely problem that's affecting this project. Apparently, if the voltage in one of the cells is too low, the charger won't charge the battery as a safety measure.
Why a safety measure? Well, there are some people who have given advice on how to force a charge on your lithium polymer battery, and they say that you should not attempt this without professional guidance, preferably in an open area.
Because there's a chance that the cell is dead and charging it will cause it to explode.
...I'm just going to leave this to the experts. My dad thankfully has a coworker who can force a charge on it, so I'm trusting him to return the battery in a state that's chargeable, or I'm gonna have to buy either a new battery or a higher-quality charger.
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