Basic 30A ESC - 3 fast red lights?

Blue Robotics Products
1

I was wondering, connected up the Basic ESC 30A to the raspberry pi PWM shield, the RPI boots at the same time as the ESC so they dont get any signal until the RPI boots.

The second i add power to my system the esc’s beeps the normal 3 frequency beep.

b1, b2, b3.

Then it suddenly beeps 3 fast b1’s with red flashing light. What can that mean?

Setting pwm to anything does nothing, pwm is confirmed working with a oscilloscope and a servo.

2

Seems like there is an error with my code, i tried setting pwm to 1550 then it armed. Anyone smart here wanna check around?

Its node JS. I’ll try to figure it out myself tomorrow but there are some timing issues yep… What my cheapo osci sees as 1500 is not correct :stuck_out_tongue:

var i2c = require('i2c');

PCA9685 = function(address, device) {

  var self = {
address: (typeof address !== 'undefined') ?  address : 0x40,
device    :(typeof device !== 'undefined') ?  device : '/dev/i2c-1',
frequency : 50,
  }

  self.i2c = new i2c(self.address, {device: self.device}),
  
  // Basic sleep function
  self.sleep = function(ms) {
var waitTill = new Date(new Date().getTime() + ms);
while(waitTill > new Date()){} 
return true; 
  }

  // Initializer, needs to be run after changing frequency
  self.initialize = function() {
// Calculate the prescaler based on frequency
let prescaler = Math.round(25000000 / (4096 * self.frequency)) -1;
// Set all PWM to 0
self.setAllPWM(0);    
// Set all outputs to use a totem pole structure.
self.i2c.writeBytes(0x01, [0x04], function() {}); // MODE2 -> OUTDRV 
// Set it to respond on call on all i2c busses and sleep (Oscillator off) 
self.i2c.writeBytes(0x00, [0x11], function() {}); // MODE1 -> ALLCALL, SLEEP
// Sleep 50µS so the oscillator can calm down
self.sleep(1);
// Set the prescale to precalculated scale
self.i2c.writeBytes(0xFE, [prescaler], function() {}); // PRE_SCALE -> pre-calculated
// Disable sleep so it can start up the oscillator again 
self.i2c.writeBytes(0x00, [0x01], function() {}); // MODE1 -> ALLCALL   
// Spee 50µs so the oscillator can start up
self.sleep(1);
return true;
  }
  
  self.turnOffPWM = function() {
self.i2c.writeBytes(0xFD, [0x10], function() {})
  }
  
  // Usage: setPWM(channel, microsecounds);
  self.setPWM = function(no, us) {
let steps = self.usToSteps(us);
// 0x06 -> 0x09 (LED0_ON_L,LED0_ON_H,LED0_OFF_L,LED0_OFF_H)
// The 4*NO changes it so it inclines depending on NO up to 15.    

// Steps are maxmimum between 0 and 4096
// no is between 0 and 15 
if(steps < 0 || steps > 4096) { return false; }
if(no < 0 || no > 15) { return false; }

// Lets write the start high to step 0
self.i2c.writeBytes(0x06+4*no, [0x00], function() {})
self.i2c.writeBytes(0x07+4*no, [0x00], function() {})
// Then write the end high to steps calculated from usToSteps
self.i2c.writeBytes(0x08+4*no, [steps & 0xFF], function() {})
self.i2c.writeBytes(0x09+4*no, [steps>>8], function() {})
  }
  
  // Usage: setPWM(microsecounds);
  self.setAllPWM = function(us) {
let steps = self.usToSteps(us);
// 0xFA -> 0xFD (ALL_LED_ON_L,ALL_LED_ON_H,ALL_LED_OFF_L,ALL_LED_OFF_H)

// Steps are maxmimum between 0 and 4096
if(steps < 0 || steps > 4096) { return false; }
	
	var startSteps = 3071;
	steps += startSteps;
	
// Lets write the start high to step 0
self.i2c.writeBytes(0xFA, [startSteps & 0xFF], function() {})
self.i2c.writeBytes(0xFB, [startSteps>>8], function() {})
// Then write the end high to steps calculated from usToSteps
self.i2c.writeBytes(0xFC, [steps & 0xFF], function() {})
self.i2c.writeBytes(0xFD, [steps>>8], function() {})
  }
  
  // Calculate how many steps an specific µS can be
  self.usToSteps = function(us) {
// E.g. 50hz cycle = 1000000µS / 50hz = 20 000µS pr cycle.
let MicrosecoundPerCycle = 1000000 / self.frequency;
// Then get how many µS we get pr step by dividing steps on µS pr cycle
let stepsPerMicrosecound = 4096 / MicrosecoundPerCycle;
// Then return µS wanted times steps we get per µS
return Math.round(us * stepsPerMicrosecound)
  }
  
  return self;
}

module.exports = PCA9685();
3

Did you find the timing issues?

My RPi with PWM shield also seems to be offset by 50 us but otherwise when testing my T200 it appears to work normally.

4

Hey, I just build the code around 1550 as center, havent scoped the PWM shield so dont know if its a issue with timings on the shield or with the ESC code. So happy my ROV works so havent thought about it in a while :stuck_out_tongue: