If you have been directed to this step then your Cosmoneer's motor and/or ESC is not functioning properly.
For this step, you'll need the USB programmer and USB cable that came with your Cosmoneer. We're not going to do any programming, instead we're using the stable power and connection it provides to make it easier to measure power levels at various points to the ESC and to the motor itself.
Things that will need to be checked are
- Wiring connections are all correct
- Voltage level at the ESC (from the SuperBurst board)
- Solder joints at the flex circuit to connector junction (where the ESC connects to the gyro motor)
- ESC microcontroller state (locked-up or in a wait-state)
This first check is to confirm all the connectors are orientated correctly. Both the servo and SuperBurst connectors attached to the Cosmoneer mainboard should have their signal wires facing outboard of the Cosmoneer, with the servo wire being the closes to the power receiver (white) connector at the corner of the board.
The ESC connects to the SuperBurst board on the LED side, or the leaded side of the super capacitor, depending on which side of the board you are looking at. The ESC signal wire is furthest away from the LED, while the ground wire (brown) is closest to the LED.
The SuperBurst board connects to the mainboard via the opposing header. The signal/power/ground pins are in the same orientation as the ESC pins, with the signal wire on the same outside PCB edge as the ESC connector.
This second check assumes the SuperBurst board is functioning correctly and is passing power to the ESC. With the programming cable connected and the SuperBurst's green LED illuminated, take the test probes from your meter (which is set for DC measurment) and touch the red (positive) probe to the red or "middle" wire on the ESC's input connector that is plugged in to the SuperBurst board and touch the black (negative) probe to the brown/black wire on the same plug.
With the Cosmoneer starting up, you should see the voltage rising to roughly 4.0 volts. If the motor were to start, you would see the voltage slowly drop to 3.0 volts.
The third check is to confirm the solder joints on the flex circuit have not been stressed beyond their limit and have broken.
If all of the above appears to be working, then the final check is to confirm the ESC is working, and what state it is in. For this complete step, you will need a servo tester.
If, during power-up or ESC start-up, you disturbed the Cosmoneer, the ESC may have become confused and is stuck in an "in-between" state, waiting for PWM input for a command it unintentionally is now waiting for. Some ESCs may recover by removing their connection to the SuperBurst board and letting them sit for about ten minutes. Other ESCs have responded to being connected to a Servo tester and following the ESC startup instructions (
http://cosmospioneering.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MX-3A_ESC_blhelimanualsilabsrev11.x.pdf). Worst case, the ESC is bad and needs to be replaced with another MX-3A ESC.
The Gyro motor is a 5v brushless outrunner motor. Worst case, magnetic material has become attracted to the inside of the motor and the motor no longer spins freely. However, if the motor does not beep during the ESC power up sequence, then the ESC is most likely the culprit. If you want to test the motor separately, you will the servo tester mentioned above and a fully charged 4.3v single LIPO cell. Connect the suspect ESC (with motor attached) to the servo tester and follow the ESC's start-up instructions.
Recent Posts