Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Motor problems

[Stephen Dwyer]

Hello Nathan,

Just to clarify, how do you have the servo cable on the ESC wired to the TWOG?

It sounds like you have the +/- of the battery wired to the
appropriate +/- battery terminal on the ESC as well as the +/- power
input terminals on the TWOG. Then, my guess is you have the servo
cable from the ESC plugged into one of the 3 pin molex servo
connectors on the TWOG. The red wire coming from the ESC will be
supplying 5V to the TWOG if it is connected. This is not good. You
need ONLY the SIGNAL line from the ESC connected to the TWOG (if the
ground is also connected, you will have a ground loop, which is bad).
Note also that if you are powering from a different battery, both the
SIGNAL and the GND lines should be connected between ESC and TWOG, but
never the 5V line. See the wiring diagram on the TWOG page of the
wiki:

http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/Twog_v1#Electrical_Connections_to_the_Airborne_Equipment

Note that only "PWM Signal (Thr)" is going from the TWOG to the ESC,
not GND or 5V.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
-Stephen Dwyer

On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 8:59 PM, Nathan Sandoval
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am currently working on a University paparazzi project at the University
> of Arizona and I am trying to just get a basic plane in the air. I have all
> the components I need and I have tested most of my components and they are
> working. However, I have a problem with my motor. Anytime I connect my speed
> controller to the TWOG and then power the TWOG and Speed controller (and of
> course the other end of the speed controller is connected to the motor), the
> TWOG begins to heat up rapidly. One of my TWOGs actually burned up from
> being powered on for about 30 seconds while connected to the speed
> controller. I  currently powering both the speed controller and the TWOG
> from the same battery. My speed controller is a 40-Amp Lite Pro SB Brushless
> ESC. (I am not terribly experienced, but I wonder if my motor is just too
> big/ drawing too much power?)
>
> My idea to solve the problem is to power the speed controller and the twog
> separately, and maybe just have the transmit pin connected between the TWOG
> and speed controller to ensure that it doesn't try to draw power from the
> twog.
>
> Would this work? (I ask because I don't want to blow up another TWOG!) Any
> other ideas for how to solve this overheating problem?
>
> thanks!
>
> Nathan
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