Battery too low for flight

tpsharkey · Jul 12, 2017

I bought a Solo for parts and all 4 motor pods are bad, one has a burned out ESC and 3 cause the "Battery is too low for flight " message, 0/-1 volt /amp display and the controller fly botton will not work. I can arm and spin the working motors with Tower or Mission Planner but not the controller. Remove all the motor pods from Solo and the voltage /amp display ok and the fly botton works.

I have moved any one of the 3 motor pods to my good Solo and the voltage / amperage no longer displays and the controller fly botton no longer works and it displays the Battery too low message.

How does a motor pod cause this problem? ?

jbrunel · Jul 12, 2017

Sounds like the burned out ESC might have short out the main board.

tpsharkey · Jul 12, 2017

jbrunel said:
Sounds like the burned out ESC might have short out the main board.

I think the main board is ok, I've moved a motor pod from my good Solo and it worked fine, moving a motor pod from the bad Solo to the good Solo causes the failure to move to the good Solo. The motor pods are causing this problem. Thanks

RichWest · Jul 12, 2017

Strange problem... Do the LED work as well? Sounds like all of the motor pods are shot, possibly a short or failed common component. There are only a couple of common points, power leads and the control wires. Strange failure...

tpsharkey · Jul 13, 2017

RichWest said:
Strange problem... Do the LED work as well? Sounds like all of the motor pods are shot, possibly a short or failed common component. There are only a couple of common points, power leads and the control wires. Strange failure...

One motor pod the LED and motor works, one the LED works and the motor doesn't, one the LED doesn't work and the motor works, all three cause the same problem. It's the motor pods, hardware or software, I think it would be ESCs, anyone know of software to examine the Solo ESC? The points outside the motor pods are ok because motors pods from my good Solo work fine on this Solo.

RichWest · Jul 13, 2017

You stated the motors run under MP's control, but nothing else... Sounds like a fail safe condition, which MP can override. I'm certain that logs or MP should indicate the cause of the fault.

On github there is the file for the Solo ESC, based on SimonK.

Again it's strange based on all that you tried. Bad ESC, let us know what you find out.

tpsharkey · Jul 13, 2017

RichWest said:
You stated the motors run under MP's control, but nothing else... Sounds like a fail safe condition, which MP can override. I'm certain that logs or MP should indicate the cause of the fault.

On github there is the file for the Solo ESC, based on SimonK.

Again it's strange based on all that you tried. Bad ESC, let us know what you find out.

Yes, I powered 2 of motors with MP and Tower, but not with the controller. I think the difference have to do with the Solo app and controller having the 0 voltage /amperage problem that MP/Tower aren't bothered with. MP shows no messages on problems. I have not reviewed the flash logs yet, but I know of no ESC data on the logs.

I will review github ESC information, maybe a reset or calibration is possible on the Solo ESC?

tpsharkey · Jul 13, 2017

tpsharkey said:
Yes, I powered 2 of motors with MP and Tower, but not with the controller. I think the difference have to do with the Solo app and controller having the 0 voltage /amperage problem that MP/Tower aren't bothered with. MP shows no messages on problems. I have not reviewed the flash logs yet, but I know of no ESC data on the logs.
I will review github ESC information, maybe a reset or calibration is possible on the Solo ESC?

Anyone know how to calibrate Solo ESCs?