Castle ICE 120HV Calibration on Plane

[Derek]

I'm curious about the ESC calibration on the Castle ICE 120HV that I have on my large 3D plane. This is the last step that I need to do before I maiden the plane but I'm unclear about how to do this. In the "Castle Programming" there is a drop down tab that states:

Auto-Calibrate Endpoints
Auto-Calibrate mode will 'learn' your transmitter's end-points automatically, so you should always have the highest resolution possible for your throttle stick.  After arming the controller, you must go to full-throttle on the ground so the ESC can learn this value before take-off.

Fixed-Endpoints
Fixed-Endpoints will set zero-throttle and full-throttle points to fixed values so that the ESC does not have to learn from your transmitter. If you are using this mode, you will most likely want to change the EPA settings on your transmitter to allow full throttle resolution with the throttle stick.  To do this, turn on your TX and set normal mode in the transmitter for a linear throttle curve (0,25,50,75,100). Bring your high side and low side endpoints on your throttle channel down to 25%, plug in the battery pack with the throttle stick at full (it won't start up), then bring your high endpoint back out towards (and sometimes past) 100% until you hear a single tone. Next, bring your throttle stick down to the bottom position and bring the endpoint out from 25% out towards (and possibly past) 100% until you hear the ESC arm. Unplug the battery pack, wait a few seconds, then plug back in and verify that the throttle is working properly.

Calibrating all my other ESC's, all I've had to do was plug the battery in to the ESC, raise the throttle stick to full, turn on tx, wait for a few beeps, lower throttle stick to minimum and then the esc was calibrated. I've never used an "Auto Calibration" feature before. I'm thinking that I'll be using the "Fixed Endpoints" setup for this plane.

Any thoughts?

[cml001]

That's right.

[Derek]

That's right.

Which part? Can I do it the way that Im use to or do i need to do it by adjusting the EPA?

[cml001]

Lower ur end points in the TX as it states above in ur post.. Fire it up with the throttle high.. Creep up the high end point until it beeps.. Then lower the stick all the way.. And creep up(down for Spektrum.. U know what i mean) until u hear that beep.. Wait a sec... It will initialize.. Done.. Be careful because once it initialized ur live!

[Derek]

Ok. I've never done it that way but ill give it a go....with the 20" prop off, of course lol. It can't be that difficult

[cml001]

I've honestly never done it on a plane.. But it's the same thing. Let us know how it goes!

[cml001]

If u run into issue.. Try this link.
https://youtu.be/xF7VTrs_hsI

[pvolcko]

For fixed endpoints, plane or heli it's the same procedure. Set throttle servo travel to around 25% (-50 on some radios) on the low end and 75% (+50 on some) on the high end. Put throttle stick at high position. Plug in ESC. slowly increase the high servo travel until it beeps. Move throttle to low and slowly move low servo travel down until it initializes. Done.

If you leave servo travel at 0% and 100% (or -100 and 100) and just move the stick up and down then you aren't really calibrating anything. You'll end up with dead band on the high and low sides.

Auto-calibration throws that out the door. Auto-calibration allows you to do the high stick/low stick thing without changing servo travel endpoints. The ESC will figure out what the highest and lowest signals it gets are and adjust it to the transmitter. With fixed end points you are actually setting the transmitter to the ESCs fixed endpoints, hence the name of the mode.

[cml001]

Paul.. U r the man! I think what u type usually.. But I just can't get it out thru my fingers the way u do! Lol.. Awesome!

[Derek]

Thanks Paul! That helps a lot! Will this kind of calibration work with all esc's? On my other planes, I have Turnigy Plush esc's (I like them because the programming card is very idiot-proof) and the way that I've been calibrating them is to turn on tx, throttle to max, plug in battery to esc and wait for the beeps, lower throttle to min and wait for it to initialize. Done. However, you mentioned that there may be a deadband on the high and low sides. Would that be just for the Castle ESC that I have or all esc's?

Clay...I sure do appreciate all your help, as well, with this and you're right. There are times when I know the answer to someone's question but I can't get the words out through my fingers and then Paul chimes in with a descriptive explanation that "just makes sense", lol.

Thanks guys!

[Derek]

OK, this was interesting. I got results that I didn't expect.

When I brought the high throttle out, it beeped once at 70%. I expected that to be closer to 100% but I moved on. Lowered the throttle stick and brought the throttle out, from the suggested 25%, and the esc initialized at 37%. I don't know why, but I expected that number to be different, too. However, I unplugged everything (as suggested) and then powered it all up again. I slowly ran the throttle up and as I brought the throttle up, I could easily tell that the throttle was gradually increasing. So, it would seem that the esc now knows the high and low points. I just assumed that the numbers would be different.

Is it typical to have numbers like this?

[cml001]

Yep.. It's strange.. But I found similar results.. But that's it bruh!

[pvolcko]

Were you doing auto or fixed endpoints? You only do the stuff with the servo travel min/max for fixed endpoint mode. If you're wanting to try auto mode then leave things at -100 and 100 (or equivalent to 0 and 100%). Depending on transmitter and Rx being used results will vary. Those do seem like it beeped earlier than expected. Maybe try again but move the high and low servo travel points more quickly. I've had it seemingly grab onto unexpected points before.

And I don't know about other ESCs. I used a similar procedure with the first of four escs on a quad, but for the others I just did stick to max and min so they were, hopefully, calibrated to the same range in the same way. It's been a while since I did that setup though so I may be forgetting important details. Some of the quad guys should know the deal with plush and other ESCs.

[Derek]

I was doing the fixed endpoints. That auto calibration just sounded like a hassle. I have a DX8. I was in the servo travel for "Throttle". As per the directions, I moved the high and low ends to 25%. With the throttle stick at high position, I powered up the AR8000 with the rx pack and then powered up the esc. The esc gave a few of the usual start up beeps and then stopped. I started to bring the high end "25%" up and there was a single beep at 70%. I thought that was a bit low, but what do I know lol, so I lowered the throttle stick and began to raise the low end and the esc beeped a bit more at 37% and it sounded as if it had initialized. According to the directions, I powered everything down and waited a few seconds before powering everything up again. I slowly raised the throttle from 0 to full and I could hear a smooth increase in RPM. Now, if this esc has, in fact, calibrated...I should be in good shape. I surely won't complain about the simplicity. I was just surprised about the actual numbers. I just expected different numbers.

As for my Plush esc's, I have a beater plane in the garage with a Plush esc (I love those esc's, lol). I may, just for laughs, use the Castle esc calibration method and see what happens. Maybe there will be a difference. Maybe not. If not, then I've really lost nothing. If the calibration isn't quite right, it's easy enough to do the high/low stick method that I'm accustomed to.

[pvolcko]

Okay, I'd try it again. The procedure and numbers do sound off.

DX8 has a -100 to 100 type of range on the servo travels, right? If that's the case:

Starting points (ESC powered off):
Low stick: -50 servo travel
High stick: +50 servo travel

Go to High stick. Power up the ESC. Should heave battery cell count beeps and then it stops.

Move servo travel upwards until a single beep. You can move pretty quickly with it. When it beeps put another 4 bumps into it.
Move stick low. Start moving the low servo travel *down* until it initializes. Put another 4 bumps in it.

I'd expect to see servo travel numbers like +90 ish and -90ish.

[pvolcko]

If you get the same numbers again, so be it. I'll check one of mine to see what I get on the DX9. Should be very similar results.

[Derek]

ok, i'm kinda wondering if I've done this wrong, now.

Paul, you said that the low throttle stick should be in the negative. When I did the calibration, I put the high and low throttle travel at +25% because that's how I interpreted the Castle instructions. I put the throttle stick at high position with the tx on. Powered up the esc. After the esc stopped beeping, I raised the high throttle travel slowly and it beeped at +70%. Then, from +25%, I raised the low throttle travel, instead of lowering it, and it beeped at +37%. Should I have lowered the low throttle travel?

[pvolcko]

I hate that all transmitters don't use the same numbering schemes for this stuff.

Sorry I misled. I think you did it right. I'm just surprised by the numbers you got, in particular the low setting.

I have a DX7S and a DX9. Both act the same as you describe (increasing min travel setting to make it go lower on the graph).

1) Put thottle stick at low position, change servo travel min to 50. Put stick in high position and set max servo travel to 50.
2) Leave stick in high position. Power up ESC and let it go through battery beep counts.
3) Increase max servo travel until the ESC beeps once. Add 4 more points.
4) Move throttle stick to low position. *Increase* servo travel min setting until ESC make initialization beeps. Add 4 more points.

I'd still do it one more time. Try adjusting the MAX/MIN faster than you did the first time. I have done it too slowly in the past where it seemed to make the ESC think it was as low or high as it was going to get and initialized prematurely.

[Derek]

Ill do that