Best way to spin one motor?

[Hugh Hemington]

Is the best way to spin just one motor to connect the ESC to the receiver channel for throttle? I wonder if there is a tool that will spin a motor at a selected RPM, or selected voltage and I can do the math based on kv? Maybe sort of like an ESC programmer?
I'm going to either have to deal with these awful Turnigy motors, or just bag them and move to SunnySky. I have a 720kv set on order, but I was going to use them on my new Alien 560 frame along with the 4S lipos I swapped out for 3S on this QuadLugs frame. As I posted before, two of the four Turnigy motors had bad grub nuts that I reamed out to make engage the shaft far enough, but the defects may now be contributing to the unacceptable deflection at speed.

 

[Mike]

Honestly - the only way I know of to spin one motor is to connect the throttle on the rx to the ESC. I'm sure if you're running an opensource board and you have the right skills, you could probably throw together something to tell one motor to spin at a time since the signal from the ESC connects to different pins for each motor.

 

[Hugh Hemington]

Yeah, that's the way! I'm also suspecting the Turnigy MultiStar 45amp ESCs are not starting the motor(s) smoothly. I saw a video comparing them (or the 30amp) side by side with SimonK-flashed ESCs. And my Afro ESCs spin the SunnySky motors (on channel 3 -- throttle) smoothly up from a dead stop.
I think I'll eventually get the Turnigy motors to fly, now that I've found ESC calibration to be a missing component in my setup. I'll calibrate the Multistar ESCs, then no doubt do it again after I get the chip-tool and load new firmware on them.

 

[Mike]

Yeah, SimonK makes a huge difference in my experience. Much smoother. When I started, I remember everyone was recommending Turnigy Plush ESC's in every build, then when the SimonK flashed stuff came out, I was rebuilding from a crash and switched. They were hard to come by though if you didn't flash them yourself. You usually had to order from someone who flashed them in their living room. Now you can get them everywhere factory flashed. I'm not sure why the Multistars don't have that firmware since they are for multirotors.

 

[Hugh Hemington]

I already have the USB-ASP from my attempts at flashing the Turnigy 9x radio, and now the atmel programming adapter is on order from US warehouse (with a bunch of props). I was going to re-build the quad with MultiStar ESCs anyway! It was my first build and I explored a lot of ideas, leaving a lot of holes and things behind.
As it turns out, the HK Pilot 2.7 will go in the older quad, mainly because the pins on the 2.5.2 are out the ends instead of up and fit better in the Alien frame.
Naturally, the "3DR" telemetry radios aren't working! I can't think of a single thing that has straight away. They "go green", so they're talking, and I can download settings in Mission Planner, filling both panes with connection data, but Mission Planner never loads parameters off the controller, or reads telemetry. The best answer so far is firmware, with the old radios being 1.6 and ones that work being 1.9.
I got an orange card in the mail today while I was out, which I hope means the post office has my Boscam pan/tilt assembly and Sony FPV cam. Never get tired of playing it seems.