I'm trying to upgrade my TurboAce Matrix E to the A3 & Lightbridge 2 system but am having trouble getting the FC to spin my motors. The current ESCs installed are Turbo Ace TA-MAT-18 and have a safety arming feature that may prevent the motors from arming since the throttle stick on the LB ground station is not set to 0 at power up. If anyone has attempted this upgrade or has any knowledge about my issue please chime in. Thanks.
Looking for help with A3 controller
- Thread starter A Higher Perspective
- Start date
First of all in the A3 Config make sure you have set it to none DJI ESC , if no better you may need to try getting a PWM meter and measuring the output from the A3 ports.
It’s possible DJI have set the output to some lower value that’s below the usual arming number for their ESCs before arming, before spending any real money on changing things try the meter or perhaps another motor and ESC combo.
Generally the A3 has been designed to work with DJI own ESCs and propulsion systems they are all pretty much setup to the usual PWM band so lowest is around 920 and highest is 1960 but 100-2000 usually works and that’s what the LB2 will deliver.
It’s possible DJI have set the output to some lower value that’s below the usual arming number for their ESCs before arming, before spending any real money on changing things try the meter or perhaps another motor and ESC combo.
Generally the A3 has been designed to work with DJI own ESCs and propulsion systems they are all pretty much setup to the usual PWM band so lowest is around 920 and highest is 1960 but 100-2000 usually works and that’s what the LB2 will deliver.
Thanks Mad. I did have it set to non-DJI ESC. I think the problem is the safety arming feature. I've ordered DJI Takyon Z650 ESCs and hope this will solve the problem. The "senior engineers" at DJI assured my Tech Support rep Nicole Zhang that these will be compatible. The ESCs I was trying to use were at least 5 years old, so not really surprising they were obsolete. I guess what does surprise me is that so few people including the MFG of the copter and DJI support personel knew what ESCs available on the market would actually work with the A3. The first DJI tech support I chatted with told me that the DJI Takyon ESCs were NOT compatible. I'll update this after I receive and test.
I received the Z650 ESCs and installed. Tested motor spin direction on all 4 in the ESC screen, then started to calibrate the ESC's, assuming that since that was an option it was needed. Wrong. After calibrating the #1 ESC the motor would no longer spin. I emailed support again and after a few days received the reply that the ESCs do not need calibrated. Since they would not tell me if the ESC could be reset I ended up purchasing a replacement. Installed it, all motors spin, re-assembled the copter and it FLIES!. Ok, so now all I need to figure out is triggering the video record and tilting the gimbal. Should be simple, but so far it's not. Any guidance would be appreciated.
I've now received word from DJI Pro Technical Support's senior engineers that the A3 can not be mapped to the record button on the LB2 controller, making it virtually useless for any 3rd party camera drone installation. I was told by the vendor (Multicopter Warehouse in Denver) that the A3/LB2 package would work GREAT for my integration. Now I'm left with a heavy lift copter that flies great but won't do what I bought it for. I've requested a full refund from the vendor but am not confident they will do the right thing. If you're thinking of doing this kind of installation on any 3rd party drone, don't.
