[SOLVED] Castle telemetry cables not working

[jarhart]

Hello,

I am unable to get the Castle telemetry working with a Spirit BE and a Phoenix Edge Lite 50 and 2 different CC telemetry cables from the e-shop. I have the latest firmware installed on both the Spirit and the ESC. Without the cable everything works perfectly, except no telemetry obviously. With the cable installed the ESC doesn't initialize (no beeps at all) and my RX only sees 4.2V (the BEC is set to 7.0V and works fine without the cable). Enabling or disabling Link Live on the ESC has no obvious effect.

[ZeXx86]

Hello,

we are testing each cable before shipping so I believe they are OK.
Unfortunately some old Spirit units could be incompatible with CC telemetry for which we are doing free modification. The only requirement is to ship the unit to us. Then in one day we will change internal part to allow the telemetry.
Do you have some newer unit for testing? Is the unit really Spirit Black Edition or it was bought as Spirit but it actually is dark gray/black?

[jarhart]

Hello,

we are testing each cable before shipping so I believe they are OK.
Unfortunately some old Spirit units could be incompatible with CC telemetry for which we are doing free modification. The only requirement is to ship the unit to us. Then in one day we will change internal part to allow the telemetry.
Do you have some newer unit for testing? Is the unit really Spirit Black Edition or it was bought as Spirit but it actually is dark gray/black?

Thank you for the quick response. I didn't mean to suggest there was something wrong with the cables.

I didn't know there was a difference between a black Spirit and a Spirit Black Edition. I bought it used, so probably it is an old black Spirit that is incompatible.

It's really great that you will do the modification for free. This kind of support is the other reason I love the Spirit.

[jarhart]

I just tested with a red unit I have on another helicopter and it seems to work correctly, confirming that I have an old incompatible black unit.

Do the old units support the HobbyWing telemetry? If so I can just swap the units and be good.

[ZeXx86]

Great, you are welcome!

Yes, HobbyWing telemetry will work with all.
You will only need the Telem UNI cable.

[jarhart]

With the newer unit, the ESC is operating correctly and most of the telemetry is working, except for battery current. I'm using FrSky telemetry. RB1A and RB1C show up and get data, but always 0, even when I spool up.

I've tried the latest non-beta firmware for the ESC (4.22) and the latest beta firmware (4.25) with the same result.

According to the Castle Telemetry page, the Phoenix Edge Lite 50 supports battery current. What could I be doing wrong? Everything works except the one value I did all this to get.

Update: I just tested with another Phoenix Edge Lite 50 with the same result.

[ZeXx86]

Everything is correct. The problem is that the ESC is not able to measure so small current if there is no load.
So trying it with blades will make difference.

[jarhart]

It works! I got a chance to test spool it with blades and I have my battery current telemetry!

Thanks so much for the help!

[ZeXx86]

Perfect! You are welcome.

[kawitech]

Hello,

we are testing each cable before shipping so I believe they are OK.
Unfortunately some old Spirit units could be incompatible with CC telemetry for which we are doing free modification. The only requirement is to ship the unit to us. Then in one day we will change internal part to allow the telemetry.
Do you have some newer unit for testing? Is the unit really Spirit Black Edition or it was bought as Spirit but it actually is dark gray/black?

After spending 2 hours trying to get CC telemetry work I find this thread. I think my Spirit will have to be sent in. Please post a note on the CC telemetry wiki page to keep others from possibly wasting time in the future! From your description I assume mine is the gray model?? I’m attaching a pic. Thanks for everything you do, your products are amazing.