User Manual

ProgCard II - Programming Card for ICE Series ESC Users’ Manual
With the programming card, you can change every single function of our ProgCard II compatible ESC’s. A special feature
is the exact cutoff voltage adjustment for the two Lithium batteries types on the market with their respective number of
cells. Further can be adjusted the timing, different brake modes, the governor speed regulation and the accurate throttle
stick positions by means of buttons. The actual settings can be read back with all our BEC ESC. All other Opto-coupler
ESC’s the setting can be seen only at programming time. In addition to the LED matrix overview, the confirmation of the
respective programming step is done via an acoustic signal, which is produced by the motor connected to the ESC.
All this is possible without the otherwise usual throttle stick programming.
Operating instructions
Disconnect the flight battery from the controller. Unplug the command cable from the receiver (or opto-coupler) and plug
it into the left connector of the ProgCard II. The left contact is signal (white, yellow or orange), the center contact is +5V
(red), and the right contact is minus (brown orblack).
If you inadvertently the plug the connector the wrong way, nothing happens, since the ProgCard II is protected against
reversals.
Please prolong the wire for OPTO ESC, because the power supply of ProgCard II gets from receiver.
Connect the motor to ESC now. (For ESC with BEC, it can be connected directly; but for ESC without BEC,
the ProgCard II gets the power supply from receiver.) On the ProgCard the upper LED of the lateral LED column
will light up. The ESC-Motor unit will signal 6 Beep (short melody).
Level 1
Shortly after that the current settings are read from the ESC as long as it is a BEC model. All LED will light up in a row.
(Optocoupler ESC’s from V4 push Enter button now.) You are now on level 1, starting with the timing indicator. Now you
choose with the lower left button the Menu selection and can see the programmed setting on the LED line. With the upper
left button you can now choose a new value that will be actually programmed into the ESC with the Enter button on the
right. The ESC will acknowledge with a positive beep. (The LED on the ProgCard II will turn on shortly and is followed
by a low and a high tone beep.)
Functions that cannot be programmed in the ESC are signaled with a negative beep. (1 low tone)
All function can be adjusted like that, while the programming order is not relevant except for the Lipo type followed by the
cutoff voltage adjustment and the cell count. Though, you can modify later on any single value anytime. 2 and 3 cells are
recognized automatically by the controller.
That is why the cell count settings are starting with 4 cells on the ProgCard II.
The programming of the cell count is saved in the controller. Connecting a different cell count battery would lead to wrong
under voltage detections.
Reset the Lipo type (LiPo / LiFe) will cancel the cell count and set the ESC again in automatic cell count detection!
By activating the LiFe cell type (LiFePO4), the cutoff voltage is reduced by 0.7V per cell.
Cutoff voltage (upper cutoff voltage line) for LiFe is 2.2 to 2.7V per cell.
Cutoff voltage (lower cutoff voltage line) for LiPo is 2.9 to 3.4V per cell.
In the NiMh mode, neither the cutoff voltage nor the cell count needs to be programmed. The slowdown is done
automatically based on the battery voltage during connection. (Therefore, use only fully charged NiMh batteries)
Beep short shortens the start beep.
Rev. (Navy) Forward and reverse activation (only for Navy ESC).
Stick position Brake off (without brake)
For the throttle stick range calibration, please connect the enclosed extension cable from the receiver to the rightmost
connector of the ProgCard II.
Turn on the transmitter, and put the throttle on stop. Select the stop LED on the ProgCard II and push the Enter button. Do
the same with the full power position and the Full Speed LED.
Stick position Brake on (with brake)
The brake starts 10% below the stop position, so the throttle stick range needs to be calibrated a bit shorter. For that put the
throttle stick on 10% power ( about 3 notches away from stop) and proceed with the above calibration. Alternatively you
can also learn in the complete stick range, after having set the servo travel from 10% to 100%.After calibration you need to
come back to 0% - 100% to be able to reach the brake position.
For transmitters with -100 to +100% servo travels you need to program -80¡ã% to +100% for calibration and come back to
-100, +100% after calibration.
Brake smooth, middle, hard
These three steps are only for folding air-screw!
F3A Brake
This function allows to adjust the F3A brake intensity without any step. It can reduce the motor RPM while the plane fly
downward. You need again the extension cable, like described above, select theF3A Brake LED, position the stick, e.g. for
50% brake on half throttle, and press the enter key. Likewise for 75%, put the stick on 3/4 gas, etc.
For the throttle stick range calibration, lower servo travel of the throttle channel needs to be increased by 10% because the
opto-coupler has a propagation delay of 50¦Ìs and thus the stop point is shifted.
Level 2.
All other functions like the governor mode can be accessed through the level 2 of the ProgCard by pushing briefly the two
left buttons simultaneously. For confirmation the menu LED is blinking now. By pushing again the two left buttons you
come back to level 1 exactly where you left level 1.
Act. Freewheel (active Freewheel) allows best efficiency in the partial load range whereby the ESC remains clearly cooler
Governor Mode (Gov. / Gov. Store)
For the use of the governor mode in a helicopter, the throttle stick range or the throttle curve (100%) must have
been calibrated as described in level 1.
A throttle curve point of e.g. 70% corresponds to a completely determined head speed, which is held as long as
possible for the ESC due to the battery voltage. If the battery voltage drops below a certain level, even a full power
setting won’t be able to reach the demanded head speed if the voltage doesn’t allow it. If this appears to be the case
at the end of a flight, the throttle curve should be reduced accordingly.
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For both governor modes: don’t modify the P-gain, I-gain and PWM switching rate initially! If you do so the
control loop parameters would also be modified.
Governor Mode is the classical head speed regulation for helicopters. The setting of the throttle curve should be around 60
to 80% of the full throttle range.
The controller learns at every start the correspondence of the throttle curve and the head speed. That is why there is a short
head speed increase just before reaching the demanded speed. This can disturb the tail, but a slight pitching will settle
things down as the helicopter is not“glued” to the ground anymore.
Gov. store is an extended helicopter feature, where the correspondence of the throttle curve and the heads peed is done
only at the first start (learning procedure). This head speed is stored so that at every later start the head speed will remain
exactly the same.
If the learning wasn’t successful or wrong, you can reset the learning by selecting once again the Gov. Store.
Operating instructions
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The setting of the throttle curve should be the full throttle range (eg.80%).
Start the ESC and stop for a while when it reach the highest head speed. A fault RPM will be noticed.
Turn off the ESC and disconnect the battery. Reset the throttle curve at the same or lower throttle range when
connecting battery next time.
If unsuccessful or fault to learning throttle curve, you could reset by reselecting Gov. Store.
The learning can even be done with nearly or exact 100%. Doing this will improve the correspondence of the throttle curve
to the actual head speed. But please be careful as 100% learning could lead to very high head speeds, and anyway don’t
forget to set back the throttle curve to avoid flying with full power.
Fast (Gov.) can be selected along with both governor modes. This feature increases the control loop frequency and can be
used above a magnetic pole commutation frequency of 80000 per minute. (poles/2x motor rpm)
To try only if the speed control is not completely satisfactory.