OK. Somewhere there must be an answer. Total NewB new to electrics etc. I purchased an ARF with all the recommended stuff (motor, esc, servo, battery) and now that I finally got it all together...nothing. When I turn on the Tx and connect the battery I get one long beep followed by three short beeps, then nothing. No rudder, elevator, motor...nada zip zero. Sorry for the basic question but what am I doing wrong???[:@] By the way, I can't find the instructions for the ESC...maybe that's the problem.

The ESC needs to arm itself and it will not do so unless the throttle and trim switch are both at their lowest setting, safety.
If they are already there then you will need to reverse your throttle on your transmitter.
What ESC do you have? Most of them have instruction manuals available online if you do a search.

The ESC needs to be connected to the channel 3 slot in the reciever for throttle, not the battery slot.

This is not correct for every radio. Not all radios use channel 3 for throttle. It is going to depend on what brand of radio that he has as to where it should be plugged in to.

Ken

You might want to try bringing the throttle down to the lowest setting, then bring it up to the highest setting, then down to the lowest. At that point, you may hear the ESC engage. That is the way it works on my Electrifly 10Amp brushed. If this doe not work, try the cycle again, and you may notice it engage at the high end and accelerate as you bring the throttle down, this will indicate the channel needs to be reversed.
Good Luck
P.S. make sure you hook up another servo to another channel and check for movement, this will tell you whether the BEC (Battery Elminator Circuit) detects the proper amount of input voltage from your battery.

HOLD ON A MINUTE!!!

Don't do anything until you are sure you have that plane secured. If the throttle IS reversed, you are in for a very interesting surprise when it goes full throttle on you without you being prepared for it.

Electrics are very different from glow or gas. With a glow or gas, if you get something in the way of your prop, it will do some damage then stop. Damage to, say your fingers, arm, leg, and so on.

With electric, however, if it goes full throttle, and hits something, because of the nature of the electric motors, it will try to continue turning, and cutting, and maiming. Be very careful when playing with electric motors on planes with those sharp, rotating blades. Yeah, I know this from personal experience - five stiches on my right index finger.

My suggestion is this:

Remove the ESC from the receiver. Connect all of your other servos to THEIR PROPER SLOTS based on the radio you are using (as Ken pointed out, not all radios have the throttle on channel 3). Make sure the aileron goes to the aileron channel, the rudder goes to the rudder channel, and elevator goes to the elevator channel.

If you don't know what channel is what on the receiver, well, that's simple to figure out.

As I said REMOVE THE ESC from the receiver and just let it hang there for a while. While you are at it, remove the prop from the motor, for safety, in case you do not remove the ESC from the RX.

Power up the receiver with a separate battery. That will insure that your ESC is safe and disarmed (with it disconnected). Then plug in your elevator wire to what you think is the elevator channel on the RX. Turn on the TX and wiggle the elevator stick. If the elevator moves as predicted, then you are ok. If not, then shift the elevator servo wire to a different RX channel and try it again. Do this until you have the right channel for your RX and the elevator channel.

Repeat for the ailerons and the rudder. Once you are satisfied that you found all the correct channels for your control surfaces, THEN REMOVE/DISCONNECT THE BATTERY and connect the ESC to the one remaining channel (1 to 4 are the basic four.. aileron, elevator, rudder, and throttle). Other slots are for auxiliary channels and functions (flaps, gear, and so on).

Move the throttle trim to minimum and the throttle to minimum. Power up the ESC by plugging in the flight battery pack. the one you are going to fly this plane with.

If you have not done so already, REMOVE THE PROP. Slowly move the throttle to full. It should beep. Slowly pull it back to idle. It should beep again.. maybe two or three times. The next movement of the throttle should start the motor turning.

There are two things to consider here. First, IF the throttle is at minimum but the ESC wants to turn the motor at full throttle, AND if you go to full throttle on the transmitter, then reverse the channel in the transmitter. If the ESC throttle is ok, meaning it is at minimun with the TX stick at minimum, and goes to full when you throttle up to full on the TX, then you are good to go.

Next, if you motor turns backwards, but all else is ok (meaning when going to full on the TX and the motor turns backwards), then reverse any two of the three wires between the ESC and the motor (brushless). If brushed, simply reverse the two wires going from the ESC to the motor.

NOW you can mount the prop if you so desire.

I hope this helps. JUST BE CAREFUL with that electric motor with the prop bolted on.

CGr.

The one long and three short beeps is the ESC telling you that it's powered up and has found a 3-cell battery.

It is dangerous to deal with electrics, especially when you're not sure that all the functions are working in their required directions, especially the throttle.

After you hear the beeps and they are what you expected to hear, the ailerons, elevator, rudder, and throttle should function. They may be reversed, but they should answer the sticks.

What happens lots of times with a brand new build, is that the radio TX is not set correctly for ppm or pcm to match the RX. And nothing works except the beeper.

How can you say that since he has not told us what ESC he has, it seems every ESC I have has a different code that the beeps mean.

Misslemans last post applies here too.

My ESC is armed as soon as it is plugged in.

Rob

That's why I said "beep" then "beep maybe two or three times" because ESC's do not all act alike. The point is that they give some announcement when they are 'armed'.

CGr.

Thanks for all the help....it finally makes sense to me. Now if only I could get some good weather for flying. [&o] Anyone have any suggestions for that?

Pray I guess unless you can find someone that knows some special dance