Esc problems

[Chessien]

Hi all,

I got an ft versa for Christmas, and only recently got around to starting building it. I hooked up the electronics a while ago, though, at like the end of December. I sottered the connectors (ec3) to the esc, then plugged in the receiver and motor, and powered it up. It worked fine, the motor spooled fine and and the connection was strong to the transmitter (range checked it). School work and ground school called though, and I stuck the electronics back in the box and put it away for a few months. Fast forward to a few days ago when I started assembling my versa. I got out the electronics to test the servos. When I plugged in the battery, though, something crackled as I pluged it in, then nothing. Thinking it was a shotty sotter joint, I took the esc to school with me and re-sottered it. I just got home and pluged it in, and it does the same thing, just a crackle and the light on the receiver glows faintly for a fraction of a second, before the plug is fully connected. I think it may be that the connectors are not making contact, but I don't know. The esc has ABSOLUTELY no reason to be shot. It's a 30a with a 1300 3s, so that should be good. Also, there has been no smoke, which is what I hear happens when you cook an esc. Any advice/ diagnosis? Thanks!

 

[g00runner]

is the battery fully charged. you said you put the stuff away and just pulled it out so throwing the battery on the charger and verifying the voltage might be a good place to start.

 

[Chessien]

Yea, forgot to mention that. I checked it and each cell was putting out 4.7 volts, so plenty of battery.

 

[quorneng]

Chessian
A crackle as you plug a battery in is normal. Its just the capacitors on the ESC charging up but it can be quite alarming.
I hope your LiPo was only putting out 3.7 V per cell not 4.7!

However an LED glowing dimly for a second and then going out sounds rather more serious.
Could you have connected something up the wrong way round? Possibly the ESC plug into the receiver?
What battery to ESC connectors are you using?

 

[Chessien]

Im using EC3's quorneng. If the crackle is just the capacitors loading up, I probably have the plug going from the esc to the receiver backwards, although I swear I checked it and it was the right way around.

 

[g00runner]

are you using hv batteries? if so you need to make sure you are also using hv esc's. if the esc is getting too much voltage it will cut out to try and save itself.

 

[Chessien]

Nope, just a basic eflite 3s that comes with a horizon bnf. I checked and the white (signal) wire is facing toward the reciver.

 

[quorneng]

Chessian
I presume if you have the motor connected there are no arming beeps. This would suggest that either the ESC is not seeing the battery voltage (bad battery to ESC connection somewhere) or it is not seeing the receiver (bad ESC to radio connection) or it has indeed failed.
Does anything happen if you 'waggle' all the leads when the battery is connected? This can identify any 'dry' soldered joint.
I like to bench test my motors and ESCs using a servo tester and simple screw block connectors like this.

It does away with the radio altogether.

How did you check the battery voltage? I have had a battery fail simply because one main lead broke away inside the battery. The balance leads remained connected so with a simple balance lead charger it charged as normal.

Ultimately by far the simplest way of checking an ESC is to use another but before you do make absolutely sure all the connections are the right way round or you could end up with another dead one!

 

[Chessien]

I just pulled another plane I have out of winter storage and pluged the battery in. The plane powered on, initlized and ran up fine, so the problem is definitely with the esc. Just to confirm it, I'm going to pull the esc out of the other plane, plug it into the power system for the versa and see if it works. If so, im just going to order another esc. Waggling the leads on both the battery and esc did nothing as well.