Suppo 20A ESC and Suppo 2208/14 motor problem.

[Imanewb]

I could use some help on this one. I am running the Suppo 20A ESC and Suppo 2208/14 motor and the motor is cutting out on me. At first I thought it was a bad battery but I connected a low battery alarm and noticed something odd. I will post a video to help describe the issue better.

Symptoms:
On 3s 500ma battery within seconds of take off at just above half throttle the low battery indicator will beep and I have noticed reducing throttle will allow me to coast back to land but if i increase throttle or leav it I will loose power completely.

On 2s 850ma I can safely do just above 3/4 throttle and have been able to go full throttle for maneuvers.

Batteries are less than a 2 week old charged and only charged with a Turnigy Accucel-6 with maybe 3 flights on each. I have only balance charged them and storage charged them every time after use.

The setup in video is:
Suppo 20A ESC
Suppo 2208/14 motor
GWS Propeller (EP-8043)
Battery (Turnigy 1000mah 3s)

Thank you in advance for the help, I am really stumped here.

Video of problem. If I continued to run motor past alarm it would have cut off but I didn't want to in case that's bad for the battery.

 

[Imanewb]

Should this be in the motor section? Sorry If so.

 

[Imanewb]

Not sure if this helps but I just balance charged the 3s 500 mah turnigy lipo and it was set to charge to 12.6 and when tested after completing (via voltmeter) the charge was only at 12.49.

**EDIT**
Did some research and found that the accucel 6 has a hidden calibration function so I calibrated it and that should resolve the voltage mismatch but I doubt that slight difference could cause the problem... This is going to drive me nuts.

 

[Imanewb]

anyone?

 

[Craftydan]

Patience Ima! Half of us have been asleep . . .

from your description it sounds like the ESC's LVC is cutting in, and your battery monitor corroberates it's from voltage sag.

What C rating is the battery (not sure that matters -- a 1AH pack can source the motor's 12A max easy even down to 15C).

An 8x4.5 prop is on the long side of a 1450kv motor, but not unbearably so. Is the motor getting warm, very warm or hot? warm is okay, very warm points to problems, hot is bad. If it's getting hot double check that the motor can spin freely -- not sure how this motor is set up, but the rear shaft might be rubbing against the mounting, or a bad bearing might be binding.

The battery pack *might* be bad -- when you put it on to recharge, what voltage does it start? (while charging press the right arrow and the accucell6 should show the individual cell voltages) It should stop in the 4.2v/cell range . . . but how many mAh does it report it put back in? (I don't recommend using this to measure flight times, but if you go from 3.7v/cell-> 4.2v/cell and only put in 30% of the rated capacity, the battery isn't healthy -- you should be getting closer to 80%)

 

[Imanewb]

Sorry I know I lack in the patience department...

To answer your questions:
Both 3s batteries are 20c - 30c the 2s is 25c
The motor gets only slightly above room temp
I will have to check what the starting voltage and how many mah it puts back in after charging.

 

[lorencv]

Have you tried a different motor?

 

[Imanewb]

I haven't but I have another suppo of the same size that hasn't been crashed yet I can try. I will have to try that when I get home.

 

[SamuraiClam]

If you got the Suppo motor and ESC from Altitude Hobbies give Garret a call. If it is a motor or ESC problem he will get you squared away.

 

[Ron B]

If a different motor does the same thing I think I would look at a bad esc as batteries are fairly new and have been balance charged at all times.
Make sure the esc is getting plenty of ventilation.

 

[ruud]

Dumb question, but is the ESC configured for the right battery type? (See http://www.altitudehobbies.com/suppo_10-40A_manual.pdf)

 

[Craftydan]

Most non-multirotor ESCs are pre configured for LIPO, whereas those slated to go on rotorcraft will be set to NiCad/NiMH.

The difference? The Low Voltage Cutoff point -- The LVC Lipo settign has it quite a bit higher than the NiMh. That's bad considering how much more voltage sag you get out of 3-8 motors drawing from the same battery as opposed to one motor. The workaround is to change the setting so the battery can sag more under load without the ESCs panicing and cutting off.

If you're flying fixed wing, and have a good "It's time to land" indication on your battery capacity (timer, voltage alarm, telemetry), it doesn't matter . . . Especially since you should never use the LVC for "time to land" in the first place. Be kind to your lipos -- Don't let the LVC take over

 

[Imanewb]

Dumb question, but is the ESC configured for the right battery type? (See http://www.altitudehobbies.com/suppo_10-40A_manual.pdf)

Not a dumb question at all, I did double check and re-set the esc to be in lipo mode and the problem still existed.

 

[Imanewb]

If you got the Suppo motor and ESC from Altitude Hobbies give Garret a call. If it is a motor or ESC problem he will get you squared away.

Yes the other motor does the same thing, My gut tells me that the motor is pulling more amps than the ESC can handle even though it should not. I am going to pick up a voltage analyzer and investigate whats happening electronically I think.