CHECK SOLDER JOINTS ON 30AMP BLHeli ESC's if you use them.

Major_Rea

Junior Member
fail-point_01a.png

Have you ever had a BLHeli ESC, ever had it on a craft and lost power in-flight?
Last week I had that happen, the result was a hard impact crash, it did cause some damage; to my FT Explorer CORE but over all nothing I can't fix.. Had It been on my racer250 quad or one of my other craft, well...
Not sure that would have been the same..This could have failed in a long range flight, or never at all.. But it did fail..

The failure looks to me like a bad solder connection, see image.
The really odd thing is that the wires are just barely on the contact points of the XT-60.
I always place my wires down into the tube after tinning both the connector and the wires.
These come with a nice heat sink and I did not pull the jacket back and check them. I installed the ESC, and did my systems test, even used it on the bench to test my new APM 2.6x
I had no idea that the wire would fail in-flight.
And I am just wanting to put a heads-up to anyone who has one of these on anything they fly.
As you can see the failed connection is clean as can be. The only sign it ever had anything one it is a slight tint in the gold color on the back side.
If BLHeli is going to lay there wires that close to the edge they need to grind that area so the PAD is ruff, so there solder has a better chance at bonding.
If you guys want I can post more images of the failed connection point.. But I think the image attached is clear. And yes, I removed the negative sides heat shrink tubing and found the same edge mounted wire, I guess ether or both could have failed. One did but then it only takes having one of these wire to fail to cause a crash..
I am just glad no property or lives where damaged or injured.