ESC burnup - was it my CAMERA?

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Can anyone help me understand this?

I have the radiolink AT10 Tx. I'm using the the r10D Rx .

I hooked this Camera designed for the Tiny Whoop directly into the receiver. Hooked a 2S battery in, I smoked up my 12A ESC BL Heli (came with the emax 1806 2280kV motors), after only 1 test of the system. and nearly did it again to the next ESC. It was causing the Rx to "brown-out" I suspect - as when the camera was plugged in the "all powered up" LED stopped glowing.

After looking at the specs on the camera (2.9-5.5V Power with 215mA draw) compared with the reciever, 5V 36-48 mA I think I might have the culprit. Except... I had an EF-01 with a 360mA draw hooked in the same way and never had an issue... :confused:

I used the setup today without the camera and had no overheating issues.

What gives?
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I just looked at the link and that "Y" splitter has me scratching my head. Is that a pass thru for power directly from the battery? If so I would suggest you make sure the polarity is correct as it passes thru the camera. You could or they could have reversed it in that chain somehow.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
The splitter is a pass thru for power from the battery. This way no need to solder your camera power to the board. I went back an took a good look at the polarity on the power link (changing from micro JST 2-pin to regular JST and the wire polarity is backwards from Male to Female. I can't see the polarity on the camera (that thing is SO tiny.)

Now I'm paranoid. I plug in the camera and feel the ESC as it gets hot. I'm worried it's going to burn up. I'm constantly thinking, it's too hot! so I disconnect the camera. I REALLY want to fly FPV though.

Thank you for encouragement. Is the Direction of Current important because the chip act like a diode and limit current to one-way and when give too much or the wrong directions the resistance is nearly infinite therefore heat is the same and then as Bruce calls it magic smoke?
(sorry for the run-on question.)
 

French

Construire Voler S'écraser Répéter
A standard 12A BLHELI ESC should have a 1A BEC.
According to Amazon, that camera pulls 215mA.

It sounds like you flipped the polarity.