ESC caught fire!

[Arsonistwithmatches]

Hello

I purchased an esc from banggood to use with my electric ducted fan. However, when i began pushing the throttle up, it caught fire. This is the esc https://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-...r-p-50621.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=UK

and this is the fan

https://uk.banggood.com/64mm-Ducted...tCh3fBwpYEAQYAiABEgLzi_D_BwE&cur_warehouse=CN

Faulty product, or is there a set esc for ducted fans?

 

[PsyBorg]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Banggood... The name says it all.

Look at the motor specs for the EDF unit. It should tell you the rated esc needed.

I would guess you either got the wrong size esc, the esc was a knock off and just weak, or the motor is bad. You can and should check the motor with a multimeter as its a high probability when the esc went it took the motor with it and or the opposite.

 

[Merv]

Looks like this is a 3S setup. What battery were you using?

 

[cranialrectosis]

What lipo did you use?

2S, 3S, 4S, 5S, 6S??

That fan is rated for 28A on a 3S lipo.

If you used a higher voltage lipo....

 

[FastCrash45]

Those esc's are hit or miss. I bought 2 and the first one went pop and was dead, the other is still in use but on an 1806 motor. It won't get near the 30amp rating. They are cheapo knock offs in MHO.

 

[Hondo76251]

Agreed, I bought a lot of those things for a while. They are very hit and miss. Since they do seem to like enjoy taking the motor with them when they fail I rarely use them anymore...

 

[Arsonistwithmatches]

3s 2200 mah lipo.

 

[cranialrectosis]

So, bad solder joint or a bad ESC.

Dunno if this would have helped you, but I connect a smokestopper every first time I connect a lipo after soldering.

 

[Merv]

3s 2200 mah lipo.

Then it sounds like a bad ESC, I would ask for a refund. I have had good luck with refunds from Banggood for faulty stuff, everyone can have faulty stuff. Only other possibility, you soldered the battery plug backwards.

 

[mrjdstewart]

banggood will refund you. i know everything hates them, but i have never had issues other than those i expected. when you want cheap stuff, you get cheap stuff, and that stuff can fail, it's cheap.

with that said, you can get really good esc from banggood and for a great price. you have to solder leads but.... LINKY

laters,

me

 

[PsyBorg]

Then it sounds like a bad ESC, I would ask for a refund. I have had good luck with refunds from Banggood for faulty stuff, everyone can have faulty stuff. Only other possibility, you soldered the battery plug backwards.

reversed polarity would have been insta pop no spin up at all.

 

[sprzout]

So, bad solder joint or a bad ESC.

Dunno if this would have helped you, but I connect a smokestopper every first time I connect a lipo after soldering.

This may sound like an odd question, but would a smoke stopper blow if you had the polarity reversed? I recently saw a guy at the field who smoked an ESC because he managed to force a red JST plug in backwards (yet another reason why I'm hesitant to use them) and it triggered that thought in my head...

 

[Merv]

reversed polarity would have been insta pop no spin up at all.

That’s right. I didn’t realize there was a spin up.

 

[Arsonistwithmatches]

The EDF is still working fine. Used another esc and it works. Was just a bad esc; need trauma compensation from banggood.

 

[Hondo76251]

Don't get me wrong, I actually like Banggood. I still use them all the time but there is a bit of a learning curve. Some of the stuff is decent quality for very low cost, others, well, sometimes a deal can be too good to be true...

I've still got a few of these around...

Some worked better than others...

but the worst part was how much power they use for how little power they put out.

IDK, maybe this will go in some foam board combat project! lol

 

[evranch]

I've never smoked an ESC, but never bought one from Banggood. Good ESCs are so cheap anyways, there is no reason to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Turnigy Plush is a cheap ESC that is nearly indestructible, so that's pretty much what I use exclusively.

@sprzout, a smoke stopper is just a current limiter to prevent anything from, well, smoking. However the current that can pass a light bulb is still easily high enough to damage electronics. If a device can be damaged by reverse polarity, the odds are good it will still be damaged with a smoke stopper. It just won't pop in your face. It might blow up the next time you connect it without the smoke stopper, though.

 

[Arsonistwithmatches]

I've never smoked an ESC, but never bought one from Banggood. Good ESCs are so cheap anyways, there is no reason to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Turnigy Plush is a cheap ESC that is nearly indestructible, so that's pretty much what I use exclusively.

@sprzout, a smoke stopper is just a current limiter to prevent anything from, well, smoking. However the current that can pass a light bulb is still easily high enough to damage electronics. If a device can be damaged by reverse polarity, the odds are good it will still be damaged with a smoke stopper. It just won't pop in your face. It might blow up the next time you connect it without the smoke stopper, though.

In uni atm. Trying to get a job on the side to fund my rc ventures, but $17 for an esc is very expensive .

 

[Hondo76251]

In uni atm. Trying to get a job on the side to fund my rc ventures, but $17 for an esc is very expensive .

Send kids off to college and they come back speaking less of the English language. Here I thought it was some clever latin phrase I've never heard of but no...
in university at the moment... 😅🤣😄

But hey, Age quod agis... 😉

I've had pretty good luck with HobbyWing stuff on banggood, not bottom of the barrel but a bit cheaper...

In my experience you can get away with that cheap stuff if you dont go past about 75% of what its rated for.
If it says 30, I use it like a 20. If it says 4s, I dont go over 3s...

 

[Bricks]

These ESC`s https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33003398466.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.5afd2e0efPcTKG were some of the cheapest i could find so i ordered 4 of them and the 2 I have soldered up and used have been very good. Could be luck of the draw but so far have been good using one on a 3518 1200KV on 4 S has been solid, this is the biggest motor I have hooked to one. This motor pushes the ESC pretty hard as it will bump to 38 amps on 13X4 prop on 4S running 4 9 gram servos the BEC seems to be holding up to the task.

 

[evranch]

In uni atm. Trying to get a job on the side to fund my rc ventures, but $17 for an esc is very expensive .

I guess everything is relative. Spektrum or E-Flite 30A ESCs are well over $50. When you are already at $17, saving $7 is pretty irrelevant in my budget. But in Canada that's the price of a single pint of beer at the bar these days.

And you should have seen what these power systems were worth when I was in school myself! A friend and I were working on our own 3-phase brushless, sensorless motor driver as a hobby project. It was fussy and more like a combustion engine as you had to give the motor a flip to get it going, and if you throttled it to zero there was no guarantee it would start again. Now the whole package is worth less than $20 and you just throw it in and fly.

In my opinion a quality ESC is an investment as it can survive almost any crash. As stated, I've never lost an ESC. Burn up 2 $10 ESCs and you are better off with the $17 unit.

@Bricks those ESCs certainly are temptingly cheap for certain applications. For $5 each a guy could fill the back seat with combat planes for a day of crashing.