Solved ESC overheating. Please help!

Superman11497

New member
Hey all. I'm fairly new to the hobby and not quite sure I totally understand how the esc works. I just built the FT simple cub and I have two LED light strips in the wings. I went to test the lights and after a minute or two the ESC started to get super hot. I have a 30 amp ESC, and the product details for the lights say they should only pull 1 amp. The only things I had connected to the receiver were the ESC and the lights. Nothing else that would be pulling excess amps. I did have a 1200 kv motor connected to the ESC, but I didn't have it running or anything. Does anyone have any ideas on what's happening? What can I do to fix it? I wouldn't have thought that 1 amp would overheat an ESC rated for 30 amps
 

speedy7385

Active member
Get yourself an ESC that use switching BEC, they run a lot cooler than the cheaper ESC that use linear BEC.
And get good air flow to the ESC helps too.
 

Bifi.baarlo

Well-known member
Hey all. I'm fairly new to the hobby and not quite sure I totally understand how the esc works. I just built the FT simple cub and I have two LED light strips in the wings. I went to test the lights and after a minute or two the ESC started to get super hot. I have a 30 amp ESC, and the product details for the lights say they should only pull 1 amp. The only things I had connected to the receiver were the ESC and the lights. Nothing else that would be pulling excess amps. I did have a 1200 kv motor connected to the ESC, but I didn't have it running or anything. Does anyone have any ideas on what's happening? What can I do to fix it? I wouldn't have thought that 1 amp would overheat an ESC rated for 30 amps
The build in bec is not rated for 30 amp, that is for the motor output, maybe it is a 1 or 2 amp bec, than 1 amp continuous is a lot.
 

Superman11497

New member
The build in bec is not rated for 30 amp, that is for the motor output, maybe it is a 1 or 2 amp bec, than 1 amp continuous is a lot.
That makes sense. The ESC says it has a 3 A BEC in it, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe the lights are pulling more than the advertised 1 amp.
 

Superman11497

New member
Update. I changed out my ESC to one that says it has a built in SBEC, and it runs great. No overheating. Thanks for your help, guys!