Help! Gremlin ESC Incapacitation.

[Qwenther]

I have bought the G V2 Power pack for making a gremlin with a TJ Williams frame. After Frying the first ESC on motor start up in the programing phase while connected to betaflight, having it replaced and now having another dead ESC after a slightly hard landing, I'm looking for alternatives. The same issue happened on both escs, where one of the three wires for one of the motors somehow shorted and fried that corner of the board. So, now I've got 2 smoked ESCs and 2 perfectly fine flight controllers. What I want to know is; 1) is there an alternative ESC that is compatible with the 2 FullspeedRC flight cons I have that will work better (I'm hoping there is.)? And, 2) what ESC/flight con setup would work better with the parts I have? The camera setup I have is one of those 3 in 1 fpv things for tiny whoops you get off of amazon for 20$.

 

[PsyBorg]

Could you get us a picture or two of your build. If using a cell phone turn it to landscape mode (sideways) please. This way we can see if there might be an issue with soldering work, or maybe potentially shorting on the carbon frame, or other possible things we might see vs it being a hardware issue. Try to show as much detail as you can on the problem area. Also did the damage occur on the same placement of both esc's.

Then it should be easy to provide a solution that will best benefit you and your gear.

 

[Qwenther]

Sorry, I kinda already disassembled the thing. To answer the question on if the ESCs fried in the same spot, they did not. The first board fried on motor startup on motor position 3 (likely a factory defect.), where as on the other board, after the rough landing one wire was loose which likely cause the short. That short happened on motor position 2. The ESC, the carbon fiber frame, and all other electronics were thoroughly isolated by electrical and double sided tape. I also triple checked all solder joints with a multimeter in both cases and they all came out good, and THEN ... lol. It appears the flight cons are still in perfectly usable condition, if I can get another ESC. They are the Fullspeedrc ESC/Flight controller stack from the FT store.

 

[Qwenther]

Also, If there are any recommendations for standard single motor ESCs for these motors, I'm interested to know for another project.

 

[PsyBorg]

Did you use the gummies supplied with the fc / esc to mount the stack? Carbon fiber can conduct electricity. It may not become a direct short but could cause high resistance creating an over current situation. Same thing using un insulated / isolated metal screws to mount electronics. Also be sure motor mounting screws dont reach up and touch the motor coils. Thats a big cause of motor / esc deaths.

As for a replacement esc.. The hglrc stacks I have done recent builds with seem pretty solid and reliable. For single motor esc's in that size I have used the emax bullets. Nothing higher then 12 amp though. The bigger ones I tried didn't seem too robust on noisy systems. 15 to 40 amp Id go with the hglrc 4 in ones. anything bigger I use Dal Rocket series 4 in 1 or Speedix esc's for single motor builds for hard core bashing and speed.

 

[Qwenther]

I tried using the nylon things and it didn't fit originally with all the stuff crammed into that space. Although, I could swap the top plate stands for something taller. Thanks for the info on the carbon fiber be conductive, I thought I had insulated the components pretty well with double sided tape. Apparently I need to better isolate the electronics. So, will any of the ESCs you listed work with the old FCs I have or are they junk bait? I'd like to not throw away good parts if possible. As for the single Escs, that might be for an attempt at micro BDFs for a jet or other.

 

[PsyBorg]

If you KNOW for sure the FC's are good then yes that long connector should work between and FC and 4 in one esc with that same connector. You just need to be sure the pinouts match. It may require relocating pins IN one of the connectors between brands but thats easy enough to do.

Also you CAN use a 4 in one in a plane with 4 up 8 motors if you need more then one. Just need to use correct wire diameters to handle the current draw properly.