Surge with "The Beef"

mbastian2490

Cap'n Crunch
Hey All,

I have always flown Glow Nitro planes and have ventured into the electric world. I purchased my first swapable the FT-3D. This is a great little plane. I am having some issues with "The Beef" electronics package from lazertoyz. I have everything set up and my plane is flying great. The issue is I keep getting a surge in the motor when at max power. If i go to max power the prop will stop and surge almost as if it is hitting something knocking back and then hitting it again. I read on one of the spitfire threads that someone else had this happen, but the fix was not listed in the posts. They were suggesting that it may be an ESC issue but I just need some help. I am beating my head into the wall trying to figure this electric stuff out.

Much Thanks to anyone who can help!!!
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
I believe it was a timing issue...is there a programming guide that came with the ESC?

Most ESC's are able to be programmed with the radio, or I believe that there is a programming card for the lazertoyz ESC's to make it easier...
 
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mbastian2490

Cap'n Crunch
Yes, there is a guide, but I do not understand what the problem is. Therefor I do not know what to reset or change.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
Try changing the motor timing...I think it's default is medium and it needs to be high, IIRC.
 

mbastian2490

Cap'n Crunch
Still have not had a chance to mess with it. I've had too much work for fun! I'll try to find out this weekend and let you know what I have found out.

Thanks
 

mbastian2490

Cap'n Crunch
Hey there xuzme720,

That worked great! I reprogrammed my ESC motor timing to high and the surge stopped immediately! From dead stick to full throttle no problem! Thank you so much for the help!!!
 

Jaxx

Posted a thousand or more times
You may also want to try it on the “low” setting as well to see how that works. If it works well on “low”, you may want to leave it there, because “high” it theoretically the most aggressive option. It works the motor harder than the other two setting. If you really don't need it on the “high” setting, I would opt for one of the other two, and since “medium” doesn't work for you, “low” would be the only other potential option.
 

mbastian2490

Cap'n Crunch
Thanks for the tip. I think I might try that. After 3 or 4 flights the ESC started beeping continuously even with a fresh battery. It also caused me to crash on my last flight it cut off my power and input full left rudder, any ideas on that? I do not know what happened but i am still trying to figure out this electric stuff.

Thanks
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
Sounds a bit like a receiver brownout. If the RX isn't sending signals to the ESC it will beep forever and never arm. Also, other than the power it provides, the ESC shouldn't affect the rudder. However if the Rx has a power brownout, the ESC should go to idle (or not arm if powering up) and if the servo has enough power it might move all the way to one side.

Why this would happen on a full battery? Dunno. the BEC in the ESC might be failing or the power/ground leads on the ESC's control line might be damaged. The smart parts of the ESC usually have no control over a linear regulator in the BEC -- it's always on -- but the timing puses might be getting past the filters on the power lines and confusing the regulator (I doubt it, but could be). Either way, I'd treat that ESC with suspicion.
 

mbastian2490

Cap'n Crunch
The strange thing about it was I had 3 or 4 great flights that day. Then out of the blue on my last flight about a minute into it, it started beeping the power immediately died off and that's when the mysterious full left rudder happened. After this I tried a fresh battery and when I would turn on the transmitter it would be fine until i tried to power up at this point it would shut the motor off, input full left rudder and start beeping. It was like it was getting a signal glitch and then it would be ok for a few seconds then back to acting up again. After i went home i tried to play around and see what was happening and now i just have a constant beeping. I think I am gong to try to reset everything to default and rebind. Do you think that would make any difference?
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
It's worth a try but if it were mine, That ESC would be suspect and I wouldn't put it in anything I cared to crash. If you can figure it out, have a go, but now it sounds like the BEC is punky.
 

tramsgar

Senior Member
If you have an external BEC available try installing that and pull out the red lead on the ESC's signal wire to the receiver to disable the ESC's internal BEC. If that works, just keep it that way =).
 

mbastian2490

Cap'n Crunch
Hey Guys, been a minute since I've had the chance to play with my RC. I am going to get a new ESC all together and think I am going to go with a bigger one i had a 20amp and my motor has a max output of 26amp. I think that I over did it and that is why my ESC started having all of these issues. I am thinking of going with a 50amp ESC. Would that be to large for my motor?

Thanks
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
If you can tolerate the extra cost and weight, over sizing your ESC has no other disadvantages . . .

. . . not to say those things aren't bad.
 

NewZee

Member
Hey Guys, been a minute since I've had the chance to play with my RC. I am going to get a new ESC all together and think I am going to go with a bigger one i had a 20amp and my motor has a max output of 26amp. I think that I over did it and that is why my ESC started having all of these issues. I am thinking of going with a 50amp ESC. Would that be to large for my motor?

Thanks

in my opinion a 30A ESC would be fine, and handle anything your 26A motor could throw at it, it may be a little cheaper and lighter than the 50A as well. but as craftydan suggests there would not be a big downside to using a 50A and may give you a little headroom if you ever wanted to use it on a bigger motor at some point?