ESC Smoke

Griffindor said:
do you have any like really strong and energy consuming motors, or servos? And did you use them ? Sorry for asking so many questions.
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Nope, mini servos, but keep in mind, this happened a few seconds after I plugged in the battery, I was not running the motor or servos, so I believe that I must have some connection wrong, or fault equipment.
 
Sidewinder89 said:
Nope, mini servos, but keep in mind, this happened a few seconds after I plugged in the battery, I was not running the motor or servos, so I believe that I must have some connection wrong, or fault equipment.
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Then just get a new esc. No need for a new battery. The esc burnt out so get another.
 
Sidewinder89 said:
When I connected the battery, the reciever battery was not connected.
Click to expand...

So you had a seperate receiver battery too?

e.g. a battery connected to the ESC and another one to the receiver?

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The most likely cause of your problem is that you had something shorted to ground that shouldn't be.

It is possible that you may have inadvertently caused a short by plugging something in backward, or "over" one set of pins.

Also reversing one of the batteries ( in a multi battery environment ) can do likewise.


White smoke or smoke of any color, or even a "burned" smell is invariable fatal for the ESC.


It is also relatively easy to draw too much current through an ESC, which will also burn it out. Usually the heat build-up is so quick that the solder points will actually melt, when this happens, then result in the whole thing going up in smoke...

I have a couple of blackened 80 Amp ESC's in case anyone is interested?! :D
 
opjose said:
So you had a seperate receiver battery too?

e.g. a battery connected to the ESC and another one to the receiver?

---

The most likely cause of your problem is that you had something shorted to ground that shouldn't be.

It is possible that you may have inadvertently caused a short by plugging something in backward, or "over" one set of pins.

Also reversing one of the batteries ( in a multi battery environment ) can do likewise.


White smoke or smoke of any color, or even a "burned" smell is invariable fatal for the ESC.


It is also relatively easy to draw too much current through an ESC, which will also burn it out. Usually the heat build-up is so quick that the solder points will actually melt, when this happens, then result in the whole thing going up in smoke...

I have a couple of blackened 80 Amp ESC's in case anyone is interested?! :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured I needed a new one. Thanks for all your help. Unfortunetly, I still don't know what I may have crossed, everything seems to go where its supposed to. I may end up taking it to a hobby shop and have them anyalze it. Or, if you think it would help, I could post some pictures.
 
Did you get a prebuilt battery pack, or one with a connector already attached? Make double sure that the battery connector isn't reversed -- I've seen this happen many times with Deans (people ignore the +'s and -'s on the connector).
 
Pictures

Here are some pictures of the setup...
 

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BladeCP02 said:
Did you get a prebuilt battery pack, or one with a connector already attached? Make double sure that the battery connector isn't reversed -- I've seen this happen many times with Deans (people ignore the +'s and -'s on the connector).
Click to expand...

The battery was prebuilt by eflite.
 
As he said, the Deans connector has a "T" shape. The top horizontal part of the "T" is the positive, the vertical part is the negative.

That plane is a wonderful flyer I have one.

Any 30 to 40A ESC should work fine... I've used some e-cheapo Asian ( www.hobbycity.com ) ESC's on it without any problems.

What motor do you have in there?

Check out your receiver... connect any standard glow battery pack to any of the open channel terminals and make sure that all of the surfaces move properly.

I keep older batteries that still work, around for this purpose... if I blow the battery I don't really care...

If everything does work, you'll have to do is replace the ESC.

The receiver has a separate battery plug, be VERY careful with it. It can be relatively easy to insert the battery connector backward if it is not keyed with more than a bevel.

I believe the E-Flite ESC you are using has it's own BEC, so you really don't need a separate battery pack with it. If you plugged one in, this may have caused a problem especially if you first did not disconnect the ESC's power to the RX or disable it on the RX itself ( some have jumpers to do this ... ).
 
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The e-flite esc has been known to cause problems. Contact Horizon Hobby and let them know what happened. They are very good at customer service and more than likely send you another ESC. While on the phone with them express concern that the motor may have caused the ESC failure. They will probably replace both.
Good luck.
 
opjose said:
As he said, the Deans connector has a "T" shape. The top horizontal part of the "T" is the positive, the vertical part is the negative.

That plane is a wonderful flyer I have one.

Any 30 to 40A ESC should work fine... I've used some e-cheapo Asian ( www.hobbycity.com ) ESC's on it without any problems.

What motor do you have in there?

Check out your receiver... connect any standard glow battery pack to any of the open channel terminals and make sure that all of the surfaces move properly.

I keep older batteries that still work, around for this purpose... if I blow the battery I don't really care...

If everything does work, you'll have to do is replace the ESC.

The receiver has a separate battery plug, be VERY careful with it. It can be relatively easy to insert the battery connector backward if it is not keyed with more than a bevel.

I believe the E-Flite ESC you are using has it's own BEC, so you really don't need a separate battery pack with it. If you plugged one in, this may have caused a problem especially if you first did not disconnect the ESC's power to the RX or disable it on the RX itself ( some have jumpers to do this ... ).
Click to expand...
\

Thanks for all the info...

I've got a Park 450 Brushless Outrunner which was recommended for this plane.
When I bound the reciever to the transmitter, I also set up the flaperons (two alieron servos). I tested the servos with the transmitter battery and all the servos worked the way they should.
When I connected the battery, I did not have the reciever battery connected (which I believe is correct), so there was no other source of power other than the main 11.1v battery.
 
Sidewinder89 said:
How would I check this? (and by RX you mean the reciever, right?)
Click to expand...

Yup RX= receiver, TX = Transmitter in forum "speak"... it seems.

To check the RX, hook up a standard glow battery to it, that has a charge. Just plug it into any of the unused channel slots and the battery will provide power to the RX and the servos.

You should then be able to move the TX sticks around and have the plane respond normally, except for the throttle of course.

This will help assure that the receiver is still OK, ( and that you will not have to try to convince E-Flite to replace it for you! ).
 
Ummmm! Sorry, a glow battery is only 1.2-1.7volts. Not enough to power the receiver. Use the flight pack battery hooked to the reciever and check servo movement. (flight pack battery is either 4 cell or 5 cell 4.8 or 6.0 volts.) No lipo connected, and no connection from ESC to the throttle channnel.
 
Alright, ive determined the esc was defective, but everything else is alright. Im either going to call e flite or email them and see if I can get a new one.
 
Jimmy Newton said:
Ummmm! Sorry, a glow battery is only 1.2-1.7volts. Not enough to power the receiver. Use the flight pack battery hooked to the reciever and check servo movement. (flight pack battery is either 4 cell or 5 cell 4.8 or 6.0 volts.) No lipo connected, and no connection from ESC to the throttle channnel.
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I think what op meant by "glow" battery, was not a driver batt for a glow plug (1.5v), but rather the battery pac required for "glow" airplanes and most gliders (flight pac), without an esc.
But i would be impressed if you could plug a glow driver into your reciever. :p
crashed
 
Yup I mispoke ( there's that dyslexia again... )...

I meant an RX battery for a glow plane.
 
my guess is that something shorted
when an electric thing smokes...something is 99% sure to be wrong

a similar thing happened to me once with a glow plane
a wire was between the wing and the fusalauge and i said well no bigee
well after i turned off the plane smoke porued out of the cowling
i thought that fuel hit the muffler and i waited a sec to see wat happened
i take the wing off and i look at the battery and it is maga hot (the reason that i took the wing off was so i could see why the servos werent working)
the wire that was hanging out was the wire from the switch to the battery and where it was out the plastic has rubbed off
so the battery, switch, and wires (the servos were spared) were shot :-(
 
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