Goldwing-RCU

I have a GWS Slow stick and the stock GWS ESC & motor & prop. My problem is the motor runs great for a minute or so and stops. It takes 10 or 15 seconds and it will starts up again. Sometimes I have to land and seconds later I take off again and again the same cycle. Moving the throttle up & down does not seem to make any difference.

Any ideas would be great! (New to Electric)

Thanks,

Sheldon

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

Something is overheating. Does the motor, esc or battery feel hot after it cuts off?
What battery are you using? Are you sure it's fully charged?
Is anything causing the motor to bind? This will greatly increase the amps and could cause the esc to shut down the motor.
If the amp draw if too high the esc will shut off the motor.
If the battery voltage gets too low it will also shut it off.

Goldwing-RCU

I'm using the stock battery which is a GWS 7.2V 600mAh NiCAD (I have two - both the same) they are fully charged with my Triton. (Love that thing) The motor has no binding and the gears feel smooth. I dont know about the heat, I'll check today as we just glided for 10 or 15 seconds and kept flying.

Any ideas?

This is all low power, low current stuff.

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

Puzzling. Of course GWS isn't the most high quality stuff, so I guess something could be defective.
What is the voltage of the freshly charged batteries? Should be 8 or more volts. Just wondering if one of the cells could be bad. This would reduce the voltage and cause it to drop in flight and trip the esc. Seems doubtful that both battery packs would have this conditon though. Can you check their voltage with a volt meter?
Maybe someone else has some ideas.
Check batteries first. Then try another motor. Then suspect the esc.

Goldwing-RCU

They charge up to about 8.6 VDC

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

The batteries sound okay. It will cut off if the batteries get below 5 volts. This could happen if something is draining them really fast, like a high amp draw.
When the esc gets too hot or draws more amps than it's designed for it will shut off the motor.
When it cools back down it comes on again.
Could try a smaller prop to lower amp draw if you have one. Flight performance will suffer, but it might tell you if that's the problem.

Time Pilot

I'm having a similar problem with my Slow Stick. Hitec 55 servos, Berg Stamp 4 Rx, & a GWS 300 ESC. I know the problem isn't the batteries as the motor will cut off on 2 different packs.

I don't think it's the Rx, as Berg has a 'hit-o-meter' built into it, and there is no indication of hits in spite of the cut offs.

I'm left to think it is the ESC as all parts come down quite cool and there is no binding in my gearbox either.

Still frustrating. Last night I was 1/2 throttle, about to hit the throttle and up elevator to pop over a 45 degree embankment when the motor cut out. The proverbial bent shaft and prop....[&o]

Goldwing-RCU

Okay, I have a few more clues but still no answers. It runs anywhere from 30 sec to a minute and kills. Pull the throttle down to full off count to 5 and go to full throttle and your flying again for another 30 seconds to a minute. The longest was about 3 minutes. The ESC is hardly even warm. The motor is warm to the touch but not hot. Any Ideas?

Thanks,

Sheldon

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

Might want to try a bigger esc.
Castle Creations Pixie 20, about the best you can get.

Time Pilot

What size ESC are you using? If you're using the 300, you should have more than enough and shouldn't need to upgrade.

The reason you get some more time when you pull the throttle down to zero and wait, is because the ESC is resetting itself.

Let us know what you try and how it pans out.

sierra gold

This sounds like the classic case of the ESC low voltage (LVC) kicking in. I think that 600 mah packs are probably too small for this application. I never ran with anything but 1050 mah KAN packs so I have no experience with these. I suspect that the current draw of the motor is pulling down the pack voltage to less than 5 volts. It will recover when the throttle is closed and allow the motor to run briefly at less than full throttle.

I would try to borrow a larger pack - 800-1000 mah sized cells and see if the problem doesn't go away.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

Definitely the LVC. If you have a voltmeter, have a friend run the plane up to full throttle while you touch the two motor terminals with the voltmeter. You'll be able to watch the voltage drop quickly to 5 Volts or so.

600mAh NiCds should be plenty even if it has an EPS400C drive. That's pretty important information, actually. What drives do these Slow Sticks have?

With an EPS300C or EPS350C drive, I would suspect a dud motor. This is also a possibility for an EPS400C drive.
On an EPS400C, I would suspect that the ESC is undersized. What ESCs are you using?
In any case, the battery could have a dud cell or two. Charge the pack up and leave it for a few hours. Come back and measure the voltage. If it falls signifigantly, you have a pack with a bad cell in it.

vindicator

Be sure of the motor that you have. Some of the SlowSticks are being sent with the 400 sized motor. If its the 400, it could be overdrawing the packs, that is drawing energy faster than the pack can provide it. That would cause a fairly quick voltage loss, which would kick in your lvc, a few seconds of rest, and the cells recover their voltage. I agree with the previous post, check your Voltage at the motor during run up. Warning this will be hard on the motor, though. I would also recommend checking the voltage at the pack during run up. If the packs show OK voltage when the LVC kicks, but the voltage is dropping on the motor side, suspect the ESC. If the pack shows low voltage, well then its the packs. Either they're not draw rated high enough, or they have bad cells. I have seen two brand new packs, each with one bad cell from an online retailer, so it is possible.

Hope this helps.

Time Pilot

Try moving your ESC as close to the motor as you can but leaving enough room so that you can take out the motor when you have to.


My Slow Stick had similar problems so I moved my ESC away from the motor a few days ago thinking that it was picking up interference from the motor and cutting out. But the motor cut out even more than ever. Maybe the ESC was interfering with the Rx. Anyway, moved it forward, took it out tonight and flew 3 packs for about 50 minutes of flying time and not ONE cut out.

To be completely scientific, I'd have to move it again to see if I could recreate the problem, but so far, so good. My conclusion is that the ESC was messing with the RX.

Slow Stick
300 EPS motor
300 GWS ESC
Berg Stamp 4 Rx
650 & 1050 8.4V nimh batteries.