ohnoesaz

ok... Im doing my first build... When I hook the eflite 20amp esc up to the battery, which Ill add is a 3S lipoly capable of much more than 20amp, the esc gets VERY HOT. Keep in mind nothing is turned on, and the motor isnt even installed in the system yet. Its just the esc and the receiver hooked together and the battery then getting plugged into the ESC. The ESC gets VERY hot within seconds. The ESC is made for 2-4S lipolys, FYI.

Why is this happening?

credence

My Feedback: (2)

Sounds like a short. I notice, atleast with e-flight ESC's, they tend to warm up, wether they're in use or not. Not sure if it's a design fault or what. However, if it's getting hot within seconds of plugging it in, you've got a short. Check your battery wires, make sure that they're going to the right terminals, and make sure that the wires are indeed positive and negative. Make sure that there are no exposed wires anywhere around your battery or motor that could be touching eachother. If you still can't see anything wrong, i'd suggest sending it back to horizon becuase you've got a faulty unit.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

I'm fairly certain that it's not a good idea to power up the ESC with no motor attached. Whether that's the cause of your problem or not, I'm not sure, but it is a distinct possibility.

The main thing to check is your polarity. Make sure you have + to + and - to -, red to red and black to black, between the battery and ESC. Also make sure you have the ESC plugged into the receiver properly.

If everything is connected properly and you have a motor attached, and it STILL heats up, it's probably a defective ESC. Such things happen.

RickAvery

I've taken the motor ,(astro 020), out of my 48" wing, and used it as a sloper connecting the ESC to a battery in order for the Rx and servos to operate and not having the motor in the loop. It would only put out the single beep letting me know that the Rx/servos were powered up. The double beep indicating the motor was armed never occured. Never noticed a problem and have since put the motor back in the wing and all is well. Now, the battery was not a 3s LiPo, just a small 6cell NiMh. Good luck.
Rick

AgCat1982

I was going to say, I have some cheap esc's that I hook up all the time to test servos, with no motor attached and have had no problem. May not be that way with all esc's, tho.

Flypaper 2

Are the servos hooked up? Shorted out servo or just loaded to much can draw a lot of current. Unplug all the servos and see what happens.