esgroff

I just fried my esc (hopefully not the battery and receiver). I followed instructions and have no Idea what happened. Any suggestion would be helpful.

setup :
8 cell 1000 NIMH
Dymond 20A ESC
Full size receiver

I plugged the esc into channel 3 of the receiver. Connected positive to positive and neg. to neg for the battery and motor. I didn't do anything with the Schottky diode?

I am a beginner with glow experience. I thought the directions were self explanatory, I never expected to destroy my equipment. I had some smoke and melting happening.

I should also mention that nothing initally happened when I used the throttle on the transmitter. I turned the switch on and off several times with different throttle possitions. Maybe channel 3 was reversed?

Any suggestions for next time would be helpful. Eric.

Tippie

Well, to get a few questions on the board first. Did the receiver/servos function after the melt down with the esc plugged into the battery? What size motor did you have? You don't mention if you had soldered any capacitors on the motor, there are normally 3 capacitors. One soldered on each motor terminal and then to the motor case ground and a third soldered across the two motor terminals to surpress RF noise from brush arcing. My first guess would be that you had a short to ground in your wiring to the motor. Maybe a bit of solder bridged over to the motor case? Not having the Schottky diode in place shouldn't cause your problem (unless you had soldered it in backwards). The Schottky will make the ESC run a little cooler and make the motor run a little better. This would have been a good reason to have a fuse in the positive lead to the motor (hind sight). In your case a 20 amp fuse like the little plug-in fuses for your car that would be soldered in-line. The ESC you have is supposed to be able to handle up to 10 cells so excess voltage wouldn't have been the problem. Another possibility might be a defective motor that was shorted. You might try hooking up a couple 1.5 v C or D batteries and test the motor by itself. As far as plugging in the ESC, it would be plugged into whatever channel your throttle is on and that in itself should not cause the ESC failure. As you indicated the wiring on the ESC's is pretty straight forward and (not knowing Dymond ESC's) most ESC wires are clearly marked as to what they should be hooked up to. Again, my best guess is you have (had) a short circuit somewhere between the ESC and the motor and caused a large amperage draw through the ESC.

esgroff

I appreciate the response! There are no diodes on the 400 motor as far as I can tell. I would be interested in seeing some pictures of exactly how the diodes are supposed to be soldered in place. I don't want to make the same mistake twice, and I'd rather learn from other peoples mistakes..... thats why I'm here scanning this forum.

Fortunatly my servoes and receiver still seem to work.

Tippie

Since the servos and receiver still work it would indicate a problem with the motor and how it was wired. As before, I think you have a short circuit in that wiring. Ususally the Schottky diode is not installed on the motor and is normally included with an ESC for user install. It is easy to see as it is about the size of a 1/2 watt resistor, maybe 3/16" in diameter. If you have a mult-meter you might check continuity in the wiring. For a little more info about the capacitors and the Schottky diode check this site: www.yourzagi.com/motors2.htm#caps or do a search on www.google.com and search 'schottky diode on electric motor' If you have a plug between the ESC and the motor try unplugging the motor and operating it by itself with a couple "D" or "C" batteries to find out if you have a short circuit. And check your soldering around the motor terminals.

Jim Finn

My Feedback: (2)

Are you sure the esc was not hooked up backwards. ie battery connected to the motor end ?

esgroff

I am "fairly certain" things were hooked up properly. The connections are marked pretty well. I'm thinking there was a short close to the motor with the diodes/ soldering/ connections.
I like the idea of checking the motor with a 4 cell pack before hooking up the esc next time... Thanks for helping me trouble shoot this.. I also had an offer from an experienced person to walk me through the process before I hook anything up.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

Look at the terminals on that Speed 400 motor. Many of them come with the capacitors already installed internally. The telltale sign is a tiny wire poking through the motor terminal.

The main reason ESCs blow up is from the main battery being hooked up backwards. The next most popular cause is a short circuit. The other <1% of the time, it's because of a bad ESC.

Motors can't be hooked up backwards; they'll simply run the wrong way. Having the throttle channel reversed also wouldn't cause your problem; the ESC simply wouldn't arm.

esgroff

First, I must say I'm impressed with the knowledge you guys have. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to get started with electrics.

With all the recommendations and responses you helped me figure out what I did wrong!! After everything was hooked up the motor was not responding like I thought it should so (heres the stupid part) I thought maybe the motors leads got reversed and switched them. This would have been find and the motor should have went backwards except for the fact that I didn't change the Diode soldered between the terminals. As one of the posts mentioned, the polarity of the diode does matter.

Thanks again for all the help. I will try again.