RustyUs

Stupid, stupid, stupid me!!! I just did one of the oldest goofs...plugged in with reversed polarity! HobbyFans 60A ESC smokin'...whatever just fried, it sure does stink.

RustyUs

I thought for sure my newest HobbyFans "el cheapo" $11 ESC just fried.

Me likes to take stuff apart. Looking at the PC board (or whatever you call it) ...it was black at the negative input, and with the cooper tape/strip in two pieces. I did repair a cross-over board, in a three-way speaker once, that had the same type of damage. So what better way to put my "cheapo" 936 soldering station to work, and try something.


Being gentile with the guts of the board inside the ESC and some quick soldering...I hooked everything back up, and connected the battery (the right way this time) ...Voilà! The ESC was sending power to the motor once again. I was just gonna be like most people and chuck the thing (see that I only paid less than a couple gallons of gas for it). I don't know how much I've weakened it, if at all, but time will tell. I now have even more faith in them HobbyFans crap! After the smoke cleared; the stench of fireworks in the garage still lingers, I will not hesitate in buying more.

*Update* I quick charged up a pack and took the buggy to the track. And then I punished the buggy and HobbyFans gear on the asphalt driveway...about 15 cycles of WOT~Full Brake~Full Reverse. The HobbyFans motor was @ 135°F; the ESC @ 170°F, and 2S 40C LiPo @ 103°F. I was seriously trying to jar something loose on the dirt track and get the ESC hot enough to melt something. All is good! (kester SN63Pb37 #66/44 solder...love that suff!) Lead is still good for somethings America.

I don't know what normal temps are good for ESCs, but I had the Over Heat Protection turned on and the ESC never shut down.

tooth-less

Dont think I have ever had a ESC that hot, 120-130 is the most I would feel confident in. What buggy was you runnin ? Have to be a heavy to push 40c batteries that hard (103) or maybe something binding ?

tooth-less

I gotta box

RustyUs

Looking forward to hear how your goods perform.

Yeah I dnt know how hot the HobbyFans ESC has to get before it shuts down. I probably screwed up the ESC with my stupidity. I never had a record of actual temps before. Up until a couple of weeks ago it was the "if it ain't smokn'...keep goin'" type of attitude I had.

I didn't think 103°F on my batteries was hot...they barely felt warm. I can remember what hot feels like... back in the day re-peaking a freshly peaked NiCd pack just before a race ... that was hot .

tooth-less

Some ESC pics w/out the fan. Sorry they are not very clear







So last nite took it to the track for its maiden voyage. Geared 21/88 in a blitz ESE and it ran great Motor never got warmer than 105, ESC at it's warmest was 87 and that was after a fully charged SMC 5000mah pack run down to LVC. Needless to say plenty of room for gearing up, gonna try 23/88 and try it again. It is so smooth....more so than my HW Xerun 2.1 or Extreme stock and I swear by those ESC's.

Very happy with the purchase, motors are a known great value and my hope is that the ESC has the same value.

RustyUs

That ESC looks pretty robust. Maybe I missed it and too lazy to see in an earlier post, but the continuous amperage on the ESC is what? Are you running it with the fan on?

tooth-less

120a continuous 760 burst. Yeah I use the fan in SCT but in a 2wd buggy probably wouldn't need it

put a couple batteries through it Sunday messing around with different gearing and ESC settings. 23/88 is the sweet spot for me, 122F motor and 82F ESC after 8 minutes on the track. Can and will push it harder but it is plenty fast for our outdoor track.

collector1231

My Feedback: (1)

Think I'm gonna buy a set of these for some basher cars I have laying around. What do you guys think?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Waterproof-S...item58baf612b5
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4370KV-500W-...item487e845cce

tooth-less

Had one of those speed controllers and was not impressed. Constantly lost calibration and the brakes sucked but that could have just been mine ??

fasterbetter

Hey toothless?? How come u had an awful experience with castle?? I am looking at this combo for 100 bucks. It's going in to a Tamiya m05 1/10 scale FWD. What are your thoughts on this and what happend that u had a bad experience with castle..? I have a lipo setup with an alarm for battery discharge already. I don't race the car just more or less drive the hell out of it because a wife and 2 kids don't allow a real race car and I love these things!! Any suggestions on differential or gearing set up either?? Anything helps guys

http://www.amazon.com/Castle-Creatio...iglink22185-20

tooth-less

Simply unreliable. Castle has great customer service and the motors are brutes but those speed controllers are just meh.

EXT2Rob

My Feedback: (1)

I agree with Toothless about Castle speed controllers. Although I am hoping, for my buddy's sake, that the Sidewinder 3 is made better than the Sv2. We both had Sv2s and they both crapped out within a few months. Still have the motors tho, and paired mine with a cheap 120A speed control from HobbyKing. Working great. If you can get that Sidewinder 3 for cheap, say $75, I'd go for it.

fasterbetter

So which ones crapped out the esc or the motor?? I beleive that's a combo with esc. 5700kv is going to be stupid fast in a mini m05 lol. I'm excited but should I be looking for a different combo maybe?

kistner

My Feedback: (10)

Dang, I still have 3 sidewinders (version 1) that work great. Plus an old mamba max and a sidewinder micro that all work fine.

tooth-less

yup 5700kv is gonna be stupid fast, many busted parts in your future . Personally a mild sensored setup would be plenty fast with far better control. I'm putting this in my RS4
http://www.rcjuice.com/skyrc-cheetah...sc-1-10-combo/

fasterbetter

Ok a few questions...
1. The more turns of wire the less power and speed?
2. Is a differential upgrade worth cracking the whole car in half considered mine is stock with plastic bearings.
3. I think in the picture I showed of the gears I would already have a 20T pinion gear...which would be better for a faster motor???
4. And my battery says 2400mah 20c and it's a lipo I know that but how do I tell if it's a 2s or a 3s??

fasterbetter

fasterbetter

So that's my battery and the picture is the manual and the pinion options. Any help or suggestions would be great guys! Thanks

kistner

My Feedback: (10)

7.4 volts is 2s. 2s is two cells in series. 2 x 3.7 = 7.4 volts

bigger pinion = faster

fasterbetter

Ok so 20T is faster then?? Now the build manual I have there...the bottom left has 16 18 and 20...20 being on the tuned sport motor. Now above that is the assembly instructions for the kit I have and built. Is that the same 20T pinion or is the brushless motor going to destroy the pinion and stock plastic housing AND plastic bearing that are the transmission and differential? This is what I think I told u about having my differential or some gears chewed. I know it's taken a pounding so I'll bet it could use a little face lift and rebuild

kistner

My Feedback: (10)

The pinion is almost certainly metal, the spur is plastic, but that is standard with all of them until you hit the nitro rcs. As far as whats inside the trans and can you melt it, I am not really sure. Never had an m05. I havent had any trouble in any of my tamiyas, but thats just a few.

EXT2Rob

My Feedback: (1)

"plastic bearings"?? Not brass bushings? Chances are, there is a real bearing that will fit anything on your car, you just need to know the dimensions of said bushing. (Should be in your manual) I would replace all bushings with bearings. That will reduce the load on the motor, keeping it cooler.

Yes, you can usually gear up a tooth or two on the pinion, but only for short runs. More Pinion Teeth = faster, but also HOTTER. That's why you have an IR temp gun to monitor motor temps. Usually the stock gearing is what should be used. I found that I needed to actually go down one tooth on the pinion from the stock 20T to 19T to keep my temps in line.

Oh, about "turns": The higher the turn number, the slower the motor, but higher the torque. Higher Turns = Lower KV
KV?!? "what the hell's that?" you say? That's how most brushless motors are rated. KV = RPM per Volt Applied.

RustyUs

My HobbyFans 60A ESC was giving me issues as of late. I blame it on a binding in the tranny, and running without the fan. After cleaning the tranny up, out to the track I went...trying to get the ESC to over-heat and see what temperature the "Over-heat Protection" kicks in at. After many failed attempts at running half throttle/hard braking/reverse I finnally got the ESC to trigger the OHP in front of me, and had a temp. reading of 179°F on my IR temp. gun/sensor. So now I'm assuming the ESC's OHProtection trigger point is 180°F.

After re-installing the fan on the ESC, the HobbyFans 60A "little wonder" (I call it that 'cause I wonder who makes it) ESC goes back to it's happy self again. With the fan installed, my B4 body touches the unit and it makes one side of the buggy's body higher than the other side...which is why I was running without the fan on. I'll just deal with the body being a tiny bit cockeyed until my cheap Neewer 17.5T motor comes for me to test:

The reason for the 17.5T even showing up at my doorsteps is: I need a motor for the B4 buggy that I can run WOT on my track. Everything I have is too much power and I end up turning the throttle EPA to 50%. Sensorless ESC controlling a sensored motor without the sensored cable? Someting that I never did before, and I need to put to the test; just to say that I did it with good or bad results.

RustyUs

I know what they skimped on now. The bearings are the weak point in the HobbyFans motors . Not a big deal. I know better now to always cover the end up with tape when running in a very dusty environment. Another new noise to decipher as my RCs are going around the track.

I thought for sure it was my reused, and chewed up tranny gears making the 'clicking' sound. But no, it was the big 625Z bearings inside the motor giving up on their purpose. I never seen such big bearings inside a motor like that before...16mm outside x 5mm inside x 5mm width.