This is kind of interesting. I can't believe that the RC time constant is such that the input capacitor wouldn't be fully charged in less than a second. I'm wondering if the "idle" current is high enough to cause a significant drop in voltage with an external 100 Ohms. If it is, it would suggest one wouldn't want to connect his batteries until just before he intends to fly.
I'll try to run some tests on the Hacker this weekend and let everyone know.
Jim O
ORIGINAL: rm
Here's what was reported in another thread from Schultz about the arcing.
" OK chaps, just got back from the Dortmund show, where I had a nice chat to Ulf Herder and Matthias Schulze about this problem. They say that the spark cannot possibly do any harm to THEIR speed controls and the advice was to just live with it and replace the eroded gold connectors when they eventually needed it. They also said NOT to use any resistor in circuit when first connecting one of their ESC's as they do a voltage measurement when the pack is first connected and the resistor will not allow an accurate measurement. Obviously, they can't comment about ESC's from other manufacturers, but we now know the inside information about Schulze's. "