Spdrmnky

Ok, so I just put in all the electronics in this plane that I just finished, but much to my dismay, the motor cuts off after about a min. or so of full throttle. Then if I move the throttle all the way back down and move the stick back up the motor starts up again but then cuts off again. It keeps on doing this untill the battery runs out. If I keep the at like half throttle then the motor will run longer. I'm using all the recomended things with my airplane (wattage Tangent). I got an 8 cell 5/4 AAA 800mah NiMH, a Wattage IC-15 ESC and running the stock motor. Does anyone know what might possibly be wrong or if anything is wrong at all? My other planes didnt do that, but I was using a different speed controller and stuff. Any help or suggestions would be much apreciated. Thanks!

Jerry Ledford

My Feedback: (15)

Hi, I had the same problem but, mine was simple. My battery was not fully charged. After getting a good peak charger and learning how to discharge and cycle the battery,the problem went away. The battery was just not getting a good charge from my old wall charger. Jerry

Spdrmnky

well, I've been peak charging the battery with a Wattage... I think its a PF-12 charger. Its the one with only one output... Its fairly new, and hasn't given me any problems before. I hope the charger isnt going on me.

ZAGI-XS-=FatalFlyer=-

I'd recommend upgrading to something like the Pro Max Activator Sport. I personally think all the wattage chargers are terrible. I own a Activator and I'd recommend it to everybody. Go to www.hobbypeople.net and check it out. Its a great charger, and its only 50 bucks untill may 31st so get it as soon as possible if you can.

-Steve

Trogdor the Burninator

If you're pretty sure the battery is fully charged then is the battery new? New ones usually take a number of cycles to really be able to take a full charge...

Assuming its not that, what prop are you using? A recommended one for the motor/gearbox combo? Maybe you're using a prop thats too big and pulling to much current, which then would make the battery drop voltage quickly and then the Low Voltage Cutout feature of the speed control would cut power to the motor thinking the battery is almost out of juice...

maybe its just a bad battery too. I've had some that worked fine on a little 280 geared motor that only pulled maybe 3 amps max and then when I went to a speed 300 geared that pulled closer to 9 it did the same thing only within seconds it cut out! Lesser batteries drop voltage significantly under high load which was the problem with me and maybe here? That batt work fine in anything similar??

Spdrmnky

Trogdor,

(nice name by the way)... haha I am using the stock supplied prop that came with the motor and gearbox. I have three batteries, all of which are having the same problem with cutting off. Two of which I ran on a plane with a similar 370 motor but on an EDF with a different ESC and they worked like a charm. The other battery is a brand new battery. I took into consideration that the new battery need to be cycled a few times before they can reach their maximum capability. Could this possibly be the ESC? I might stop by my LHS to see what they think if I could get down there sometime this weekend.

sierra gold

If the battery is fully charged, it sure sounds like the draw is too much for the battery and the voltage is dropping to LVC level quickly. Your symptom is how my packs act at the end of my flights. (Full throttle cuts out, but moving the stick to off and back to half will give me some more run time.) Do you know someone who has a KAN 1050 or something similar to try a run with? I suspect it's your AAA size pack.

Sierra Gold

Dr Kiwi

As Sierra Gold says - I'll bet its the LVC cutting in when the voltage from your miserable pack drops too low - those 5/4AAA are better than straight AAA but not by much - I doubt they can supply more than 5-6A efficiently and your motor is probably trying to draw close to 10A (the website indicates 5 minutes duration from that pack - that suggests an average draw of 9.6A). Get some KAN 650 2/3AA and feel the difference!

Cheers, Phil

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

I concur with the good Dr.. Those poor 5/4 AAA are only good for 10A BURSTS, and short bursts at that. More than a few seconds at full throttle and the poor buggers knuckle under

Trogdor the Burninator

I'd guess that if the motor works for a minute or so and cuts out then the ESC is probably doing its job fine. Unless the motor has some kind of gear binding/misalignment that causes excessive amp draw then I'd guess it has to be the batteries. When the motor dies on the Tangent, try moving the battery then to the EDF you have and see if there's a lot of juice left. If so then the EDF isnt drawing as much current and the battery is able to keep up with that, just not the wattage 370 motor... if you know someone with a whattmeter using that would really give you the answer... you could see the voltage drop and current used.. what EDF are you using that gives good run time? Maybe someone here would know what the motor draws and then we can compare to what the stock tangent motor/prop should draw.

I also vote for getting the KAN packs if its determined your problem is in fact the batteries... after starting with lipoly though and then trying to cheap out with nimhs I was so disappointed in their amp draw capability! Unless you get GOOD nimhs, they have pretty poor capabilities in general.. at least in my limited experience.

Good luck

Spdrmnky

I think I might try those Kan 650's or something from www.cheapbatterypacks.com. I also think that it was, just like what Jerry Ledford said, my chrger. I tried peak charging my batteries a few times in a row and then I got a good 4-5 mins... not much but a LOT better then before. I was thinking about the MKII charger, anyone heard about this charger? It seems like a pretty good deal for about 50 bucks. Anyway, thanks for all your insight.

Trogdor the Burninator

The mk2 is a solid charger from what I've read... it is limited to smaller packs unless you want to wait longer and reportedly doesn't fully charge lipoly packs but most are happy with it as a basic charger and it has two outputs....

if you can swing it and plan to be in the hobby longer you may want to consider one of the computerized chargers with the displays.. the Triton is excellent although 120 bucks... well worth it though, I'm glad I got it when I started out as I've grown into all its capabilities and find it lacking in nothing other than for the largest of packs...