I am working on a project and managed to use up 7 servos for my aircraft. My ESC is rated for 7 analog servos or 6 digital servos without needed a BEC or external pack.

Other day I was flying and my servos locked and it nose right into the ground. I walked up to it and it was making a weird whining sound from the ESC. I unplugged and it locked again. I unplugged some servos and it freed back up. So I plugged the servos back in and wiggled around the sticks and it worked fine for a few then went and locked up again. I kept wiggling the sticks and they freed back up again.

So I was thinking that my servos may be to much for the ESC. It has a built a 3 amp swicth-mode BEC already but I am thinking I may have to much for it. I guess I never had anything like this happen before. I am more familiar with Gas and Nitros and never had issues. Although they dont use ESC so this is still new to me.

So my question is this what happens when an ESC has to many servos and it over does it? Does it lock? Anyone have anything like this happen before? Also could I just use an external battery source for my servos and put and on and off switch to power them only then have battery pack power motor? I was not sure seeing how the ESC powered everything before I was not sure what would happen if I plugged in a battery pack for servos if something would blow or if it would work.

If anyone had same problem or seen this before or know whats going on for that matter holler. I am a bit lost here. I just want to add another battery for my servos and move on. But not sure if I have to buy something to plug before that to keep it from blowing something.

Thanks!

Floored, you might have overloaded the ESC, or the voltage might have dropped low enough to cause an RX brownout. The easiest way to get around the BEC is to run an external RX pack, just like in your fuel powered planes. Just remove the center red wire from the ESC connector, and tape it back. Connect the ESC to your throttle port, and the external battery to the batt port.

Ah that sounds like an easy fix. Thank you. I will try that and see how it goes. Yeah I think I overdone it even though it is rated for 7 analog servos. But two of them are almost full size and I am using a full size RX even though it is a foam electric.

Going to test it out and see how it goes thanks again!

I once added an extra servo to an e-power set-up. No problem until I flew a snap roll had them all working -everything froze up until I unloaded the system. Scary as hell, but fortunately I was able to recover. Went to a UBEC and solved the problem.
Walt

Thank you for the fast response. I went with the external pack and removed the red wire as suggested by (speedy72vega)

Everything looks good so far and I think I found the reason why I had a failure. One of my servos is now dead, so thinking during flight when it went out it created a large load and caused everything to lock. I was going to make another test flight today but was to windy. So I will be giving it a shot in the morning and hopefully no wind.

I will be posting another video on YouTube on my progress. For those interested here is a link on the crash when all servos locked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5I9xO0hzI4 The video is Part 8 my latest. Will be posting Part 9 tomorrow after the flight hopefully a good one.

I been working on a Star Wars X Wing Fighter for some time and slowly getting there. Crashing each time but making progress. I just about got it working right when I had the electrical failure with my servos locking. So that was another delay on top of waiting out for the wind. I think the electrical issue is now solved and cant wait to test out again tomorrow. Thanks again for help guys!

I was following that build thread Cobra!! Anxious to see it fly! I didn't know this thread was about the X-wing fighter.
Were you the one also making the Imperial fighter??? If so, how did it turn out?


Edit: I just answered my own question. I watched the video of the Interceptor, VERY COOL!

speedy72vega, Ah cool so you was following the build thread thats to cool! On the X Wing I been making videos of everything I been doing to it. I thought I would do that one different instead of having a long thread to read you could watch the videos. I plan to make a Thread of the entire X Wing once complete and link up all my videos to it. So this build will be a little different and hopefully entertaining as well. I upload new video every weekend as long as weather permits. So far has been good except last weekend it rained.

As for the Imperial Fighter if you mean the Tie Interceptor that was me also. It is now complete and I have the video of that up also. I think it turned out great and has been a blast flying it. Now that Tie Interceptor was a real pain getting to work. I posted the build on that one but did not have videos until the very end of it finished. I crashed that one a lot and it would of made for some funny videos haha. Working on that one gave me the idea to post videos on my progress on the X Wing. That way everyone can get an idea on how it all went together and what I did to make it work.

If you want to check out my videos on the Tie Interceptor and all the videos of the X Wing here is a link to my channel. Here is a link to my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5I9xO0hzI4
Hey feel free to subscribe to :-) I post every weekend so there is always something to watch. Also I am making this up as I go along so any pointers would be great. I am always open to suggestions.

Really looking forward to testing out tomorrow with the new additional battery. I think now I can continue and move ahead now that the electrical issue is fixed.

I have had four brownouts recently. Recovered from three of them, the fourth resulted in a vertical dive straight into the ground with me fighting it all the way. Mind you, this is four using microservos in a multiplex gemini. They all scare the &^$%& out of me

Buy this plane............it only broke a strut and was flying the next day when the fourth and last brownout occurred.

The esc is a new 40a e-flite (V2), power 10 motor, 1500mah lipo. I am going to switch speed controllers back to the old one......an eflite40a (V2) also as it never had this problem and was the only thing that changed in the setup.

As i am getting into bigger electrics, a ubec seems reasonable and i have but one question. Does using a ubec disable the low voltage warning that is get from my esc. Ii use scorpion esc's in my bigger planes that pulse when they get low,and i love them. If it does, do they have their own low voltage warning?