GodOfCheese

I recently charged up my battery and took my Redcat Volcano EPX out to do some driving, but it wouldn't start. I'm pretty new to the whole RC Car Hobby, so I searched around for my symptoms, but didn't find anything likely online, which was odd.

When I flip the switch to "On", normally the ESC beeps and the wheels straighten. Now the wheels straighten, but there's no sound from the ESC. The red light comes on and stays on, and although the steering responds correctly to input from the remote, there is no throttle at all. It just sits there steering left and right miserably but not driving forward or backward.

The electronics on this truck are all stock except for the battery, which was upgraded to LiPo 2S. I also moved the ESC's battery jumper to reflect the LiPo when I did that. Car was running fine when I put it away after a season of fun (including the new battery).

There's no indication of damage on the cables or loose connections, and I get the exact same results when I swap the LiPo with my son's identical battery. Conversely, my son's identical truck (with identical upgrade) drives fine on both his battery and mine, so I've ruled out the battery as a cause.

Do I need to replace the ESC, or could this be an issue with the Receiver?

RustyUs

Start with a simple calibration of the ESC's throttle endpoints. I've had a few speed controls lose their LVC, timing, punch settings, etc.,etc.,etc from long term storage (I'm guessing that's the cause of it).

GodOfCheese

N00B question: how do I do that? The Redcat site for the HW-HW-1040-BRUSHED says it auto-calibrates within the first three seconds of initialization (I guess this is the beep).

Update: Since my son's machine and mine are identical, I swapped connections to the various components and tested. I learned two things:

1. my son's ESC lights up when throttled forward and blinks in reverse. His must be newer than mine. This allowed me to test the receiver and both receivers seem to work.
2. my ESC will drive my son's motor
3. my son's ESC will not drive my motor (no throttle or beeps)

I did not test his receiver because #1. It sounds like something is wrong with my motor, which is very surprising.

Do motors go bad in storage? I don't know how I could have blown up my motor... (?)

GodOfCheese

Update: I replaced the ESC and motor with a brushless combination I found on Amazon that looked kind of compatible. Apparently posting links is forbidden to me, but it says "9T 4370KV Brushless Motor+60A ESC +Program Card Combo for 1/10 RC Car Truck,4-Pole 12-Slot Hi-Torque Motor,Waterproof ESC".

I... may have gotten too powerful a motor as if I'm not extremely careful with the throttle, the truck likes to spin out or flip over. Fun on straightaways though!