Manic Mike

I was messing around today with my brand new Rustler VXL. Going against the warrenty, I drove it in a little bit rain on the street in front of my brother's house. It wasn't alot of rain and it didin't look like anything was getting wet. Well, all of the sudden, reverse started working intermittently and then next thing you know, I have no power at all from the motor (steering works fine). I am using only a regular 6 cell NiMh battery back with 3000MAH. When I work the throttle, the little green LED is supposed to go out and back on respectivley as I move the throttle from nuetral to forward/reverse and it does not even do that.

brushlessboy16

check the wire from the servo to the reciever, then the main battery connection.

what part of jersey are u from?

Checkpointracer

Did you check your motor wires?

brushlessboy16

motor wires are soldered on, they cant get loose

Manic Mike

I'm from Budd Lake. Pretty much North Central Jersey right off of route 80 exit 27. What part of Jeresy are you from?

Also, thanks for fast replies guys. This is really dissapointing. I swapped servo plugs on the receiver and the steering servo works fine in both ports. I can only figure it's either the motor or the ESC. Like I said before, the LED light on the ESC doesn't react to the throttle movements. I suspect the ESC but I guess it could be a bad or wet lead from the motor.
Mike

jatoracing33

did you let everything dry then try it again? sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt

Manic Mike

I'm going to let everything dry out over night and try it in the morning.

brushlessboy16

im from south jersey, and try re-calibrating the esc

Manic Mike

Cool and thanks. How do I recalibrate it? I didn't see anything about that in the book it came with. I know there are three different performance settings. I can set each one of them but I still have now power.

Slo-V Flyer

Let it dry or take a hair dryer to it if you feel you can open it up and put it back together again. I know I've had water related "oops" happen before and all 3 times, the ESCs worked. I'm talking taking a dip completely submerged giving it throttle while surrounded by water "oops." But those were all brushed motors and ESCs. That said, as long as water didn't get into the motor, the ESC might be ok once it dries. Just don't try to use it again till it's dry in case you cause a short circuit for sure trying to test it.

brushlessboy16

look in your manual for calibtration

drevil

My Feedback: (5)

Below are the instructions to program your esc. I suggest allowing it to completely dry out for at least a full day before trying it. If this doesn't help then I'm sorry to say that the ESC is probably burned out. I once got an ESC wet and it was destroyed. Sent it back to the manufacturer and with shipping it cost me nearly the same amount as a new one.

VXL-3s Setup Programming (Calibrating your ESC and transmitter)
Read through all of the programming steps before you begin. If you get lost during programming or receive unexpected results, simply unplug the battery, wait a few seconds, plug the battery back in, and start over.
1. Connect a fully charged battery pack to the VXL-3s.
2. Turn on the transmitter (with the throttle at neutral).
3. Press and hold the EZ-Set button. The LED will first turn green and then red. Release the EZ-Set button.
4. When the LED blinks RED ONCE. Pull the throttle trigger to the full throttle position and hold it there.
5. When the LED blinks RED TWICE. Push the throttle trigger to the full reverse and hold it there.
6. When the LED blinks GREEN ONCE, programming is complete. The LED will then shine green or red (depending on low-voltage detection setting) indicating the VXL-3s is on and at neutral.

You can read more here:
http://www.traxxas.com/products/elec...s%20KC1081.pdf

Manic Mike

Oops, yeah, I did see those steps in the manual. Thanks, I'll try that after letting it dry out for a day.

A funny thing also happened before it went south. The green LED light was flashing quickly indicating the throttle was not at it's correct trim level. Maybe recalibrating is the trick, (fingers crossed).

Manic Mike

O.k. I figured it out. I only had to recalibrate the throttle. Hehe, I guess it helps to read through the owners manual before operating it. I also found it it has three different settings, one with fwd only and it really cooks! Thanks for the help.
Mike

Aschiuta

Hi, i have the same problem with my ESC on Rustler. When i am trying to programm it, i get the green LED flashing at the end of the procedure, instead of staying solid.
When you said "I only had to recalibrate the throttle" , you meat the programming proceduce or something else.
Thanks.
Val.

Viteck

Is it true if you hook the motor to a C cell battery, it should run? I had the same problem with my xl-5 motor and I just replaced it with a vxl system. I'm just curious and if I can get the xl-5 12t motor to work, I will buy a roller chassis. I can have two rc's. Maybe a bandit or something. Thanks.

The Hedgehog

Lol it is the same speed as if you had reverse also. Both have 100% throttle each way

04DarkShadowGT

Yes they can, trust me mine did. One of the wires that comes out of the motor had the bullet connector come loose. I had to re-solder it on.

Aschiuta

Well, i took the Rustler ESC and try to use it and calibrated with a brushed motor (from one of my boats) and i got the same blinking green LED following the procedure. So it must be something wrong with the ESC or the TX.

nitrosportsandrunner

i tried to get my xl5 waterproof for running in the snow, but i failed, twice! both times i got lucky and after taking it apart and letting it dry out it worked again. who says traxxas stuff is crap, then again i might be just lucky.