Jcobra

Purchased my son an HPI sprint 2 flux camaro for Christmas. We've only used it a couple times because of the weather. Yesterday I charged both of the batteries for it, I connected the after market battery and there was a spark at the connector. As I was putting the body on the car I began to smell and see smoke pouring from the battery. I immediately dissconnected the battery and pulled it out of the car. By then the wires had melted off the battery but the car seemed to be fine. The only thing i could think was that I crossed the wires (neg/pos). I let it sit for a few minutes and then I connected the battery that came with the car making sure wires weren't crossed. There was a spark and the battery started getting hot and smoking within seconds. Now I'm out 2 batteries and who knows what's wrong with the car. We've invested $500 into this thing after buying the rapid charger and spare battery and I don't know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated as were new to this hobby.

daytonarc

My Feedback: (5)

You have a dead short somewhere. Use a continuity checker, unplug reciever and motor from speed control and test for continuity between pos and neg of speed controler, if you have continuity it is the speed controller, if not then plug one thing at a time in and repeat test to find shorted component.

Good luck.

Jcobra

I called hobbytown and they said I may have fried the ESC if the wires were crossed when I connected the first battery. When I connected the second one i know it was properly connected because there's only 1 way to do it. I just don't understand why the second battery started to smoke because it was properly connected.

t9dragon

My Feedback: (11)

What type of battery are you using?

Jcobra

the first was a venom NIMH which I had used in it before. The other is the HPI battery that came with the car.
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phmaximus

what battery connectors does it have? is it possible to plug it in wrong????

Doesent it have tamiya molex style connectors? how hard did u push it in? the positive side of the connector is square and the negitave is rounded.Toplug it in wrong man u must of forced it?

Even then reversing positive and negative will kill the ESC, but im doubtfull that it will cause any damage to the battery.

Sounds like u have a deadshort on the ESC wires.... have u checked that yet?

SyCo_VeNoM

agree either the wires melted after the plug going to the ESC the time before making a dead short, or the ESC is damaged and created a dead short inside(possible solder melted bridging +, and - terminals).

Also that hobbytown I wouldn't listen to now(or ever) as they are full of crap if there was a short before the ESC no electricity would have went into it period so there would be no damage. Connecting the battery backwards would NOT have caused the battery to melt it would have caused magic smoke to only pour out of the ESC.

Jcobra

I'm waiting for HPI to call or email me back, I havent had time to mess with it since the weekend.  In order to run the venom battery you have to use a different connector and it can easily be crossed with out forcing it.  The hpi battery would be impossible to force and I think I'll stick to those once I get this fixed.  I don't want my kids messing with it and starting a fire.

redfisher1974

HPI will help you out, I once hooked a lipo up wrong and smoked a brand new mamba max... Sent it back and got a new one.

SyCo_VeNoM

the HPI batteries suck
personally I'd solder a different connector that doesn't suck onto the ESC as I'm sure its that white piece of crap generic molex tamiya plug from the early 80's (Or maybe even 70's), and use something like a traxxas, deans, or EC3 plug (EC3 probably easiest of the 3 to solder).
Then just solder the same connector onto the batteries, and skip that stupid venom piece of junk universal adapter