Mtroniks ESC cuts out dead.

[david h]

I have a frustrating situation with my speed controller. I know how difficult it is diagnose problems remotely but I will try and explain the situation as best I can and then maybe someone could give me some suggestions.

I have a Viper mini 10 Marine Speed controller. I have it in a model submarine so space is tight. The Speed controller is attached to a Hitec micro O5S Single conversion type 4 CH receiver. The power supply is a 6v SLA battery.

The Speed controller works really well most of the time. The little green and red lights flash and the motor runs. I am running a 385 geared motor 2.7 to 1 ratio. Then all of a sudden the speed controller just stops dead. No power or light or anything. The other three chaneels keep working perfectly.

I then have to pull the front section of the Water tight compartment apart and then pull the connections off and reattach them. Then the the speed controller will work perfectly for about 20 minutes and will then do the same thing again! I am running the RC set up through a 5 amp fuse and a small Diode that stops reverse connections.

The reciever is brand new , the Transmitter is brand new (Futaba T4 EXA)
So I don’t believe it is these. The ESC cables run to the other end of the boat to the REC and are twisted around. Also there are some pretty tight turns to be negotiated for the cabling in general. Could there be resistance building up and the ESC just cuts out as a safety? As I said everything else just keeps working.


Any suggestions,

regards,

David hughes

[PaulC]

I'm nowhere near an expert

I'm nowhere near an expert on this type of troubleshooting but could it be overheating and shutting itself down?

[ricknelson]

You will have a 0.7

You will have a 0.7 volt drop across the diode you have for reverse protection. Therefore, are you sure your RC setup input voltage is correct?

[david h]

Thankyou for the feedback,

I don't

Thankyou for the feedback,

I don't think heat is an issue. It never was in the past. However the second point about the voltage drop is interesting. Come to think of it the problem has been occuring in batteries that haven't been charged in a while. Is it possible that the ESC shuts down if the voltage in the battery drops too low?

regards,

David hughes.

[ricknelson]

There is a lower voltage

There is a lower voltage limit at which any electronic circuit will quit or get erratic. What that limit is for the ESC is I don't know. The fact that batteries that have not been recently charged give you a problem indicates some kind of voltage level issue.

[david h]

Thanks Rick,

will go and troubleshoot

Thanks Rick,

will go and troubleshoot that one.

Tell me , what boats did you serve on?

always interested in stories...

David H

[Guest]

Try different motor and did

Try different motor and did you radio surpress the current one?Also be carefull about voltage induction in the wireing,long twisted cables build alot of the above ,choke it.
Be sure that the radio antena is away from any high voltage and leades to the reciever as induction will cause the esc to become eratic and cause it to go off line as these units have a sensor for bad radio receptuion and will shut off power to the motor but still have servo control.
The Aquacraft brushless unit is very stable even in very noisy conditions and for 30.00 bucks would be my choice if the above doesnt solve your problem.
also an external off on switch will help in resetteing a ESC.

Dave good luck

[JWLaRue]

David,

Until recently, I was fighting

David,

Until recently, I was fighting what may be the exact same problem as you have described in my Seehund. I am using one of the Mtronik speed controllers too.

Changing transmitters didn't solve the problem, same with changing the receiver. There are caps on the motor.....etc.

Before trying a swap-out of the speed controller, I decided to move the antenna....and that fixed it for me. Before I had wrapped it (i.e. coiled it) around one of the support rods inside the dive module. Didn't even think about the rod being solid brass with the ends exposed to water. Now, the antenna wire is strung back and forth in a straight line. No more cut-outs.

So perhaps you could try re-routing your receiver antenna?

-Jeff

[ricknelson]

You never, ever want to

You never, ever want to wrap an antenna tight. If you wrap an antenna it looks like an inductor (coil) and it defeats how the antenna should look to the incoming RF energy. Optimally, the antenna should be strung out in a straight line but since we are limited in being able to do that on a RC sub then as few large coils as possible is the rule.

Brass would not affect the antenna performnace that much but the fact that it was tightly coiled is what caused the problem. Iron objects are what would have affected the coiled performance even more.

[ricknelson]

Dave H

I served on the Tigrone, SS-419, and the Sam Houston, SSBN609 Blue. I loved the boats!

[JWLaRue]

Rick,

Many thanks for the explanation

Rick,

Many thanks for the explanation as to why. Now I am certain that I've fixed my problem.

-Jeff

[ricknelson]

You are welcome, Jeff. Glad

You are welcome, Jeff. Glad I could help.