Melted ESC and Battery EC5's

[chrisleematt21]

I was out flying tonight and was on flight 8 when I lost power about 25ft up, luckily the Opti Backup guard did its job so I could still land, it was a bit rough but not bad considering that i have oly practised autos from 6ft max!!!

The negative from the battery to esc had melted its solder and came out and so did the negative on the ESC.

I had noticed that the EC5's were getting hot tonight, one had even melted the plastic on the battery.

This setup has been well used with out any problems before. The only recent change was the conversion from DFC to FL head.

Has anyone else had this issue? Are there any usual suspects?

I did notice that the connectors on the ESC were pretty black!

[bigpops]

The usual suspect is a cold solder joint.

Usually a result of not tinning the wire properly (solder should be soaked all the way through the wire), not using enough heat (the solder should go like water), or moving the cable in the plug while it's cooling.

If you did a good job, then bad contact between the male/female plug due to debris/corrosion could cause them to have a higher resistance and therefore heat up with enough heat to melt it.

[pooleman]

Well done yoh for recovering it with minimal damage sorry to read about your solder joints.... i tried to buy the optiguard for sale on here but looks like it's been sold so a new one it is after reading your story!

[Mutley]

I've got to say no i've not, I personally run EC5's on everything so x2 800DFC's and x2 planes (1's a 50CC size with 160amp esc) and i've not experienced that - all are 12S setups.

I think its down to the soldering as well, its not easy to solder large gauge wire and connectors, i personally use a gas soldering iron to ensure i heat everything properly.

[chrisleematt21]

Well done yoh for recovering it with minimal damage sorry to read about your solder joints.... i tried to buy the optiguard for sale on here but looks like it's been sold so a new one it is after reading your story!

The opti guard is a worth while investment, I have one on each of my larger machines.

[chrisleematt21]

I think I'm gonna go with corrosion, the heli has been in use for over a year so hard to believe its bad soldering.

[myxiplx]

Either a worn or marginal connector or a bad solder joint. Either way given the heat it's experienced it needs a new EC5 on each end, which'll solve the problem regardless :-)

[jimheli]

I was out flying tonight and was on flight 8 when I lost power about 25ft up, luckily the Opti Backup guard did its job so I could still land, it was a bit rough but not bad considering that i have oly practised autos from 6ft max!!!

The negative from the battery to esc had melted its solder and came out and so did the negative on the ESC.

I had noticed that the EC5's were getting hot tonight, one had even melted the plastic on the battery.

This setup has been well used with out any problems before. The only recent change was the conversion from DFC to FL head.

Has anyone else had this issue? Are there any usual suspects?

I did notice that the connectors on the ESC were pretty black!

Had the very same myself motor just stopped & i seen same as above .
Dirty connections carbon-ed up , had this my self a few months ago on my 550 , but i had no optiguard fitted , but lucky got it down with no damage.
After that i switched to bullets instead cos i can clean them much easier.
ive had No problems since .

[Rob Barnes]

Ive seen this more than once and most of it comes down to poor soldering sorry ! I use Maplins Solder with 4% Silver which melts a little higher than the normal stuff you buy off the shelf. I think its about £18 a roll but worth the expense in my book. No doubt most people have a good soldering iron so I wont go into that .
I stopped using EC5's too on went onto RC Proplus but again there expensive. Heres a little thread on my soldering of these connectors:

SUPRA X REB6808 Pro D6 P8 Connectors « Team Midland


Im using these on both my Diabolo Speed helicopters , both are running 14s , a 200HV Kosmik Cool ESC, Pyro 850-50 Comp motors, @ 2600 head speed and 16 degreess of pitch , the packs are Optipower 4400 7s and get depleted in 2.5 mins . The connectors get warm but never hot and have never come undone .

[hedge]

like most seen this as well - can I ask was it particularly windy and do you know the

C rating of the packs
Amp pull of the motor
Amps of the ESC

would be interested to see if there is a pattern emerging

[chrisleematt21]

like most seen this as well - can I ask was it particularly windy and do you know the

C rating of the packs
Amp pull of the motor
Amps of the ESC

would be interested to see if there is a pattern emerging

Packs Haiyin 20-30c 6s 5000mah
ESC Talon 90 (No Data Logging)
Motor Align 730mx 850kv again with out the logging I have no idea what amps it was pulling.

It wasn't windy, it was a really nice night which was annoying as I had to finish early!!!!

I do have the headspeed a little higher than the Castle governor recommends I think it is on 103% according to the gov software.

Again I have been using this heli for over a year, the head speed was changed a few months back. It has had loads of flights.

Going to change the connectors tonight and will get a proper look at the connectors.

[hedge]

Thanks now I no expert but this is how I see your set up... Please note that as we get better at flying our helicopters we demand more from them, so as we get better we need to refine gains, improve set up and also pull more from our helis. The reason I ask about wind is that it often adds more demand to the system without us doing anything different.

Just using Volts x Amps = Watts - I will use nominal volts for the battery 22.2v

From the Castle site: "Talon 90 is ideal for helicopters drawing 2,000 watts and is 90 amps"

So using the formulae: 22.2v x 90a = 2000w - so this all works using nominal voltage

ESC
Castle Creations | Talon Series Controllers
22.2v x 90a = 2000w

Battery @ 30c = 5a x 30 = 150amp
22.2v x 150a = 3330w

Motor again from the site (2550W peak at 4330W for 5 secs also 115a)
730MX Brushless Motor(850KV) Model Helicopters
22.2v * 114a = 2550w

So on the motor side you have a system pulling 115amps (low end 195a high end) on the other side you have a battery capable of giving 150a and in the middle an ESC maxing out at 90amp - the weak link

[scallybert]

Except it was the connector/soldering that failed, not the ESC ?

[chrisleematt21]

Thanks now I no expert but this is how I see your set up... Please note that as we get better at flying our helicopters we demand more from them, so as we get better we need to refine gains, improve set up and also pull more from our helis. The reason I ask about wind is that it often adds more demand to the system without us doing anything different.

Just using Volts x Amps = Watts - I will use nominal volts for the battery 22.2v

From the Castle site: "Talon 90 is ideal for helicopters drawing 2,000 watts and is 90 amps"

So using the formulae: 22.2v x 90a = 2000w - so this all works using nominal voltage

ESC
Castle Creations | Talon Series Controllers
22.2v x 90a = 2000w

Battery @ 30c = 5a x 30 = 150amp
22.2v x 150a = 3330w

Motor again from the site (2550W peak at 4330W for 5 secs also 115a)
730MX Brushless Motor(850KV) Model Helicopters
22.2v * 114a = 2550w

So on the motor side you have a system pulling 115amps (low end 195a high end) on the other side you have a battery capable of giving 150a and in the middle an ESC maxing out at 90amp - the weak link

Fair but but the ESC its self wasn't hot, it was just the connectors.

If the motor pulls that many amps then why do Align send the kits out with only a 90amp esc. Seems a bit odd. Just because it can pull 115amps doesnt mean that it will does it?

Also have you seen the youtube videos of Alan Szabo with his 550 i'm pretty sure he hammers his far more than I. I wonder how many amps his draws.

[hedge]

Fair but but the ESC its self wasn't hot, it was just the connectors.

If the motor pulls that many amps then why do Align send the kits out with only a 90amp esc. Seems a bit odd. Just because it can pull 115amps doesnt mean that it will does it?

Also have you seen the youtube videos of Alan Szabo with his 550 i'm pretty sure he hammers his far more than I. I wonder how many amps his draws.

As I say mate no expert here, I will let others tell you how right or wrong it all is. I did not design my goblin set up but looking at it - with hind sight, the ESC, Motor and Batteries are all within spec of each other so if I where to make changes I would aim to do the same. The reasoning I use is that if a high demand item became compromised for any reason then it will pull more than the other parts can handle.

As for Alan, these guys can be feather light on collective, do impressive stuff yet keep the heli on song, just check out the old nitro OS50 hyper flights these guys had no power yet screamed the helis around