ESC cutting out

[JamieD]

Whilst flying today, my ESC started cutting out. Initially it was cutting out for a couple of seconds when I pushed the collective hard, now it's doing it as and when it feels like it, which is odd because it was working at Charmouth yesterday no problems at all.

It's a castle ICE2 80amp HV ESC (stock with the align 600EFL Pro DFC combo)

I tried to induce the cut out by overrunning the blades on an autorotation (throttle still engaged!) but the ESC governed those nicely. So the cut out isn't related to governer.
The motor and the ESC both came down cool.

ESC and spectrum telemetry data are attached (I hope).
And the spectrum telemetry data rules out any brown out issues.

Any help to rule out simple/known causes before I consider sending it back to Castle would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jamie

[JamieD]

Not sure if this is related, but I've also noticed the Governer light on my 3GX is blinking for some reason. The motor is governed by the ESC not the 3GX.
Align 3gx problem - YouTube

[RcRotaryMadness]

Are your packs ok? Is there any shorting going on? Is the motor ok? No play in the bearings?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[JamieD]

Motor is fine, no shorts that I can see. Surely if it was short circuiting then the ESC would re-set? It happens consistently with all of my packs, all fully charged.

[cjcj1949]

How old is the setup? The esc seems to be protecting itself. The heatsink may be cool, but there may be a problem with one of the fets either being about to fail or not having good thermal contact with the heatsink. The cutouts seem to be proceeded by high power usage. You could try gentle flying to see if this is true.

[coolice]

Hey buddy.

If the 3GX govenor is active even though it's not being used that can give funny throttle inputs. You need to program the throttle limits with the3GX once you've set your Castle atv limits up for the torque pre compensation to work properly. But then make sure the govenor led on the 3GX stays solid red.
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[JamieD]

so I re-programmed the throttle end points on the 3gx but the governor is still blinking randomly.

Any ideas?

[JamieD]

looks like I'm onto the issue here...


http://www.helifreak.com/archive/ind.../t-374180.html

[Summa1988]

I had a similar problem with my cc120. It started cutting when I pumped the pitch then slowly it got worse and started cutting even when just hovering. I found out that some of the capacitors in the esc had blown.

[coolice]

so I re-programmed the throttle end points on the 3gx but the governor is still blinking randomly.

Any ideas?

Hey Buddy.

Are you using sats plugged straight into the 3GX? If yes the governor control defaults to channel 5 (GEAR), so in the ATV travel menu on your Tx or in the governor menu, lower the values and see if the red led now turns solid.

I'm convinced it is a the governor interfering with the ESC's throttle commands, a duff ESC isn't totally ruled out, but as the governor light on the 3GX is flashing at times it's drawing us to this unneeded feature.
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[JamieD]

Was that covered under warranty? Mine is only 6 months old.

[JamieD]

It's not the 3GX, the governor light now stays solid red. Today the issue is much worse. It now cuts out as soon as I engage idle-up. Video attached.

600 - YouTube
I'm pretty convinced the ESC is malfunctioning for some reason. Hopefully Align can sort out.

[coolice]

Hey Buddy.

I've just had a telephone conversation with Keith from RobbeUK who has now had a chance to look at your ESC that was posted back for inspection, I have also been sent photographs of the ESC and associated wiring.

The cause of your problem has been found and it is unfortunately down to user error on this occasion. With the electrical tape removed from all solder joints, it soon became apparent that the soldering of all connectors is not good and it is this which is determined as being the root cause of your motor cutting out.
Without good solder joints on all the connectors, resistance increases and the ESC cannot work as efficiently, this in turn puts it under more stress which can lead to premature failures. This is true for any ESC, but your 600 class model is quite powerful and able to pull vast amounts of current.

Hopefully on this occasion the ESC has not been damaged, as if it is then it will not be covered under warranty.

With your permission I would like to post the photographs I have been sent for the sole reason to highlight to others the importance of good clean soldered joints and to also put right that the product is not at fault on this occasion.

Ian
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[JamieD]

Thanks guys. Fingers crossed it still works. I guess you can post the pictures, if anything for comical value at my rubbish soldering.

[coolice]

Morning Mate.

No ones going to be judgemental at all, but I think in light of the thread it's going to go a long way to helping others not make the same mistakes.

Looking at the pictures you've just not managed to get enough heat into the joint to have the solder flow into the wire and back of the connector, so it's just sat on top.

Here the photo's I got sent.
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