My EP Raptor won't spool up : (

[Scott Graham]

Hi,

My Raptor 50 with a TPPacks conversion kit with the Zpower Z50-600 motor with the HV-85 ECU. I'm running 10s2p and a 95t main gear with a 10t pin.

Look at the video to see what it does, You can hear the belt in the boom shake and hit the inside of the boom. :(


The motor will flick back and forth. I cant get it to spool up. I got it to fly once when I spun the blades by hand.

The motor spins fine when it goes the wrong way "It just spins the one way bearing the other way". The ECU said swap ANY 2 wires to reverse the direction. So I flipped the red wire and the yellow( Motor )/White( ECU ). Then it went the right way, but now it jitters all over the place.

I Changes some settings on the ECU but and the last setting, the PWM Switching rate to 52khz and the motor heated up so I changed it back to 13 khz.

I WANT TO FLY THIS THING, IT LOOKS SO COOL!!! :( :arggg: Can anyone help please?


Kindest Regards,
Scott Graham

[Scott Graham]

It works now.. I got to fly it : )


But now it shut off in the air, and I dont know if its the motor overheating, or if its the lipo that died.. but I put new $800 lipos in it and it still wont start... :arggg: ARGH... I'm getting to the point where I miss my nitro engine. :( :(


You cant say its a weak signal or change the crystal because im running a Spektrum DX7 and you cant get a stronger signal than that.

AARGGG

[Coolice]

Hey,

I'd be inclined to say it's the ESC settings/motor combo thats causing the problems.

I had one of the early Quarks which could not get over the cogging of the motor, eg. the motor would attempt to start turning and get warm but not spool. A flick of the main gear would start it turning but thats difficult on a Century Swift :badair:
The newer version I have now is fine with the new software.

As you are running a Castle Creations try updating the ESC's firmware using the castle link, this will give you some more options and I think there was an update which helped the start sequence.
.

[3secondsToImpact]

Try changing the 3 motor wires around

[Scott Graham]

So I thought I was home free... I changed the wiring from the ECU to the motor and the motor would spool up and start just fine. no chugging. then I flew it for three minutes or so then the soft cut off occurred. The motor was kinda hot... Id say around 180deg F. When I changed the lipos, because I thought It was just a low voltage cut off, the heli wont Arm the motor anymore. THe ECU wont even see the throttle anymore. I put a different (Low band ch12 crystal 72mhz) radio and receiver on the throttle channel and It works I was running a High band Futaba C9 super on ch45 72mhz) It did the same thing so I bought a Spectrum DX7 (2.4Ghz) because I was told it was a weak signal. so I figured this would fix the problem. Then The same thing happened. It works fine until about 3 min of flight then it cuts off and I lose my throttle control. I wonder if the ECU needs the firmware update...

This is what they say they fixed:
""Improved receiver signal processing to handle high frequency input""


So I have no idea. This has been the most confusing heli ever... :dontknow :(

[GGoodrum]

Scott --

It definitely sounds like a controller issue. I'm guessing there is a bad FET in one of the phases. I've seen this before. If you have another controller, almost any controller, you can hook up the motor to it and just use whatever small pack is handy, like a 3-cell TRex pack. You just want to see if the motor will start spinning up. With this sort of failure, it could theoretically could be either the motor, the controller or the wires connecting the two. Because of the intermittant nature, I highly suspect it is the controller. If a motor has a bad phase, it usually won't work at all.

If it turns out to be the motor, I'll replace it, of course. If, as I suspect, the controller is failing, you can send it in to CC and they will fix/replace it for free.

-- Gary

[Scott Graham]

Ok Do you think it could be this? I got the motor to run and It spools up fine.. I changed the wiring. Bun tow I have the old problem back again... take a look at the quote.



So I thought I was home free... I changed the wiring from the ECU to the motor and the motor would spool up and start just fine. no chugging. then I flew it for three minutes or so then the soft cut off occurred. The motor was kinda hot... Id say around 180deg F. When I changed the lipos, because I thought It was just a low voltage cut off, the heli wont Arm the motor anymore. THe ECU wont even see the throttle anymore. I put a different (Low band ch12 crystal 72mhz) radio and receiver on the throttle channel and It works I was running a High band Futaba C9 super on ch45 72mhz) It did the same thing so I bought a Spectrum DX7 (2.4Ghz) because I was told it was a weak signal. so I figured this would fix the problem. Then The same thing happened. It works fine until about 3 min of flight then it cuts off and I lose my throttle control. I wonder if the ECU needs the firmware update...

This is what they say they fixed:
""Improved receiver signal processing to handle high frequency input""


So I have no idea. This has been the most confusing heli ever... :dontknow :(

[Coolice]

Hey,

Just an idea, but your motor mounting bolts are not to long are they? I had a problem with a motor getting very hot very quickly and it was the screws shorting out the windings. Worth a look.

Another thing to consider is gearing, your not perhaps geared to high and hence pulling to many amps which inturn shuts the ESC down? Cound be over currenting and this would explain the high motor temps to.

From what you have said it's not a radio issue or else you'd have lost all control and not just the throttle.
Update the CC controller and try again, be one mistake higher and upright to auto down if need be.
.

[Scott Graham]

No the bolts are not too long.... Thats a good thought though.. um and the grearing is the same one used in the TPpacks heli that Gary uses so tht should be fine.


what temp should a motor be running at? or what is too hot I should say?

[MarkD]

Bad phase winding in the motor?? Which would increase current draw and shut down the esc. You said it spooled up fine if you rotated the blades by hand which by then the remaining two windings will keep the motor going albeit at a higher current draw

[Scott Graham]

You guys are still looking at the first problem though,.... I think.....


Any way, The motor works fine now. the only problem is that the ECU won't Arm the motor now... its a new problem.. Im going to go ahead and buy the usb cable to upgrade the ECU's firmware and see if that works. If it does Ill be one happy camper ill tell you that. : ) :D If not... Im about to lose faith in Castle Creations ESC's :(



I'd like to thank Gary Goodrum at www.tppacks.com for all the help. He has answered all my questions. :noteworthy

[John Fox]

Castle Creations makes some of the best esc's around and they have the best customer service in the world. You could have a bad esc. But before you start saying how bad it is, try calling them. They will go out of there way to help you!

John