160 Edge caught on fire in the air.

[robertvizzo]

My brand new Protos Max V2 with a CC 160 Edge caught fire in the air right after a pitch pump on the 3rd flight. The good news is it only did a $120 in damage to the heli other than the esc itself.


Scorpion 4533-540 Limited Edition
20t Pinion
CC Edge 160 (Bad Castle frown emoticon )
BK Servo Brushless BLS 8001 Cyclic
BK Servo Brushless BLS 8005 Tail
Zeal 690 Energy mains and tails
Vbar Neo
Optipower Ultra Guard
Internal Vgov
Headspeed 1950/2150

[dominator]

Sorry to see that. I also had a Castle 160 catch fire mid flight. (yes I had proper gearing and set up.) I was lucky that I use rx packs and was able to auto in with flames shooting out of my canopy.

It was a sight to see...I will never use another Castle Cremation

[Xrayted]

So sorry to see this. Was it a BEC setup or flight pack?

[robertvizzo]

Flight pack with an opti power ultra guard as backup. Just couldnt build enough head speed hence the hard auto. Landing gear bottom plastic frame and a burned canopy about $120 or so. Remember the best brand of BEC is NO BEC!

[Xrayted]

Well that rules out any improper wiring of any BEC then. The gearing is also fine for the quoted rpm, so no obvious reason this should have happened.

Castle will most likely cover the ESC, but nothing else. Once again, really sorry this happened on a brand new model like this.

[OnTheSnap]

ProToast. :-(. I've had 3 160's go this year. Usually not infant mortality like this..

[Over_Speed]

arghh not good.

is that a vbar battery ui sensor wired in there?

[trickybit]

Great. Will maiden mine very soon. Not too thrilled w my 8awg soldering...

[robertvizzo]

yes vcontrol and neo

[kthane]

Uhhh, bummer. Still trying figure out what ESC i wanna use on mine while I'm waiting on batch #2...

[ah_liang]

Fire on new edge series are rare. Must be super unlucky.

[Freeskiken]

Wow, really bad news. I thought Castle had this sorted out.

[robertvizzo]

Update, Castle Creations has been awesome with the customer support, a new unit is on the way to me already. They are telling me that this is very rare with the edge line. This is the first problem I have had with one myself. SO thank you Castle I.

[mc20piece]

Lets have a look at your solder joints. I'm not saying this is your issue, but this is repeatable all day long with bad soldering.

[Yfbb]

Originally Posted by dominator

Sorry to see that. I also had a Castle 160 catch fire mid flight. (yes I had proper gearing and set up.) I was lucky that I use rx packs and was able to auto in with flames shooting out of my canopy.

It was a sight to see...I will never use another Castle Cremation

Wasn't yours an ice 2hv? Those do burn quite often.

Originally Posted by OnTheSnap

ProToast. :-(. I've had 3 160's go this year. Usually not infant mortality like this..

Were they all castle escs?

[LaDon]

Originally Posted by robertvizzo

yes vcontrol and neo

What good would that do? Neither of those would have a thing to do with an esc catching on fire.

[dominator]

My castle was an ice2hv. IMO that still doesnt make it ok for castle to sell a product knowing that its only a matter of time until it burst into flames

[mc20piece]

Originally Posted by dominator

My castle was an ice2hv. IMO that still doesnt make it ok for castle to sell a product knowing that its only a matter of time until it burst into flames

It's not ok. Castle's aren't the only ones that burn just head over to the YGE forums. Nine out ten times an ESC goes up in flames its poor soldering or crash dmg. I have seen horrendous soldering jobs by people that claim "I have been soldering for 30 years blah blah blah.....". All it takes is a cold joint on a motor wire or cold joint on the esc and its an amp pulling maniac. When you have additional y harnesses and mah gauges etc that just increases the chance of a shotty joint somewhere. Mix this with the fact that everyone heads right on into the castle software and sets their current protection to insensitive or disabled. Then they proceed to stuff the esc into a cubby hole with no air flow 👍🏻

[Over_Speed]

Originally Posted by LaDon

What good would that do? Neither of those would have a thing to do with an esc catching on fire.

But wiring in the Vbar Battery MAH/UI Sensor might...

[trickybit]

Originally Posted by mc20piece

It's not ok. Castle's aren't the only ones that burn just head over to the YGE forums. Nine out ten times an ESC goes up in flames its poor soldering or crash dmg. I have seen horrendous soldering jobs by people that claim "I have been soldering for 30 years blah blah blah.....". All it takes is a cold joint on a motor wire or cold joint on the esc and its an amp pulling maniac. When you have additional y harnesses and mah gauges etc that just increases the chance of a shotty joint somewhere. Mix this with the fact that everyone heads right on into the castle software and sets their current protection to insensitive or disabled. Then they proceed to stuff the esc into a cubby hole with no air flow 👍🏻

Well, I just installed a Castle Edge 160HV, and struggled to solder some 6mm bullets on the 8awg leads. So I'm interested in what you say. But I don't get how a cold solder joint could suck amps. Also, is it feasible to test a solder joint like this without special high-load instrumentation?

I thought I was facing failure risk or sub-par power, not fire risk.
Thanks,
Jim