ESC Woes

[SandMan123]

I put about two years of service on my stock ESC. Tonight, when I plugged the battery in, the series of beeps kept going...indefinitely. I replugged my battery and same thing. So then I wait a few minutes, and try again, all was well I thought. But after about 5 minutes of flight my ESC starts to cut out (just cuts out once actually), so I land immediately. Any ideas?

[irishmatt18]

New ESC is needed... 2 years is a long time man..

That is my guess.

[fusionsx00]

You have a short, or as my electronics teacher said a "open" circuit.

That esc has protection built in.

Check for loose wires, loose bullets and reprogram the esc to see if it will hold your settings.
After you've done that try again.

[SandMan123]

Is two years of service too long for an ESC? What's their life expectancy anyway?
My connections are all solid.

[kimmik]

Unlikely to be a short, possibly an intermittent open circuit but also unlikely. Check if the continual beep is a error code. Sounds more like a cant-find-problem type intermittent fault best to use another esc and keep this as spare.

[Harrow]

Originally Posted by SandMan123

Is two years of service too long for an ESC? What's their life expectancy anyway?
My connections are all solid.

Once you get past the initial burn in period, solid state electronics have a reasonably constant (and low) failure rate until around the 15 year mark, then things ramp up a bit. So, no, two years is not a long time, it's just a matter of luck (or bad luck rather) for this sort of thing to happen so soon. I sure wouldn't keep fly my X5 with an intermittently faulty ESC. Then again, you might like impromptu auto practice.

[Jasong911]

I would think that helicopters would qualify as a hostile environment for all the electronics on our birds. Vibration, heat, shock loads and all the other conditions that exist in and around these guys are hell on circuits and connections. Isn't the common rule on full scale, 1 hour of flight time equals 4 hours of maintenance? These things are hard on mechanical gear, why would they be less hard on the electrical stuff? The problem with ESC's and the like is that you can't often tell visually that the part is broken or loose or needs lubrication. We diagnose electrical faults when the darn thing falls out of the sky or turns left instead of right. I think that any thing short of a crash that gives an indication that something needs attention would be a "dodged a bullet" kind of a deal.

--Jason


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[onemetre]

Isn't the Hobbywing part under $60?

Rob

[onemetre]

The Hobbywing part is under $60. http://www.hobbypartz.com/07e-c-platinum-100a.html

Rob

[Chris Sexton]

My stock ESC just passed 300 logged flights since I built it last summer. Holding up fine.

[desertstalker]

Originally Posted by Harrow

Once you get past the initial burn in period, solid state electronics have a reasonably constant (and low) failure rate until around the 15 year mark, then things ramp up a bit. So, no, two years is not a long time, it's just a matter of luck (or bad luck rather) for this sort of thing to happen so soon. I sure wouldn't keep fly my X5 with an intermittently faulty ESC. Then again, you might like impromptu auto practice.

You forgot the Caps, cheaper electrolytic caps (the can shaped ones in all ESCs) can fail in 2-3years and once they go the fets will follow fairly quickly. They are usually the limiting factor in electronic life-spans (which is why many computer parts these days use a different type). Fortunately thats easy to check, if the ends of the caps (metal) are bulging or it looks like something has leaked out, they're toast.

[SandMan123]

Well, I've put a half dozen more flights on the ESC without any issues. It's weird, not sure what the deal is. I don't want to spend $100 for a new ESC. On the other hand, I'm pretty good at autos

[crf69]

Originally Posted by cdsexton

My stock ESC just passed 300 logged flights since I built it last summer. Holding up fine.

im at over 220 in 2 months

i think if i make it to 500 flights i will install a new one