LED in Seaking/Turnigy 180 ESC ?

[viper1]

Does anyone know what the second LED is for inside the Seaking/Turnigy 180 ESC?

There are 2 SMD led's mounted on the bottom board, 1 (red color) works as "bleep" indicator during set-up via the TX and in operational mode it lights up at full throttle. The second one (and without seeing it in action, it looks like a different color) I could not get to work whatever I did: programming, reverse, setting wrong cell amount to see if it gave an error or light up at LVC.

The LED's are inside the case, The manual mentions the red one but I never seen it at work until I opened the case.
They are on the bottom normally when the esc is mounted right side up. (invisible)

Just curious.

[ray schrauwen]

Maybe if you try a programmer it will light up with that? Who knows. Interesting though. How about if reverse is selected and engaged?

[viper1]

Tried all that, she stays in the dark....

[viper1]

This is what we are after, sometimes a picture ..etc

http://users.tpg.com.au/gmustang/extern/esc_board.jpg

[siberianhusky]

Leds have different properties than a regular diode, I don't know why it's there but there is a good chance it may never light up, could be there just because of the values it provides.
Could be there as a signal clamp, could be using if for it's higher forward voltage drop over a regular diode. Without a schematic it's pretty hard to say what it might do.
Lots of uses for an led that are not related to light output, like the clipping stage in a guitar over drive stomp pedal....creates a much different sound than a silicon or germanium diode, much harsher and metallic sounding.

[viper1]

Thanks, Maybe I should start learning to play my ESC then ? :biggrin:

But seriously; Although that is a possibillity, an earlier question I asked about the extra (unused) connection points on the board, shown on the LH side on above picture, revealed that this same program board is actually used in many different Hobbywing ESC's e.g. for cars and aero.

I think it's very plausible that this led is not used at all in the Seaking version, and for example is used in a car esc as indicator (brake?)

Just a 'hunch' ?

[siberianhusky]

LOL colour it black with a sharpie and pretend it's a normal diode! Ostrich theory, if you can't see it no worries!
Could drive yourself nuts trying to figure this one out! As long as the esc is working........
I'd love for my motor/esc to play Smoke on the Water on start up!
You could very well be right since the board is used in many applications it just may be a vestigial component, the esc appendix!

[ray schrauwen]

Mark who does the towing for the ON Route Center in King city on the N.Bound 400hwy??

If a car is left there, will it get towed and how soon or fast does that happen? My brother had to leave his car there a few days ago...

Please help me out... you can call me at home right now if you're available??

Ray

[viper1]

The longer I look at this thing, the more questions rise.....
I was thinking of improving the cooling by modifying the heatsink so all FETS get the "cold splash", as already done by some.
But I also noticed that there are also FET banks on the other side (bottom) of the board, who don't have any watercooling at all it seems?
Seems to make the whole mod irrelevant?