Burnt up 180A v3 hobbywing ESC?

[domwilson]

domwilson: Can caps ever blow or get screwed up in any way without changing form or getting leaky, etc? I ask because a leg on all 4 of my stock caps on my SF 200A 8s look like they have either burnt and shorted or bent to the point of ripping the legs in half... which I find hard to believe that I could mess them up that badly when repacking/retaping the ESC. Especially since it happened to all 4 of the caps. Though... I resoldered them back-- the ESC works fine and has an additional big cap bank. I noticed this sometime after a meltdown of 2 tp4050 motors... this ESC was the only one without an additional cap bank (the other ESC had the additional one) so I'm starting to think it might actually be a good idea to just replace them with new ones.

Yes. Electrolytic caps can dry out over a period of time or heavy duty cycles. In addition, After you replace the caps with similar or higher values, I would still investigate why they blew in the first place. Perhaps check the drive train for any binding. Your strut adjustments, weak batteries, too long battery wires, etc. These all can contribute to this failure.

[dmitry100]

domwilson: Well, the main reason was that my shocker flipped and the throttle failsafe was not setup correctly since the throttles are set to reverse on that radio... so both of the motors were at full throttle (50k rpm) for like 5 minutes by the time I can get to it... and they melted along with the whole drive lines and tubes. Thankfully the ESC's were fine except for the cap legs on one of them which may or may not be related to the incident. The ESC's were brand new and had no other use before that though.

So better safe than sorry and just replace them then?

[domwilson]

Yes. Even with a cap tester, I still would.

[Jamey]

Hi domwilson, same sea king 180. I thought I had it under control but I noticed my caps get hot at times. Not sure if it driving style or what. Batteries, esc, and motor seem fairly cool but the caps are noticeably hotter. Will not having enough capacitor cause this and would it be beneficial to replace the 2 390uf caps with 1000s? How many would you use and not be overkill? (32" mono, 4092 1480kv 5s & 6s)

[domwilson]

Yes you could try the larger caps. But I would look at why the caps are working so hard. Do you have a different, higher capacity, batteries you can try?
Refresh my memory, What batteries are you using? What size connectors on the battery and motor ends? Can you take a pic of the insides of the boat?

[IRON-PAWW]

Ok. I've got popped caps on my v3 as well. System was running fine with no real heat anywhere and a pretty conservative setup. Just so I'm clear. I can remove the 2 popped caps on the body of the esc and seal off the holes. Then remove the caps on the leads and install a new cap bank, and this *may* fix the esc? Then stop using the internal bec also.

Are the 220 amp swordfish esc's any comparison to the 180v3?

[Jamey]

Iron-paww, I am not sure anyone has been successful yet removing the on board in the v3. I guess unless you are going to pursue warranty you don't have much to lose trying it. The op did remove his but it sounds like his esc is still doa.

Domwilson, for batteries I use series 2s and 3s 7200mah 60c from SMC with ose 6mm bullets. I only use 3000mah to 3400mah after about 4 minutes. On paper I should be okay I think. I have just installed an external BEC with a 1000mah 2s. Curious to see if that helps any. I'll try to get a picture posted.