Magic smoke And 2 - 240's

[domwilson]

Ah, ok. Well give them a go with the new 1.04 software, and make sure you calibrate the ESC to the radio. Very important. If you don't see a solid red LED when you go full throttle (do it without a motor attached) increase your high side endpoint on the radio to say 120% and do it again. Been running mine in a couple fairly hot setups without issues for a few weeks now running each boat 1 or 2 times before the sun goes down (just got addicted...stinks that it's getting cold!).

PS- if you don't have a Castle Link to check firmware version/download the 1.04 software let me know. I'll send you mine.

Thank you for the offer. I upgraded the firmware last week. Will check the radio calibration sometime this week. I really appreciate your concern for your customers. It helps alot.

[Joe Ford]

My pleasure.

And EPower...won't dignify your response with a reply.

[Joe Ford]

Hello Joe, nice to see you posting here. Could you check if Hydra's aluminum heat sink plates are enough to remove heat from so many tightly packed FETs? Is it possible for Castle to offer 240A controllers with copper heat sink plates and water tubes?

Also, friend of mine just had 240 LV fail in a new way I didn't see before. It did not burn, but it fails to boot up. He says it makes constant ticking in the motor when battery is connected. That controller is a replacement by you guys for his previous one that burned. Would you be willing to take at look at it? His setup is 6S2P 12,000 mAh with extra caps, but it ran pretty hot pulling 140 - 160A continuously with some peaks beyond his 180A data logger limit.

Will do re the copper sinks. For the ESC, did it get wet? Sounds like a dead short...

[AntronX]

Will do re the copper sinks. For the ESC, did it get wet? Sounds like a dead short...

He says it did not. He tapes down the hatch on his Mean Machine catamaran. By dead short you mean short in the motor?

[Doug Smock]

Joe,
Thank you sir!!!!!!!!

[Joe Ford]

Or in the ESC. Could be either one. Have him check the connections between motor and ESC and make sure they're all sound, and check each motor phase resistance. The other thing is make sure that if he strapped the ESC down going over the top of the ESC that the control board (where the LED is) hasn't come off the connector (it's closest to the battery leads). Doubt that's it, but check it nonetheless. Let me know what you find.

[Joe Ford]

Joe,
Thank you sir!!!!!!!!

I should be the one thanking YOU. If it weren't for you I wouldn't be addicted to boats now.

[AntronX]

BTW, Joe, this is the controller in question: http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...ead.php?t=7015
I added these extra capacitors because original caps on the controller were running at their design limit of 105 degrees Celsius. Also i mentioned there that voltage regulator for micro processor unit was running very hot, it cracked a hole in original heat shrink. Could it have overheated and failed?

Edit:

Or in the ESC. Could be either one. Have him check the connections between motor and ESC and make sure they're all sound, and check each motor phase resistance. The other thing is make sure that if he strapped the ESC down going over the top of the ESC that the control board (where the LED is) hasn't come off the connector (it's closest to the battery leads). Doubt that's it, but check it nonetheless. Let me know what you find.

Ok, I will do that.

[Joe Ford]

BTW, Joe, this is the controller in question: http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...ead.php?t=7015
I added these extra capacitors because original caps on the controller were running at their design limit of 105 degrees Celsius. Also i mentioned there that voltage regulator for micro processor unit was running very hot, it cracked a hole in original heat shrink. Could it have overheated and failed?

Edit:

Ok, I will do that.

Can you show me the part that was overheating and cracked a hole in the shrink? Will let me know what it going on with it. What voltage were you using this with? BEC disabled or enabled? Let me know. Clean install of the cap board BTW.

EDIT: Found the setup. 6s. Does not mention if BEC was disabled or not though. Let me know. And extra caps definitely help smooth out the ripple when pushing the batteries to the limits. I recommend them as well for setups like that.

[AntronX]

Thanks,

He had separate receiver battery pack, I do not remember if red wire was cut. Pretty sure it was, otherwise I would have noticed that. Part number in question is 50L05C.

Edit: Looks like red wire was cut, looking at this picture you can see it being cut, but out of camera focus.

[Joe Ford]

Do me a favor please. Email me that part # and I'll look up the part when I get to the shop in the AM. I don't have a 240 here at the house to look at. Not to mention it's getting late. Email [email protected] and put the title "HYDRA 240 OE FORUMS"...get to it first thing. :)

[AntronX]

Ok, will do. Thank you for your help and presence.

[Simon.O.]

I am going to stick my neck out here, not unusual for me !
If a ESC goes bang on hookup then the problems are :
1. Wrong polarity from the pack, easily fixed by having opposite connectors. + male -- female or vv.
2. Exceedingly wrong voltage
3. ESC that is not built right.

I am sure that there are some other causes but these are the 3 that I have encountered.

As far as the CC units are concerned I will say this.
I am sure they are a great unit and wish the best for those that may use them.

I will not buy one as I see them as very expensive and I can get a "cheap" Chinese unit for 1/5 of the price that has thermal shutdown too, IF I run over 210A it will run on low power to bring my hull in.

I have drowned a couple of the cheap units and they died, my fault as they were setup this way by me. Nothing dramatic, no explosions or flames, just a little smoke and that horrible smell.

No ESC is is going to be the "Super-esc" to end all of the FE boaters problems.

We all just want a speedie that will run like is it is written on the packet.

[DISAR]

I will not buy one as I see them as very expensive and I can get a "cheap" Chinese unit for 1/5 of the price that has thermal shutdown too, IF I run over 210A it will run on low power to bring my hull in.

Is this the Himodel 200A? What size boat, and volts?

I have lost 5 of them running them in a MM 4s, DF 36 4-6s even one was gone during programming! 1 or 2 even died 20 secs after launching with a setup pulling no more than 130 amps.

[ozzie-crawl]

disar did you buy all 5 at the same time, just thinking bad batch
a mate and i and i know simon has as well given these esc,s hell and they have held up. i have seen one on 6s pulling 160 amps under load with no water cooling, it was run for a good 2-3 min at a time
i havent personaly seen one go up in smoke unless it was water related.
on saying that i have done up 2 off them for other people and both went up in flames in 30 seconds of use. only thing they had in common was both used aquacraft hand sets so iam wondering if for some reason they dont like the more basic rxs
one of them was run in my boat previosly for months with no problems