Mono with battery puffing problems

[enzo thecat]

I have a mono (CF Ariana 2) with a leopard motor (that I upgraded from the original motor) and I've run Thunderpower 6S batteries with pretty high C ratings (50-70C). I've tried about 4 batteries and all of them get hot and puff on short runs well before the esc voltage protector kicks in. So something is mismatched. It can either be the motor, the prop, the esc or the batteries but I tried several batteries of different combination and they all do the same even when brand new. Where should I start? The prop is stock and worked fine with the weaker stock motor that was provided with the boat.

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[ETOWNE]

Need the mah on batteries, how many and how they are wired if running multiple packs, what leopard motor, and prop . And swelling packs is from too much amp draw.

[enzo thecat]

Thank you for helping.


Motor: Leopard 4092 Motor winds/rpm - 1730Kv 3D
ESC: HK Seaking 180A
Battery: 6S 5000mah 55C


I am not sure of the prop. It is the one that came with the boat. IIRC, I bought several props but couldnt find one that fit this China setup. Its been a while because I get so discouraged from damaging batteries every time I try. My fix has been to upgrade the batteries but that isnt working.

[boatsrnew2me]

incorrect timing comes to mind .that can heat everything up .
whats your low voltage cutoff set at? if at all? this should be kicking in way before your lipos start puffing up on you .

what brand lipo? how old are they??
and we really need to know the prop to help more .
are you leaving a gap between the drive dog and the strut to allow for flex wind up?
what connectors on your lipos?

[ETOWNE]

I can’t speak for that hull and motor. Seems like a pretty high kv for 6s. Thanks boatsrnew2me.

[rol243]

yes the kv,s will certainly assist in puffing up the packs. a 1600 kv max is ok for 6s but when you go higher in kv,s then things will get warm and or overloaded. i went through this with a 4s set up with the pack getting hot and puffy, only to be told my motor kv,s were too high for the 4s set up. you either swap to a lower kv motor or you could try a smaller prop and see how things go.

[enzo thecat]

Thunder Power Lipos. All were heating and puffing from Brand New
Yes there is the proper gap between the drive dog and strut (I should have mentioned that, thanks)
Deans Connectors between battery and esc. Large bullets between motor and esc (Came with motor)
TIMING: Timing is 0.00
Low Voltage cutoff is 3.2V Cell

[boatsrnew2me]

first issue i see (and its a big one) is the deans connectors .they are only good for passing 50-60 amps .people have ran more thru them but this is the result .
first thing would do is upgrade to ec5`s are something similar . i use ec5`s on all my boats and never have a problem .

i done a little digging and found this too-The 4092 - 1730kv is a D wind motor,on a Seaking 180a set to 3.75 degrees.
that alone isnt a big difference but i bet you sure could use better connectors .

are the wires pretty hot when you bring it in ?

also the lead length coming off the esc -shorter is better .
i would start with a connector upgrade and report back ,everything else seems to be in order .oh ,we still dont know the size of your prop...that could be a big factor as well.

[enzo thecat]

Wires a little warm. Definitely not hot. Just ordered 6.5mm Castle Creations Bullets.


Prop:


IMG_8806.jpgIMG_8807.jpg

[boatsrnew2me]

no mark on the end of prop? its 45mm so its either a 645 or a 445 .i would start at the connectors and go from there .that seems to be the biggest bottleneck

[enzo thecat]

Update: I discovered I had Castle 6.5mm connectors in my stash and I just finished converting all the deans to 6.5mm bullets. Hopefully that will be the magic fix. Thanks for the suggestions.

[boatsrnew2me]

good luck and report back

[fweasel]

FYI, if your Castle connectors are impossibly tight fitting, I give the male ends a light squeeze with a needle nose pliers at 12/6 o'clock and again at 9/3 o'clock. It doesn't take much pressure and saves a lot of frustration.

[enzo thecat]

FYI, if your Castle connectors are impossibly tight fitting, I give the male ends a light squeeze with a needle nose pliers at 12/6 o'clock and again at 9/3 o'clock. It doesn't take much pressure and saves a lot of frustration.

Thank you fweasel .

[stadiumyamaha]

That's a lot of prop to spin for any length of time at over 40k rpm.

After swapping out connectors Id try either propping down or lower voltage.

Your setup would make a solid 4s setup with that prob and would achieve a few things for you. It would allow you to work on your setup, cure the amp problem and be a lot of fun instead of a lot of frustration. No, it wont be a 60mph boat but it would be a great 40-50mph boat that handles well. You could possible push it to 5s but Id keep a close eye on temps.

Here's a vid of my pursuit with a similar setup running on 4s. One of my favorites builds and still running on the same equipment that it was in the video from years ago. I've had a lot of other guys smoke equipment trying to keep up with my little 4s setup. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_0Nw_g5PDo
JMO I could be wrong.

[enzo thecat]

That's a lot of prop to spin for any length of time at over 40k rpm.

After swapping out connectors Id try either propping down or lower voltage.

Your setup would make a solid 4s setup with that prob and would achieve a few things for you. It would allow you to work on your setup, cure the amp problem and be a lot of fun instead of a lot of frustration. No, it wont be a 60mph boat but it would be a great 40-50mph boat that handles well. You could possible push it to 5s but Id keep a close eye on temps.

Here's a vid of my pursuit with a similar setup running on 4s. One of my favorites builds and still running on the same equipment that it was in the video from years ago. I've had a lot of other guys smoke equipment trying to keep up with my little 4s setup. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_0Nw_g5PDo
JMO I could be wrong.

Wow. My boat isnt much faster than that! So I'd think a 6S would run cooler than 4S under any circumstances. That isnt correct?

[stadiumyamaha]

No. Heat is generally a side effect of amp draw.

The pursuit in the vid is set up for 4s using the same dia prop as yours. If I were to run the same setup on 6s it would be faster because the prop would be spinning at a higher rpm but would draw way to many amps, over heat and damage electronics.

RPM is calculated by max volts times kv. General rule of thumb for sport running and for a lot of racing is 30-35k rpm. 6s which is 6 4.2 volt cells would put my boat at a dangerous 55k rpm.

Your setup is at around 43k rpm which is doable but not with that size of prop. Thats why you see the guys running big power (voltage) have very low kv motors swinging big props. You normally can get away with both high rpm and big props for very long.

Unfortunately people are getting sucked in by watching videos of guys getting very high speeds out of rtr boats and making it look easy. They do it by pushing the equipment to the max with no concern of damage, its not a bad thing just what they dig.
I personally like to tune a boat to run as fast and handle as well as possible with whatever system I'm using and, with longevity of equipment as one of the priorities .

I was at the national this week watching the racing and spoke to one of the top electric guy who was on his third season with the same dynamite motor running on 4s. His cat was running perfectly and was probably pushing 50mph.

Check out Properchopper's cheetah on 4s. I have the same boat built about the same way both with very robust motors swinging pretty good sized props.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl5ebHR6wR4

Sorry for rambling

[Nevs]

I once tryed 1600 kv / 6s in a twin setup with 55-14-2 props. Peaks were 270 A each motor. (about 18 pound)
With 4s. peaks were 120 A.
I only tested the boat with 6s 2 or 3 times..Then the 5000 /60C started to pop..So my advice would be never to go over 50% of the rated max continious. In this case 150 A.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKkemL3Jg-w

[enzo thecat]

I once tryed 1600 kv / 6s in a twin setup with 55-14-2 props. Peaks were 270 A each motor. (about 18 pound)
With 4s. peaks were 120 A.
I only tested the boat with 6s 2 or 3 times..Then the 5000 /60C started to pop..So my advice would be never to go over 50% of the rated max continious. In this case 150 A.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKkemL3Jg-w

What is "pop"?