ZTW Seal 200A acting strange

[Lutzy]

Yesterday I ran it a few times and everything seemed ok, Im running Twin ZTW Seal 200a and Nuemotors 1100kv motors. WHen I usually plug in each side of batteries, it would beep and sync on both esc's and motors, today it seems like it only beeps when I plug in the first set of batteries, doesnt matter what side I start with, but it only beeps on the first set of batteries. I thought it might be the y connector, but that checks out ok. Im new to boating so theres alot for me to learn. Attached is my youtube video of whats going on. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

https://youtu.be/xBUV9OaH7NQ

[jkflow]

Can you re-take the video or show a larger picture? All the interesting parts are cut off. No need to show an ESC, can't see the beeps

Both seem to work fine, not really a concern, but it is odd.

Would need to see all the battery terminals and the Y cable going to the ESC connection.

[Lutzy]

Ok, So I did some trouble shooting, and it seemed that when I plugged in one side of ESC it armed that side ESC but both motors were also making a beep, even though the other side ESC batteries were unplugged the unplugged side motor even glitched a little, It seemed like it was back feeding somehow the the RX wires. Since these ESC'S both have BEC I decided on disconnecting the red wire on one side of the RX wire to the ESC to disable the BEC, therefore only one ESC is supplying power to the RX. It seems to work perfect now. Both sides arm perfect. No glitching, just like it used to work. My question is, can I run the RX using only one of the ESC'S BEC or would the power consumption on that side be more then the other side, or should I just delete both BEC and use a separate RX battery pack. Sorry for all the questions but I appreciate any insight.

[tbonemcniel]

When running a twin and powering the receiver/servo using an internal BEC, you should always cut one of the red wires on the ESC to receiver cable. I usually choose to cut one on the Y-harness, rather than the ESC wire itself.

You don't want the two internal BEC's fighting each other, especially with switching BEC's like most modern ESC's that have a built in BEC use.


There's a big 7-page thread on here (https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com...s-for-two-escs) about the most proper way to use dual ESC's that aren't OPTO isolated internally, because the possibility for a ground loop still exists with both black wires going to the receiver. But you can't cut one of the ground wires, because the control system needs a common ground. There is a fancy way to make a setup that eliminates that risk, but I haven't found it necessary for the amount of work involved. What I do when wiring dual ESC's that aren't OPTO isolated, is to parallel the battery negative sides together to ensure that is the common ground, reducing the risk of a ground loop happening in the receiver. It's awfully tempting to parallel the positives together as well, to ensure even battery draw during a run, but this can create huge voltage ripples, blowing capacitors. Often, the voltage ripple between the ESC's will not be in phase with each other, and it's no big deal, but when they do get in phase, and the frequencies line up, the amplitude of the voltage ripple can double, and lead to blown capacitors. So I don't parallel the battery positives together. Instead, to get more even battery draw, when I cut the red wire of one of the ESC's going to the receiver, I cut the one that comes from the left side motor in a cat, or right side motor in a mono. When racing, you're always turning right, so in a turn, one of the props gets pushed into the water a little more, upping the amp draw on that motor, while the other prop comes out of the water some, lowering the amp draw on that motor. So I power the receiver/servo with the ESC/battery that is going to get a little bit less amp draw during turns, so that the amp draw of powering the receiver/servo tends to even the batteries out at the end of a race.

[jkflow]

All of the above^^^
You are lucky that you haven't blown anything up yet with both positives connected.

[plinse]

Ok, So I did some trouble shooting, and it seemed that when I plugged in one side of ESC it armed that side ESC but both motors were also making a beep, even though the other side ESC batteries were unplugged the unplugged side motor even glitched a little, It seemed like it was back feeding somehow the the RX wires. Since these ESC'S both have BEC I decided on disconnecting the red wire on one side of the RX wire to the ESC to disable the BEC, therefore only one ESC is supplying power to the RX. It seems to work perfect now. Both sides arm perfect. No glitching, just like it used to work. My question is, can I run the RX using only one of the ESC'S BEC or would the power consumption on that side be more then the other side, or should I just delete both BEC and use a separate RX battery pack. Sorry for all the questions but I appreciate any insight.

I deleted both BEC by disconnecting both red wires going to the RX and still had issues that I never had with other ESC before.
Just have a look at my experiences here:
https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com...336#post757336
The most strange thing: That Setup ran without any problems a couple of times and I changed nothing and it turned out to burn the negative RX-wires.

Be careful with these ESC.

Regards, Eike

[tbonemcniel]

I deleted both BEC by disconnecting both red wires going to the RX and still had issues that I never had with other ESC before.
Just have a look at my experiences here:
https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com...336#post757336
The most strange thing: That Setup ran without any problems a couple of times and I changed nothing and it turned out to burn the negative RX-wires.

Be careful with these ESC.

Regards, Eike

And I'm not enough of an electrical guru to know for certain that my method does any good (my education is in mechanical), but an experience just like yours, is precisely why I parallel the negatives of my batteries together. So that the ESC's have a common ground that isn't the RX wiring.

[plinse]

And I'm not enough of an electrical guru to know for certain that my method does any good (my education is in mechanical), but an experience just like yours, is precisely why I parallel the negatives of my batteries together. So that the ESC's have a common ground that isn't the RX wiring.

On one hand this might help if there are oscillations driven by switching but on the other hand it opens a ground loop to have negative connected.
Actually it can only be an oscillation topic as there is no closed loop in my boat AND for some strange reason it worked well for a little more then 10 runs.

The "electrical guru" would remember the past and add an opto coupler board separating the ESC from the RX completely so even oscillations would have no chance but when you watch the market the last opto-boards available are sold out and since then the market "expects ESC to work properly" and not to have cheap crap where development stopped after the first function was given