ESC Testing

weldonassoc

weldonassoc

Member
Ok, before I start spending money on upgrading my 650 to a 4S or 6S system, I have a question about hot ESC's.

I just tested one of the ESC that has a split on the plastic covering of the board. When I run it up full throttle (with prop attached) for about 10 seconds, the board is really hot to the touch.

I am think that this is not normal as during my previous tests with flying the quad, only that one ESC gets hot. I am thinking this should be an issue as to why my Quad is draining the batteries so much. Any thoughts?

I am running 3S 5000mAh batteries and only getting about 2+ min. of flight time. I should be getting much more than that, right?

Any help would be great. Thanks.

Chris W.
 


P

ProPilotWannaBe

Member
weldonassoc said:
Anyone????????
Click to expand...
I would agree you should be getting more than 2 mins with that... I'm guessing its a hex? And I would agree that one ESC being much warmer than the others isn't good either. However, that doesn't necessarily fault the ESC. Do you know when the split in the cover occurred? Did it coincide with lower battery life or the warming of the ESC?
 

weldonassoc

weldonassoc

Member
ProPilotWannaBe said:
I would agree you should be getting more than 2 mins with that... I'm guessing its a hex? And I would agree that one ESC being much warmer than the others isn't good either. However, that doesn't necessarily fault the ESC. Do you know when the split in the cover occurred? Did it coincide with lower battery life or the warming of the ESC?
Click to expand...



Actually, i think it happened right after I installed them. So it may have been bad right out of the box as well as battery drain. Its actually an X4. I've ordered 4 more of the same ESC's and will test with replacing the hot one next. Should be here from California by Thursday.

I have an FPV system installed that I haven't been able to test until I get this issue weeded out. I've ran the numbers on ecalc.ch and I should be getting much better results.
 

D

DennyR

Active Member
Why don't you swap it out with another motor and see what it does. That should tell you if it's the motor or the ESC. Most likely it is the motor windings where the main cables are joined. Most windings are more than one strand per phase so it is likely that not all have good contact. :tennis:

FWIW I get around 25 mins duration from a 6,000 mah 3 cell lipo on a model that is 1150 grams
Another model that has a 11,000 mah 3 cell and weighs 2000 grams I get over 30 mins. Much of the AUW is battery.

Duration is a complex blend of efficiencies. from the motors to the downlink electronics.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

weldonassoc

weldonassoc

Member
DennyR said:
Why don't you swap it out with another motor and see what it does. That should tell you if it's the motor or the ESC. Most likely it is the motor windings where the main cables are joined. Most windings are more than one strand per phase so it is likely that not all have good contact. :tennis:

FWIW I get around 25 mins duration from a 6,000 mah 3 cell lipo on a model that is 1150 grams
Another model that has a 11,000 mah 3 cell and weighs 2000 grams I get over 30 mins. Much of the AUW is battery.

Duration is a complex blend of efficiencies. from the motors to the downlink electronics.
Click to expand...

I thought that might be it, so I swapped out (4) 1100kv motors for 1200kv motors and had same issues.
 



weldonassoc

weldonassoc

Member
Ok, I have just tested with new ESC and it is still only giving me about 3 min. of quality flight time with a 3S 5000mAh battery. I am starting to think it is the ESC and Motor combination. My next step is to purchase 4S motors and Battery. I already have new 30a ESC's I purchased last week so all I need is Battery and motors.

Can anyone recommend a good 4S motor for about 1800 - 2100 grams of total takeoff weight in X configuration? I hear a lot of good things about Tiger Motors.

Any help would be great.
 

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