Eflite 40amp ESC

[TheTank]

Hey fellas, anyone out there heard about any issues with the Eflite 40amp ESC? I am using mine in conjunction with a Hacker A30-14L in a Sebart Katana 30, HS65 servos and Apogee and Flightpower 2500mah 3 cell 20-25C lipos. It worked great for several months, now all of a sudden, when I am doing rolling harriers, and some other tumbles, the ESC cuts out to BEC prematurely. If I fly circuits, sequences, spins, etc, all is fine. But in a rolling harrier, it always cuts out. I lower the throttle, raise it again, and I am good to go until I do rolling harriers again, then it cuts out again. I have had it for 5 months or so without issues, and it just recently started doing this. Thankfully it was low the first time and didnt cause much damage. But it is doing it pretty consistantly now. Any ideas?

[3DFreak576]

Only thing I can think of is that your servos are drawing to much current for the internal BEC. The reason for it to happen during rolling harriers is that you have the ailerons jammed over while your moving both the rudder AND elevator almost full deflection both ways. Try putting an external BEC on it with a higher rating than the internal's 3 amps

[TheTank]

I thought about that, but it doesnt happen in things like flat spins and such... and it just started occuring recently... I think you are on to something though. Thanks for the input. My only question would be why do the servos trigger the BEC to cutoff? I thought that was determined by voltage seen at the battery when it dropped below a certain point. Pardon the lack of knowledge with this stuff, I'm more of a plug and play kinda guy with these electrics!!!

[3DFreak576]

maybe someone else can chime in here that knows a little more about BECs. I was always under the assumption that when your servos over amp the bec it will shut down the motor, just like the motor over amping the speed control its self.

Have you tried duplicating the problem on the ground? Have someone hold the plane and fly the plane in your head. Do the same control movements and power settings you would in the air for a rolling harrier and see if it shuts down...

Don't know what good it'll do ya, but it'll be fun to try. =P

[Dangerous Dan]

don't do rolling Harriers

[TheTank]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Dangerous Dan
	don't do rolling Harriers

Damn, why didnt I think of that sooner?!?!?!

[Mudsurfer1234]

i flew someone's EF extra 300-E and it did the same thing, only cut out during rolling harriers, i would cut the throttle, and then it would work again.

We traced it to a bad wire connection, the solder broke. I have a feeling it was also too much load on the BEC from the servos...

[F3AFlyer7]

It's not the BEC that's causing this problem. If it was, you would have absolutely no servo control for about 2 seconds. What it sounds like is that your batteries are seeing some high voltage spikes, probably resulting from pulsating throttle during your rolling harrier, and the ESC is seeing a split second of low voltage cutoff, resulting in no motor. The other indication of this is that you can rearm the controller by bringing the throttle to low stick, then ramping back up and the motor works.

There's also a very slim possibility, and I do mean SLIM, that there's a loose component on the board that's affected by the centrifugal force created by the constant rolling. I would doubt this, however.

What kind of programming options are on the e-flite speed controller??

How hot is the esc when you land? (can you touch it for a few seconds)

[TheTank]

The ESC not at all warm when I land. I thought about the spikes drawing the voltage down, but seeing as I havent had this problem in the past, and I am running the same battery, and some newer, 25C packs that have some insane punch (3cell Flightpower 25 2500MAH 25C pack and Apogee 2500mah 20C pack), I have ruled that part out. The only thing I can come up with is the controller. I thought I had read something, a while back about some ESCs having problems because you could only run a certain number of servos off them. I may be mistaken, but could that be the issue? Even though it wasnt a problem for several months, perhaps it is a problem now that it is cosiderably warmer.

[Freddy Warbird]

This is a perfect candidate for a data logger because you can get it to repeat over and over again. But, all it takes is one nano size resistor to give up the ghost, or a chip to let go somewhere internally to cause weirdness. If that is the case, theres nothing that can be done. On the other hand, if the ESC is working well, other than the motor prematurely cutting, disable battery cut off, or lower the setting, and see if the motor still cuts. If it goes away, I suggest to contunue to enjoy. The E-flite 40 amp controller is a lower standard Castle design, and fairly primative. It probably has a lower life expectancy as well.

[TheTank]

Good idea, I will see if I can disable the BEC and see if it works. Thanks for the idea.

[F3AFlyer7]

It's not your BEC that's causing this. Like I said, you would have no control at all. Plus the controller itself would be fairly hot. 4 micro servos on a 3s pack should be absolutely no problem at all. This issue is something unrelated to having too many servos causing the BEC to fail. You can disable it, however, by clipping the red wire on the cable going to your receiver. I wouldn't say it's necessary though.

Say if you were to take off and go right into a rolling harrier, will it do it? And then lets say, on a fresh charge, you take off again, and fly the entire flight without doing a rolling harrier, then around your cutoff point do a rolling harrier. Are the results identical, or is there anything different?