and another one bites the dust....
 

Well my v3 gave out yesterday in a fiery death. It has been a good esc providing close to 400 hours of use. We were jumping off of a 40 foot hill landing about 90% of the way down it yesterday. I had made 3 packs worth of jumps, about half way into the 4th pack I let a buddy drive. He jumped it, landed, turned to bring it back up that hill and the buggy stopped with black smoke rolling out.

I have not checked the lipo, motor, or servo yet to see if they are ok. But the MMM is a charred chunk of ash. I'll get pics when I get home. My camera batteries were dead when I got home yesterday. The kicker... this thing is just outside it's warranty period :(


MMM was in a Mugen MBX5R with neu 1515 1y 2200kv on 4s, geared 15/46. I have run it that way since I converted the buggy with temps never exceeding 135 on the esc and 150 on the motor on the hottest of summer days and around 120-125 degrees on days 80 degrees or under. Yesterday was about 90 degrees out with 85% humidity.

Doesn't black smoke signify burning oil? I assume you didn't try to oil it to make it "smoother". :wink:

J/K. That does suck though. Hopefully CC will help you out since it is so close to the warranty expiration date. Even if they don't, at least the cost for a replacement is reasonable. Hopefully there is no collateral damage (motor, receiver, servos).

I wonder if the constant jolt to the components from jumping caused this? Hmm, I think I'm gonna add some foam padding to the ESC bottom just in case...

Perhaps that was the cause. This buggy has been put through the wringer over the last year or so though. It has seen much harder bumps than the clean landings I was hitting yesterday. The hill is 40 feet tall, but at any point the buggy was never more than 8-10 feet up from the slope. It's not like I was jumping off a cliff ;) My guess is a solder joint on a fet gave out and then touched another shorting it. the black smoke was from melting plastics. There was white electric fire smoke too but the plastics smoke was thicker.

lol, I kinda figured. Just thought I'd poke a little fun to lighten the mood a bit. Never fun when you burn something up.

I like the MMM, especially for the price, but the case leaves much to be desired. It seems like a lot of time was spent on the PCB/firmware design, and they said "oh yeah, we need a case for this don't we" and then just kinda threw it together. Of course, I'm sure some engineering was involved, but that's what it looks like to me.

At least it still lasted longer than a nitro motor!

...And cheaper to replace too!

BTW, we try not to say the N word here. It's just not PC...

This MMM has been rock solid and logged over 400 hours of use. I can safely say I got my moneys worth out of it. I'll call CC in a day or so when I feel like sitting on the phone. I'm leaving work early today for a drift exhibition, I have about a 2 hour window when I get home to get packed and then check for collateral damages.

I have to figure out a way to get the bottom plate off it's mount. It has melted round it and become 1 with the buggy.

HAHA!! Thats a good one!

Sorry for the loss DickyT. My (2) v3's are running long and strong as of now. I hope I can get 400+ hours out of it as well.!!

Collateral damage was minimal. Servo, battery, and motor are fine. I need a new shell though!

sorry for your lost DickyT...i have 3 units who died in 3 different truck,similar set-up(last month) in the same way but just to jump about 2 feet high on my grass field...both had about 200hours....im agree with brian,,,,good pcb desing and soft but the case:whistle:anyway we are lucky..castle offer the best customer service that ive never seen(better than my car dealer:lol:)

The MMM V1 only came out about a year ago, and you have a V3. I thought CC's warranty period was a year?

and.... pictures of the carnage!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/tekstyle/dead1.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/tekstyle/dead2.jpg

hmm it is. I had a v1, then v2, then this v3 though, so I think I'm past my days.

It's worth a shot to see if CC will replace it, I've heard they're good with warranty (most of the stuff I have sent in was burned out in out-of-warranty setups).

DickyT was one of the first to die as well IIRC.

If nothing else if they put it on the 70 dollar replacement plan it's still a good deal.

and BrianG, I will try to watch my language in the future. I do not want to hurt anyone's delicate sensibilities on the subject of the N word. It was very insensitive of me to use such language.