controller on fire!!
 

I just got my truck running and batteries reconditioned from sitting. The controller caught on fire! I was just driving it in the front lawn. No speed runs or anything. I dont even think I drove it long enough to get the controller hot. Anyone have any Ideas.

The bigger problem is I just bought lipos, I dont think the boss Lady (wife) is going to go for another $200 purchase.

was it a schulze?

Warrior 9918

If it won't to old the warranty should cover it. It was hard to tell what it was. Kind of look like a piece of coal. Sorry to see and hear of your trouble.

Yikes! Whatever happened, it will be nearly impossible to tell with the condition of that controller. I haven't seen a non schultze controller look like that! Something definately went VERY wrong with that. You used that controller for quite a while, too. Did you change anything since last running it?

Thats the weird part. My truck has been sitting for awhile, dreding the transmision rebuild. I havnt changed anything electrical on it at all. I am very confused on what happend. I put the truck back together last night and did a couple of test runs for about 2 min. (it was 3:30 in the morning). Today I did another test drive, and this was the resuslts. I didnt even drive it for 5 min, or full throttle. Mike is it under any type of warr? I am so confused on what happend

Mayb moist found it's way inside the controller?

Very strange indeed.

how old is it you could try sending it to bk for warenty and hope you have a better experiance with them than me

Ouch....

That is not a pleasant sight..

I too never saw another esc than schulze burned down like that..

that still makes it 156 to 3 for schulze though, but it really sucks.. Is it possible that one of your motorwires came loose?

My freind solderd the wires and he did it very strong and shrinked wraped it. I dont think any wires came loose. How long are the warr. on the controllers. I bought mine from mike, I think less than a year ago.

The warranty is 90 days, but BK will typically cover anything that was deemed their fault. It will be impossible or nearly impossible to determine the cause of failure on that controller, though, as it is pretty much unrecognizable. It had to get a short or moisture or something to cause this. I wouldn't expect BK to warranty this controller, based on the age and the condition(hard to say the cause of failure).

Figures, thats the way things usally go for me. It would happen right after I spent all my money on lipo's and a charger. Plus if there is something wrong how am I supost to find it. Even if I was able to buy a new controller, I would be scared to put it on. What do you sugest I do Mike.

Perhaps BK can determine if it was moisture or a dead short that caused the issue, but I doubt it. where was your truck while you weren't using it? Any chance it picked up some moisture> What batteries/gearing etc. were you using on it when it failed? Did you inspect the wires to make sure there are no bare spots(wire with no covering) that could have shorted on the chassis or something?

Everything looked good, no wires were exposed. I stored it in a big plastic bin. Everything was the same as I have used before many times with no problems. Same batt. 18 gp3300, forgot what gearing. How would it short on a carbon fiver chassis.....just kiding there is still metal braces and stuff. I dont think BK will be able to determine anything from a chunk of charcaled plastic. This sucks, but it will really suck when my lipo's come in the mail. BOOHOO :cry :mad: :(

is it any way the batteries short out on the chassis braces? If Both of the batts touch the metal then the esc is the complete circuit. Just a thought.

stuff happens, but dont let it prevent u from buying another system.

The problem is I just spent almost $500 on lipo's and charger. I dont know why the controller caught on fire, so if I buy another one the same thing could happen.

if you alreeady invest 500 bux arleady, y quit now? and if teh same thign happens, u can send it back for the warrenty.

Its not just $500 its more like an investment of a couple thousand. The $500 is just this week! Most of the time Warr. is for manufacture defect, not owner defect.

CF will cause battery shorts just like metal (Carbon is the key word).

The problem was his 7XL running out of his bearings.

Yep, saw the other post!

this was the initial problem.

yep. Sure was!

Sorry to hear about your controller loss, especially considering how much some of this stuff costs. But in the light of things, at least it wasn't a $320.00 Schulze controller.

Now, I do have a question. I've read several posts about how Schulze controllers burn to a crisp, but would like to know what the major common malfunction was for those controllers? Was it bad wiring or connectors? Was it while using LiPos? Or was it while running max cell counts for the controllers? Lastly, is it the 18.97 that has failed the most? The reason that I ask is that I my first 18.97 contoller had no problems and I sold it to a friend who has had no problems, and now I have another 18.97 that I'm running 16 cells for my BigMaxximum. I would've considered a BK controller, but I understand that they won't control 4 pole motors, so it was pretty much the Schulze that was the only option.

Sorry to hear about your BL motor / controller problems, Ryan. I hope your next setup wont fail you and hopefully your wife wont eat you! eek!

@ compliantguy;

this is the collection of the schulzes i have. Only 1 is replaced under warrantee. and the others where not the fault of the owner. they are known to blame the customer of a loose contact problem, but that ignorant company refuses to believe any of his users..

Schulze have been in the brushless industry for quite a long time and they've made lots of speed records and won several awards and probably that is why they've become so arrogant and unfriendly with the customer. If it were not for the size of the BK I would have used it in all of my applications.

Serum,

Oh my God, that is allot of money invested in Schulze! If I would've had that many controller failures, I'd want to tear someone's head off at Schulze for lack of customer service. It really is a shame that companies ignore the very people that make them a successful company, and that is the customer always seems to get the shaft! I really wish that Castle Creations would produce a controller that would handle 4-pole motors and at least 18 cells, because their customer service seems to be excellent. Anyway, thanks for information. And, I guess we'll see how long my 18.97 lasts in my Hyper 7.

That customer service from Castle is top-notch indeed!!! schulze must make a study out of it...

you can use a bk with the pletty. on the warriors with the 100,000 rpm limit it just can exceed 50,000. i think the micros have a 150,000 rpm limit (please correct me if im wrong) so if would be good up to 75,000 rpms which you would never see with that motor. im not sure what would happen if it did exceed the max though.

-corey

I think the big problem with the shulze(apart from arrogance) is actually the bigmaxx,it just can't handle it reliably and it's the controller recommended with that motor.I don't think it's a coincidence that it's always the 18.97 that snuffs it.I'd like to know how many were running the bigmaxx at the time.

I bought that combo before i found RC-Monster and Serum's hall of shame,i ended up using the controller in a lower stressed application in a stadium truck where it doesn't even get warm.If you sold the 4-pole and got a 2-pole then i think the controller would be alot safer.

I have heard that the BK Warrior controllers aren't really able to run the 4-pole Plettys very well, but this doesn't have anything to do with RPM limits (which I believe you are correct on).

The MicroCar is the one with the 42,000 RPM limit.

You can not run a 4 pole plettenberg with any bk controller. it is some kind of timing problem that can't/needs to be fixed.. Who needs plettenbergs when there are 2240's and 50's...?

i asked mike a while back if the plettys would work with the warriors and i was told that it should work but the rpm limit would be cut in half. the reason i asked was because of something i saw on the instructions (that make no sense).