Novak HV-Max 6.5 Caught Fire?!?! Need Asistance
 

hiya,

let me tell you the sob story first.

i brought the novak hv mas 6.5 brushless system along with the novak 1/8th brushless conversion kit to run in an OCM buggy (Mugen copy), so i fited it all together and had a little play but had problems with the speedo cutting out.

acording to the manuel the motor was to hot there for it would shut it down, but checking temps it was still warm but nowhere near temps that was recommended in the manuel. (cannot remeber for sure), so i thoguth ok maybe its a gearing problem.

so i brought some more pinions to change the gearing to see if it affected the temps and stopped cutting out, but it didnt really help at all.


so last weekend it was freezing at the local track, so i had it in my mind that if it was an over heating problem, then using it in the freezing temps it should work better and shoudlnt cut out if it was a temp problem.

and it still cut out but it did last a lot longer.

so im trying different thing to get it to last thinking that it maybe a gearing problem or maybe a wiring problem.

so it came ot the finals which was a 15min final...about 4:30 into the final it stopped and cut out as normal on a slow part of the track after the timing loop...as i was walkign down the rosterum i saw smoke inside the shell.

so i was thinking it was the batteries going up as i have had some dodgy batteries in the past. so i was takign the shell off when it caught fire :eek: so i threw the car into the empty field out the way incase it decided to go bang or whatever it does.

so when i go over to it the fire was put out during flight unplugged batteries and saw a great big burnt mark around the shell/chassis/speedo.


so thats the story.
next thing is what do i do about it as it hasnt been running correctly since day 1...do i send it back to novak???

will they replace it? any ideas on what will happen?


anyway, here are some pics of the speedo :-(

Click for larger images
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004883.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004886.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004887.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004892.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004900.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004903.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004904.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_o1Dwg8sm6-4/SX...0/S8004907.JPG

Forward this post and photos to cs@teamnovak.com and one of our tech support folks can assist you.

My brother in law has had a similar ongoing issue with his 4.5 - there is a thread on it in the Novak section of the forums. He sent it back once for repair of the glitching issue - it was returned with no fixin done to it (ie., couldn't replicate problem). Not really blaming Novak on it - it was returned through the LHS where he bought it, so probably not enough of a description of the problem.
Subsequently - the capacitor burst into flames. It's now back at Novak (sent it back 2nd week of December) - dont have any more info yet.

hi, thanks for the speedy replies.

so, what is likly going to happen if i send it back?

i ask this because if i send it back and they cannto do anythign its going to cost me a fair bit of money sending it to the USA when i live in UK...i will more than likly get hit with import duties as well.


also is this somwhat of a common occurance with these speedos?

Here is the link to our comprehensive customer service information:

Novak Customer Service

If you have additional questions, you could start a thread in the Novak section of this forum.

Thread moved to Novak section...

Thanks. It makes it easier for me to keep track.

Nasty. Looking at the location of the burn, its in the same spot as the damage usually seems to occur- where the cap leads are soldered (there is also a tvs soldered to the pcb in that location too I believe).

The engineers are no doubt familar with this issue; what has become of the once great hvmaxx? Seems the 'updates' to the hardware inside the esc & that cursed new cap unit have caused more problems than they didnt need to solve in the first place (my original hvmaxx system never blew up due to over gearing or a dodgy cap etc). Go and kick the tech guys in the shins will yah NovakTwo.... :wink:

I received your email and replied. Thank You for taking the time to email us sir.