MMM, today is NOT our day x2...
 

Can you distinguish the similarities and differences between these two pictures?


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...0/P7190025.jpg

and this one

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...0/P7190024.jpg





It turns out, the difference is that one is my MMM, and the other is Ben's (brushlessboy16).
The similarities are that they both died on the same day, in the same exact way, with the same exact symptoms. Come to find out, the same exact component failed on each one! See the lower right corner, just to the left of the bottom bullet terminal. there is where there was once a component of some sort, but now is gone, from both MMMs, within 4 hours of each other, within 50 feet of each other.


The symptoms are as following: lost throttle during a race, and went to check it out. no LEDs on the MMM, but BEC still works. We both had servo and Rx power. Castle link does not see the MMM either.

My system is:

Hyper 7 conversion
4s NeuEnergy 5000mah 25c
14/46 gearing
standard diffs


Ben's is:

Revo 3.3 conversion
4s RC monster 5200mah 27c
17/38 gearing
Lst differentials
Proline VTR calibers.


Needless to say we are quite dissapointed with what happened, and hope it will be covered by castle when we call monday. here are some more pics:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...0719091830.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...0719091832.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...0/P7190027.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...0/P7190028.jpg

Today truly sucked.. did well enough to bump up from the B to the A main and then this happens...

i dont want to have to switch to another brand.

here is a highlighted shot for better clarification


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...010/hilite.png

Why do you guys need to call. Its easy, just fill out the on-line form and send it in with a copy of the receipt. Thats what I have always done. So is there any advantage to calling?

I'm guessing its the TVS... bad luck

@ hemiblas:

calling them up is always nice because A: they have a really friendly costumer service. these are not like the computer support people everybody dreads. the people who answer the phones at castle know what your talking about, and not searching a database for answers based on what you tell them. Also, I have called about a MMM before, and what the kind sir did was have a MMM sent out to me first, with a prepaid envelope to mail back my fried one, which is considerably faster on the consumer end than filling out forms, sending yours in, waiting 5 weeks, getting a new one in the mail when you almost forgot about RC all together.

@ Arct1k:

TVS? what is that? and i think it would be bad juju from the nitro crowd down Trax70 before bad luck... They make us do stop and goes, the marshalls always place it off the track pretending it flamed out, we're mocked for not having to tune 50 times a day, and they get quite pissy when we beat the pants off 'em

Stop and go is pretty standard and I have no issue with it...

Placing you off the track - Rev the nuts off it and give them a nice friction burn...

I love doing that. :) Scares the S out of some people

I know we tried some of that new no lead solder with one of our kit assemblers for the purpose of trying ROHS compliance and we had several components fall off of boards just like this.(we supply another company with our components and boards and they assemble them), We said screw it and switched back. Just about all the components you get these days are ROHS compliant (Removal Of Hazardous Substances). When we first started getting them in we had problems like this even assembling them at our shop. We also use water soluble flux (in house) which flows different than regular rosin flux. Some times it just seems the solder doesn't want to bond with the tinning on the component. We started a vibration test on the boards now to try and avoid this. We finally solved it, but I wonder if that could be going on here.

Jeff

Jeff, just curious, what company are you affiliated with?

Thompson Scale Co. in Houston, Texas.

Jeff

Jeff, do you race in/around Houston? Or go to Randy's?

Yes at Randys with Snellimin

TVS = Transient Voltage Suppressor (I think. It prevents harmful voltage spikes from damaging the caps) . I believe its actually located under the wires between the main + and - attachment points for the battery wires. Im sure a Castle dude will chime in sooner or later and identify the missing component- and then a solution/ redesign will be sought (MMM V4? you never know....).

Just got off the phone with Thomas, as I directed him to this thread. it is a tvs. it will be replaced/repaired under warranty..

Since mine is missing a solder pad it will be replaced, mikes is repairable...

3 week lead time..