@castle: MMP royaly spoiled my day...
 

Let's start the story from the beginning...
I got me a MMP arround March or April, ran it for ~5mins with a Novak HV 6.5 untill my SCRT10 failed. Motor ran fine, had a bit of sporadic cogging what I found strange as the HV 6.5 is a sensored motor.
All wires were connected correct and the sensor cable was plugged in and in working order.
Then, about 2 weeks ago, my Slash 4x4 arrived.
Put the MMP and the Novak in and put 2 packs through it.
This time the sporadic cogging was even more extreme, sometimes it would help to give the truck a little push.
Or it would just stutter back and forth, in those cases even pushing wouldn't help.
Rarely it would start normally and accelerate as it should.
Sometimes it would just drive very slow speed until I put the trigger back to neutral and to accelerate again.
Sometimes it needed to come to a complete stop. And in some cases after a few seconds of "crawling" with trigger fully pulled it would just take of and give it the beans.

I looked at everything after that session and couldn't find any faults, reprogrammed the ESC checked every connection, the motor, drivetrain and ESC.

Today I wanted to put the next 2 packs through, but this time without the internal BEC. So I disconnected the red wire as the diagramm for use with external BECs says to do.
Since my external BEC is still under ways to me, I took one of my receiver battery packs and connected it.

I then plugged in the LiPo, put the body on, put the truck down on the ground and accelerated.
Or at least I tried, the Slash stuttered an instant and than sat still.
Nothing would happen, I tried to push it, but all wheels were completely locked in both directions.
Took of the body to see if I somehow managed to block the drivetrain, and in that moment I smelled burning electronics.
Immediately unplugged the LiPo and the receiver battery and noticed that the motor, motor wires and ESC were really hot.
Took my infrared thermometer, motor was at about 55°C and the case of the ESC at about 60°C. All that heat developed within 10 seconds at ~20°C ambient temperatur.
I would say the ESC shorted 2 or all 3 phases so the rotor was locked in one position. But then my knowledge on 3-phase motors is quite limited.

After a few minutes I tried to start the ESC again, but it would just continously beep and flash all lights in random seeming order. The fan stayed on and seemed to spin faster and faster, so I shut down the ESC.
Next I tried to connect it via castle link and it would connect just fine, flashed to new firmware, programmed the torque control and tried to drive it again.
To my surprise it accelerated, seemed even a bit smoother, but on the next try to accelerate from stand still it wouldn't move again.
I could repeat that behaviour at will.
So I just threw everything back into the trunk of my car and drove back home.
So much for one of the very very few days this (sh***y) summer where I would have had the chance to drive one of my RCs.
And so much for the next 2 days which are supposed to have good weather, after that rain is forecast for the next time, really great.

The motor, receiver, servo, receiver battery and LiPo (2S 5000mAh 33/60C SLS) are all in perfect working order, so don't even try to blame it on them.

So what now?
I'm not only angry that this ruined my day but also that it would quit after just 2 packs.
I'm really not in the mood for requesting RMA at the shop I bought it and wait 3 months of processing.
Neither do I want to wait for 3 weeks for the ESC to get to Castle plus processing time plus 2-3 weeks until it's back here.
My summer vacation is pretty much ruined RC-wise question is: will there be an RC-autumn (and any date beyond that) with castle or without castle?
Looking forward to your (Castle-guys) replys on this....

P.S.: I wrote this here because I never ever got a reply to the emails I sent to you guys.
Spamfilter I guess, but if you have any interest in your customers who try to contact you, you maybe should start to get a grip on that problem.
And because I know that you check this forum on a more or less regular basis.

Sorry to hear about your trouble. Please remember that even these days there is such a thing as a defective product. Seeing that you're in Europe I'm not sure if there is much that can be done to speed up the process. Just try to be patient, CC will inevitably take care of you.

What servo are you running? High powered servos seem to cause trouble with some MMP's. Even slightest servo movement with those servos will cause the bec voltage to drop so much that the reciever turns off momentarily. Unplug the servo to see if you still having the problem with throttle.

It sounds like you had an issue from Day 1 - I'm not sure if it was actually the ESC or the motor or connections that has caused the ESC to fail.

Cogging of that kind was the symptom which you ignored - Cogging leads to high amp spikes which caused the ESC to fail.

+1 to chris, If it wasnt right from day one and you noticed that whos fault is it for continuing to run it knowing full well that it was not at its best..

I think this might be user error

@SpEEdyBL: I use a Hitec HS-5645MG and because I thought of a BEC issue I tried to use a receiver battery.

@Arct1k & brushlessboy16: Now what do you suggest I should have done?
"Uh, I think the ESC might not be in perfect working order, better put it on the shelf and never use it, because it might blow" ?

Send in the esc when you noticed something wrong... that would make the most sense no?

Since you knew that something was wrong and continued to run it who knows if they will even warranty it.

That is easy to say when shipping doesn't cost anything and is done within 3 days, isn't it?

What you suggest is: Send in the ESC which costs about 30€ shipping costs and takes about 1,5-2 months, even if I wasn't sure if it was the ESC or the sensor that was at fault.

But this thread is running exactly as I expected...

You could have sent it back and saved yourself the trouble of making the thread.. And knowing castle there would have been a high possibility of them telling you that they would send you an esc with a box to put you damaged one in... Did you even call them?

Its a major problem when you have to push your truck to get it to accelerate

I actually don't think the ESC was at fault - I suspect either the motor is shot or poor connections with the motor... Cogging is the indication that something in the setup is wrong...

My German's not what it was but isn't it more like 15 eur... http://www.dhl.de/de/paket/privatkun...paeckchen.html

The reality though is your ESC is now dead and you have no choice but to ship it back... I hope that the vent makes you feel better in some way but there is not a lot that can be done now.

Best of luck.

What I can do for you is this -- If you PM me your info, I can get you setup for an advanced replacement - -so we can ship you a replacement ESC before yours gets here.

Thanx!

Patrick

Now thats customer service right there ! ^^^^^^

Everyone knows Novak, HobbyWing, EZ-run ETC wouldn't even entertain the thought of doing something like that.

Castles #1 !

@Patrick: You got a PM.
Thank you that you got here before one of them sent the unofficial CIA (castle intelligence agency) to shoot me in the face for writing something not positive about a Castle product :wink:


@Arctik: How do you think beeing flamed by Castle-fanboys (for whom this thread was never intended) made me feel better? I normally don't like repating myself, but this time I'll make an exeption: The soldering was fine, and the motor works well.
I don't know what kind of problem you guys have with me, but stop trying to blame it on me.
This is the exact reason why I tried to run it again after a thorough inspection of everey part. Because I didn't want to start a thread, in which I would be the idiot whose fault it is no matter what happend, just for the fun of it.
As for the shipping costs: Dein Deutsch scheint garnicht so schlecht zu sein.
But 13,90€ is for uninsured packages, which I on principle never use for packages worth more than 100€. Insured shipping to the USA is 34€ which is about 43$, so much for "just send it in".

@Bondo: Yepp, but sad it had to be with all these byproducts...
But I'll wait with the celebrating until this issue is wholly dissolved.

I'd bet $$ the HK co's wouldn't even reply to your emails let alone give any kind of warranty. Novak would fix it but they'd charge you and their products are only covered for 3 months.
Patrick is willing to send you another ESC overseas on his dime without even asking for proof of purchase. So it'll cost $43.00 to ship your ESC back, sounds like a awesome deal for a brand new Controller. I see absolutely nothing to complain about ?

It has nothing to do with Castle fanboys. It has to do with your attitude and how you approached the problem.

You should have contacted Castle for support when you STARTED having the problem, not after you burnt the ESC up. You obviously didn't bother to do this or trouble shoot your existing setup, you just wanted to run your truck. If you never asked for help then yes then fault lies with you. The only stupid questions are the ones not asked.

Patrick is taking care in a way that is much higher level than 99.9% of the manufacturers out there would. Motors cause problems as well, not just ESC's. You never even seem to have allowed this possibility. While novak makes very nice motors (their ESC's I do not care for though) they can and do have issues too. A bad motor can very easily ruin your ESC. Did you by chance ever try a different motor? I know all versions of the slash 4x4 come with a motor, why not see how it ran before blowing the ESC?

This is all common sense trouble shooting and not the indication of fanboyism as you suggest. This is how most, myself included, approach problems.

You asked people with experience and you got experienced answers. Same answers that would have been given had you been using a novak, LRP, hobbywing, losi, MGM, or any other brand ESC.