Sidewinder SC esc issue
 

Ok, running the sc system in a 2wd pede. On 3s lipo with low gearing. Top speed should be around 40.

This is my 3rd run with the system, after it blew up the tranny on the 2nd run (hehehe!).

Went out and for about 3mins the power was good, but top speed was slow, say around 30. Figured it was a cold lipo so I gave it a few half throttle passes and just goofed off. Tried again for full throttle and the motor was surging, and then it died off to about 5mph max. A couple seconds later I had no throttle, but still had steering. The yello (amber) led was flashing.

Thought that was the lvc indication (wrong, I know that now) and put the batt on charge and plugged the esc into castle link. Updated to the newest firmware and set the lvc to auto with a 3.2v setting.

I have not run it again as I ran out of time, but I since read the led meanings sticky and the flashing yellow is an esc issue.

Could someone tell me what to do now? I can test it again tomorrow when the lipo is fully charged, but...

Thanks.

Gave it a try and is seems to work fine. I did get it to thermal, red and amber leds on, but only for a few seconds.

Sounds to me that the ESC is a bit underpowered for the application. But a 2WD pede geared for 40 shouldn't be that hard on an ESC unless you were doing lots of stops and WOT starts. Maybe something IS wrong (at least partially) with the ESC after all?

You could try a MM just to see. I know you have at least 2. :wink:

I was thinking just that. The esc temped around 135, but those heatsinks are hard to get a good reading from. It was way to hot to hold a finger on. I may try a MM and send the sidewinder back to cc to inspect. Should still be in the warranty period.

Others are having good success with setups that should draw more load than this...

I have had weird stall outs on 3s(hyper10sc). Sometimes on hard complete stops it will die for ten seconds or so then jumps back to life.(like a thermal) I am unsure what the leds were flashing. I have also read about this happening to a few other users.

I run mine on 2s geared 23/90 about 36mph in my rustler and it runs ok but has a slight cog on a slow start and from time to time cuts out for a few secconds like my MMM did before I swaped back to 1.21 firmware. So it may be in the programing. I have about 20 packs through it and after a diff rebuild and mip cvd upgrade I can say I love the motor.

I had this too. I thought the esc was getting bounced around a bit, so I added another ziptie to hold it down. Seems to have cured the issue.. I have not really ran it enough to be sure.

It kind of effected my position 3 times during a race last fall. I was also running a border line hot setup on 3s.

Those weird stall outs may be caused by a thermalling BEC. Can't forget the BEC in this system is linear and running on 3s on even a so-so servo can generate quite a bit of heat. You could try a receiver pack temporarily to see if it cures the problem.

Good idea, I will give that a try.

A long time ago I made an inline deans setup with small wires soldered on that are terminated with a micro deans. I also have a bec with a micro deans wired to it. I just found it while digging thru my adapter wiring drawer. This way I can put the deans adapter between the battery and esc and run a test bec if needed.

Only issue is my test bec is the ccbec that is acting up...

I do have a CCC (cheap chinese crap) bec somewhere that I can try. I am running 2.4ghz so it should not have a noise issue that the CCCs had with my fm radio setups. That was always fun, trying to find a chassis location that did not bother the rx...

Ok, well the esc has almost completely crapped out now. Filled out the CC forms to return for warranty.

Strange behaviour, that is for sure. The esc will cog and glitch to start the motor, in forward or reverse. But once it is moving the esc seems to work fine.

I will return the esc and the motor, just in case the motor is causing the issues.

A guy at the races last week had a similar issue... if you give it large amount of throttle, it would cog or make strange noise. If you accelerate slowly, it would ramp up fine. The shop where he bought the system had seen the problem before and it was an ESC problem. I had a spare in my box and got him going for the races. Never hurts to send in the whole system, often castle will tell you the same.

Sounds like the same issue. Mine was so bad that I had to give it a push with my foot to get it going the last time i ran it. All boxed up and ready to go... Guess this pede will be the guinea pig for the custom HD driveshafts...