Disaster ! Quark
 

Hi,

Just as I am starting to have some fun & this happens. I have managed to fry my Quark 125 royally yesterday. Looking at the pictures, my guess is that somehow the battery input wires must have shorted. Looking at the layout of my buggy, there is a brass standoff used to support the cooling fan near these wires. The solder on the wires have almost completely melted & the negative wire has nearly ditached from the PCB. There was also a laceration on the red wire where it goes into the case.

It's been raining cats & dogs for the last 3 weeks. Yesterday was the first chance I've had to bring the cars out for a run. On top of that I have just installed a 8XL replacing the 7XL to try out. 5 minutes into the bashing session, light grey smoke was coming out of the buggy where the esc was situated. The stench was overpowering too. I ran to it as fast as I could & disconnected the batteries. The puzzling thing was that we were not running on wet ground. The ground was loose & we were running in a sort of figure of eight formation. so, throttle level was high. I'd hate to think that the constant higher throttle level killed the esc.

I really hope that the shorted battery wires was the problem as I prepare my spare Quark :036:

So, I guess my question is whether something as damaged as this is worth reparing ? Is the BK 9920 is on offer ?

Regards,
Joe Ling

PS : will try to load pics soon

I would try sending it back to quark just to see what they say..it would be worth fixing
i think
phil

I fried a 125 once. They have a 120 day warranty, so if its fairly new, they will cover it I think. It at least worth a try. Just call Quark. They covered mine and had it back to me in 10 days after I mailed it out to them. Good service. As good a the famed Castle Creations service in my experience.

When I talked to them he told me that they were laughing at mine, They had never seen one that fried before.:005:

I would check with them and see.
I think they have a cover charge if not.
cheaper than a new esc.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice. I will probably send it to Mike to ask him to assist to talk to Quark as I live in Malaysia far away & in a different time zone.

Regards,
Joe Ling

http://www.rcpics.net/img/82526

http://www.rcpics.net/img/82527

http://www.rcpics.net/img/82529

Yep I would have to say it is fried. The two out of three post is not working.

Joeling; didn't you upgraded the quark with the use of copper plates?

Hi,

Yea, grey smoke coming out of the buggy is not a good thing to see. I have put copper heatsinks on the outside on the aluminium side of the esc.

I went back to the same bashing place yesterday with my nitro buggy & registered a 198 deg C head temperature ! It did'nt stall at all. Maybe this is a clue. The bashing spot is basically a loose dirtrack & we were running at 50% throttle or more most of the time doing figure of eight round the track. So, the engine or motor is under pressure all the time. In addition, because of the loose surface, there was a lot of slipping & sliding. This could have caused the esc to overheat excessively & let the smoke out eventually. The puzzling thing was that there was no warning at all. There was no sign of thermal overload protection kicking in (for the esc). Sigh...

I was starting to enjoy myself as I have just found some bashing buddies & I have managed to not overheat my esc in the last few outings by switching to a 50T center spur & using 5S with the quark. Motor is a 7XL. On the day that the esc melted, I have just installed a 8XL C & swapped back the 46T spur. I'd hate to think that the motor killed the esc (although logically should not be the case). The drive train was pretty smooth (i.e. no binding) too.

Regards,
Joe Ling