The smoke escaped out of my Quark.
 

I have had my E-Maxx for 5 years now and have raced it since I got it.
I finally ordered a brushless set up about 4 weeks ago off Mike, recieved it 3 weeks ago and has been going 2 1/2 weeks.
I'd like to say thanks to Mike and every one on this forum for helping me choose a set up.(I never actually posted here, but have read alot use full infomation)
My set up now is:
Feigao 7XL with blue RC-Monster XL size heatsink
MIP CVD's
E-Maxx diff gears with FLM cups and Intergy cases
Strobe slipper with Ofna 51T spur
Proline Bow Ties(not 40 series)
12 and 14 cell bateries
13 tooth pinion
Kool Flight UBEC
Quark 125 with RC-Monster esc heatsink
3" computer fan on top - works well with titans
and for the last couple of days a carbon fibre chassis.

Any way back to the tittle.
Last night at racing I went over the jump (car gets about 1.2m height and 4m length) and the front end was getting too high so I tapped the brakes but Quark brakes are too good (haven't change any settings yet) and the front slammed into the ground fairly hard(on the wheels though). I had steering but no throttle. After the race had finished I pulled the trigger for half a second to see what was happening and smoke start coming out from under the body.
The motor was only 40 degrees C, batteries weren't hot, but the Quark was.
After a few minutes of looking at it (and about 10 other people) I noticed the little metal cover behind the motor wires had popped out a few mm and was shorting out those gold plug things for the motor wires that are solder to the circuit board.
Has that ever happened to any one else before?
Will it be covered by warranty do you think? Hard to tell from the manual ( I'll be a bit upset if it's not).
I got it through Mike, but haven't contacted him or S&K yet.
Sorry for the long post, didn't relize till I checked it. Oh well better make the fist post a good one.
Thanks
Patrick

Well, probably the jump was very hard on the controller. I think you can send it back to Mike and he will surely pleases you.
Welcome to the forums, BTW!

Welcome Alex; the reason for posting is not so nice though.. It sucks to see a controller go up in smoke..

Can you shoot a picture of the situation? did something actually break off, or did it just 'got loose'?

Was it the motor can popping open; i presume not, since you are using a RC-monster clamp/heat-sink.. or did something went wrong on the quark?

Thanks
I did come down kinda hard, but I've done much worse things to it with the stock settup with no problems.
I'm a bit disapointed about it I thought a car controller should take car crashes like that. I like the way the controller went until then.
See what happens with warranty though.
Once I get it replaced or repaired I'll definately be putting heatshrink or somthing around those plugs.

Can you shoot some pics of the current situation?

Ok now im more confused, took the photo's and there's burn marks or smoke marks around the cover but i don't think the cover is actually conductive, seems like plastic, so i don't know what the problem is.
It was running with 14 cells, 51t spur, 13t pinion, 7xl, was only running for 2 or 3 minutes. Here's pictures anyway.
Patrick

Serum where did you get alex from, lol.

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/5...00788ue.th.jpg
http://img315.imageshack.us/img315/7...00800fe.th.jpg
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1...00817gj.th.jpg

Crap, that's odd, Alex; Welcome Patrick... This is funny.. My mind is playing tricks on me..

No, not to worry; that thing you thought is metal, is actually plastic.

I think something slipped inside the quark, i think a FET got loose and caused the misery.. Just sent it back to Mike or to quark.. Let's see how it goes, Mike told me Quark has got a top-notch warranty..

I was looking forward to seeing how the Elite 4500's would go, but I only got to use them for a couple of minutes, seemed fast but I expected 14 cells to.
E-maxx was in the boot of my car overnight, now my cars stinks.

send it in man mike would be glad to help.

hey what chassis is that?

I smoked a quaek once and they were very quick about replacing it. Especially if its that new. Strange thoug Ie never seen one where that cover came loose. I wondering if it came loose and caused the problem or if it came loose becasue of the heat generated from the controller burning up. Could be either way.

But I agree w/ Serum. Looks like something came loose in the esc when landing that jump. (not normal):019:

I'm sure Quark will take care of it. So far they have had top notch service for me. In all honesty though, calling them directly will probably be faster. I'm sure Mike will be happy to help, but he will just be a middle man. Quark asked for proof of purchase date (copy of reciept, print out of paypal receipt) and a note telling them what happened. I sent those things to directly to S&T with the burnt controller and I had a replacement back on my doorstep in 10 days.(including shipping both ways) Doesn't get much better than that IMO.

Good luck and welcome to the forums.:018:

that is an extreme engenieering chassis

For any one that's interested, I received my new Quark today.
I got it 10 days after I fisrt e-mailed them about it, and I live in Australia. They haven't even received my old one yet. Gota be happy with that service.

The only bad thing is that I put the titans back in to race it on Friday, because I didn't expect to get the Quark by then LOL.

Cool! Glad to hear it worked out so quick for you!

Not much work to put the BL back on :) I'm sure you can manage it until friday :027:

Try a lower brake setting on the Quark. Gives you a bit more reasonable mid-air brake response. (those XL motors can have a wicked brake force)

DAF

Changing the motor is the easy part. Re tidying all the wires and cable tying the ESC back on is the anoying part. I have to change the spur from the 32p with the titans back to Mod 1 for brushless (I don't have any Mod 1 1/8th pinions).
Yeah yeah I know I'm wingeing about it, but I was looking forward to not having to swap a bunch of stuff on my cars again for a little while.

I'll be reducing the brake force on this one lol.

Oh, and I couldn't say which chassis it is, because I don't know. I got it second hand off a guy at racing (he upgraded to the Gorillamaxx).
It's carbon firbe, in good condition, and it cost me $50 aus (~$38 US). He also gave me the RPM skids to go with it and his aluminiun bulk heads (since he got the hybrid bulks).
I also bought the powerstrokes off him brand new for $50 aus. He bought them new then decided to go to the Racer X shocks ( I think?, UE ones)
If he's at racing on Friday I'll ask him what brand the chassis is, GorillaMaxx360 was probably right though.