My Quark died?! Looking for a new controller...
 

Hey guys, if anyone has seen my modded Quark controller, yeah, it just was killed in action today! I have it mounted on top of the front shocks on my Revo and I did a flip at speed on grass, then it grabbed the ground a few times, and slip for a bit and while it was doing this I saw sparks coming from something inside! I was running my 7XL this time with 5s2p pack.

The Quark is mounted pretty darn close to the top of the body, so my theory is that the body flexed and came down and push on the esc and did SOMETHING to it to short something out. Afterwards, I notice the motor was locked up a little, it took a bit of force to unlock it... seems to spin fine now. But I tried my Neu on it and still nothing. I don't get a beep, or anything out of it. It smells bad too.

So I am thinking I will go MGM this time around, maybe a HV unit for future proofing?

Well, I am either just going to get another Quark, or get an MGM 9032?

What do you think? How would the MGM behave on a 1512/3D and 7s A123?

No ESC will work very long if subjected to that kind of abuse! :wink:

Either ESC will work fine I think, but you don't need to mod the MGM...

that was a beautiful controller you had there too... can we see the burnt up rubble? it's a shame... all that work you had put into it.

I know man! It ran sooo cool and smooth, it was great! Seemingly the 'be all, end all' controller for me.

It's funny, I was actually just thinking about getting a different controller... and what do you know, something happen to make that a reality! :eyes:

I might just think about making that Quark case that I designed a while back. But that would probably cost along with the Quark the same as buying the MGM 9032... so I don't know. I might just have to do the 'cap mod' to the Quark if I am running just a 1512 on HV, only 80 amps MAX peak I get.

I have a 9032&1515/2y I've played w/ just briefly (still working on the rest of the truck, just ran it around in the grass w/o bumpers/shock towers and lid 0_o !

Nice controller, tho I'm still undecided if I should have gotten a 16024 instead. I don't think I'll be going upto 10s lipo (8S I'm aiming for) but I wanted a controller that could do 10S A123, and perhaps upto 11 or 12S A123 for speed runs... I've since decided that's too much weight and space, so I'm staying at 10SA123/8s lipo for now. Given that my 10sA123 packs falls to 35.4V off the charger, I think it would have been ok on the 16024 (35.5V max IIRC)

IDK tho, both would work. Just debating whether I should have gotten a 3D instead w/ my current cell count (1360kv vs the 1100 2Y). I'll be fretting until I get a real good chance to play w/ it. :lol: Its noticeably faster than my 4s/8xl, but I won't really know how it does till its all back together


OH, and the controller is long. The caps are huge. It makes the controller ~80mm long. Quite a bit bigger than the MM it replaced. Made mounting a bit tricky as I don't want anything over the shocks bc of the ease of servicing the shocks and potential damage. I always imagined landing square on a pointy rock and spearing the poor controller. I tried to mount it as safe as possible. Sry to hear about the mega Q125! :(

zpb, if interested PM me. I have a Quark that I'm trying to get rid of. It's the one that S&T just sent back to me, so it's brand new. I just added a couple of inline caps and soldered the 5.5mm connectors on. I ran it once to make sure that the truck would move and put it away.

After taking it apart, I discovered that the brains board, a small IC burnt up and made quite a mess. All the FET's are A-Okay! I wonder if I should de-solder it and then get another Quark and make a Quark 250? With two sets of FET boards, like what I mentioned to JHautz. This might get interesting.

Which small IC?

Well, I don't have my camera with me for the time being, so...

Take your Quark, turn at it vertically, looking at the top, and have the motor wires on top. Now right where the power switch, and Rx wire goes out; there are three large chips (one is a diode or something?, and the next two are FETs, then next the those is a small chip (right above two small ceramic caps). This chip is completely carbonized. I am thinking that the force of the roll over pushing hard on this and maybe cracked it? Perhaps.