Help with a Plettenberg please!
 

I just bought a (slightly) used Plettenburg BigMaxximum motor.

I'm running it with a MM controller, 3s 5000mah lipo in a 8ight buggy. I've been running the same setup with a Feigao8xl with great results.

The problem is the Plet cogs badly on startup. Even when rolling, it won't take throttle. The motor, wires, esc, battery leads and battery all get warm to hot really quickly with a few tries.

When I bought it, I noticed the cogging but I blamed the esc the guy was running because it smelled burnt. I brought it home and swapped in my MM esc, same cogging and instant heat-up. Anyway, I bought it so now its mine and I have to see about fixing it.

I read a bit already and I saw a couple guys mention that they could not turn the bare shaft (of the motor:)with their fingers, too much magnetic resistance. My fingers are pretty normal and to me, it feels like turning a low turn brushed motor, feels notchy but not hard to spin.

Is there anything to do before I send it to Germany or should I just call UPS?

If you have a test meter handy, see if the winding has shorted to the motor casing.

Set your meter to continuity, then put one lead on the motor casing and the other lead to any power wire.

His ESC probably smelled burnt from trying to run a shorted motor winding.

What kind of connectors do you have between the motor and the ESC?

I wish you luck on this one.

Not shorted
 

So I just brought my meter home and tested the motor. No continuity to the case on any wire. All three wires have continuity to each other. I even tried spinning the rotor with the meter on just in case.

This motor will run if you spin it up gradually but the heat build up happens too fast to even try to actually drive it.

I've heard that it can be difficult to get these fixed. Is there any (more) local alternative for repairs?

My connectors are the standard 4mm bullets compatible with MM

Ok, before you do anything else, check those connectors out really good.

I was having cogging issues just like this with a Mamba Max setup. Come to find out, it was arcing inside one of the connectors. I replaced all 3 connectors and it was fixed!

It was on the male side of the connector. I noticed one would slide in.........or unplug very easily. When I looked at it closer, I could see little burnt spots where it had been arcing.

Before I fixed it, it would run the motor. There was alot of cogging though until finally the ESC would thermal.

It's running strong now. Check it out. :yes:

No continuity to the case it good! :yes:

You will always have continuity between the motor wires. It's a 3 phase winding, so if you don't have continuity between them all, something would be wrong.

Hmmmm........let me know if you find anything with the connectors

Maybe it's for this reason that theother guys decide to sell it:diablo:

Connectors
 

They seem to fit tightly. The motor came with 5mm Quark style connectors which I removed and replaced with 4mm to match all my other stuff. The cogging didn't change with the motor ends or the esc ends, I've swapped out both now.

I agree!
 

I changed nothing, the problem was pre-existing. You know, this kind of thing really grinds my gears!!!

Do you have any other brushless controller? One that you can set the timing in degrees would do and see if it works with the motor. I had the Plettenberg Extreme running with the MM and it did cog some times, but it worked good.

MM have a hard time with some 4 Pole motors right?.. The BIGMaXX is 4 Poles...

Aaaaaaaaah, I bet you're onto something there!

Try it with that Quark 80 amp you have! If it's going to run right, the Quark will do it. :yes:

I would say it's because the bigmaxximum has got this nasty startup resistance.

It's about the same as a Neu, which doesn't seem to run very well on an MM either.

According to Plettenberg, the BigMax is a 6-Pole Motor, so the Mamba Max will have to work much harder than with 2-Pole or 4-Pole Motor

http://www.plettenberg-motoren.com/U...MAXX/Motor.htm

??? :lol:

I asked Plettenberg and they told me that the Maxx has 4 Poles and the BigMaxx 6 Poles!