Mamba XL2

[rcs2022]

Have a Mamba XL2 which failed recently, smoke coming out on throttle trigger. It was warranty repaired more than a year ago, so i assume it will not be a warranty repair anymore. castle warranty is one year, right? even after a warranty repair.

getting it fixed with shipping charges out of US will be similar to cost of a new one.

So, just throw it away? Is there anyway I can attempt to fix it, as a trial, nothing to loose I would say. any ideas on where to start and what to inspect?

[_paralyzed_]

Open her up, replace the burnt parts.

That's all you can do. If the fire damaged more than just the component that failed like the board or surrounding components it may be a lost cause, but a single fet or capacitor failure could be repaired.

[Arct1k]

I thought they had some regional repair centers

[rcs2022]

Originally Posted by Arct1k

I thought they had some regional repair centers

Not here in the middle east....

[rcs2022]

Opened her up to have a more thorough inspection. Thought to share the pics also :D
Here are some pics, all looks fine besides where the 3 motor wires go in the board, but couldn't get the board off the top aluminum piece.
Anyone has any ideas how to pry it open, the 3 motor wires look a bit over heated, with brownish stains.


The top and bottom alum case parts slide open to get to the inside.






These are all the pieces of the Mamba XL2


always thought there were only 2x 680uf 35V capacitors, but there are another 2x 560uf 35V capacitors also



The small board can be easily removed, its just plugged on the main board.


Close up pics of the small board




The other side of the main board, but couldn't get it out of the casing.



This is where the fault appears, as the wires seem burnt a little, although I recall the smoke was from the batt wires side. need to get the board off to have a closer inspection. but dunno how.

[JERRY2KONE]

Yea it looks like you blew those two caps, which is not all that uncommon. You might want to contact Patrick from CC and share your circumstances and experience with him, and see what he can come up with. If your on duty out there he may give special consideration in support of our troops.

From a personal standpoint or perspective I would consider this a total loss for home repair, but if you can get CC to do a repair or exchange then great. Otherwise I would just get a replacement ESC and move on. That is the one thing about this hobby. Good quality electronics are somewhat expensive and when they fail outside of a warranty with no reasonable or obvious cause it can be a real PITA. I just picked one of these XL2 combos with a 1520 1Y motor NIP never used cheap for one of my rigs. I hope it provides better results. Please share what you get from CC for a reply. It's always good to hear what others experiences are so we know how to handle similar situations. Good luck.

[rcs2022]

Thanks a lot for your info, don't get me wrong I am not trying to get a free repair, thats why didn't contact castle asking for a warranty repair, as the ESC has lapsed the 1 year, although it was repaired on warranty before and switched to a XL2, even since the warranty repair one year has lapsed. I thought posting here and sharing what I had, somebody from CC would chime in.

Already have another Mamba XL2 which is going in the truck ASAP, so have no worries from that point of view. Even ordering another XL2 replacement as I feel better with having one spare in the drawer

Actually was just trying to see what happened, or what I did wrong so it can be avoided whether it was a user mistake or some fault in the ESC or any other reason. The only thing I know, had a big jump with a somewhat hard landing, one of the bullets got disconnected from the hit. Nothing hit the ESC.

So in my humble opinion its one of the following reasons.

1. Bullet disconnected while on full throttle upon landing.
2. When the bullet disconnected, it could have intermittently being connected / disconnected during the seconds till the truck came to a complete stop.
3. the hard landing had to do with getting something bad happening inside the ESC. although I do have a pad under the esc on a plastic plate, not to keep the ESC on the chassis directly bolted. I know lots of people bolt it on and have bigger jumps than mine.
4. Dunno, just move on and enjoy the hobby....

[rcs2022]

Did pry it open at last, its not glued, but the thermal paste as I assume needs a little pull to seperate; not too much. And below are some pics, seems the Mosfets (I think this is what they are called; not sure) are partially burned; there are a lot of them....

Got the capacitors also out of the way. One side the thermal paste is on a mesh or tape, the other side is on the black thingys (mosfets) directly.
I don't think the capacitors were fried, but the mosfets caused the capacitors to get burned or whatever got them in this state.

[JERRY2KONE]

Using your description it sounds simple enough to me. If you had a lead disconnected during operation it more than likely touched something else and shorted the ESC. That in itself explains the amount of damage shown in your pictures. I would make sure to double check your bullet connections and even tape them for extra holding power to avoid this in the event you have more hard impacts like that one. If your using high voltage in your truck any cross connection similar to what you described can be explosive. It only takes a nano second with a direct short to destroy circuitry like what is used in these ESC's with almost any voltage, but the higher the voltage, the more sever the damage caused.

I would still shoot (Pdelcast) a PM and share your experience with him and see if he has any input or remedy for you. Ya just never know until you try. He has been a pretty good guy from what I have seen when it comes to supporting CC products even in instances when they do not have to.

[JERRY2KONE]

Any update on this? Any luck contacting CC and getting assistance with your issue?

[rcs2022]

Just bought another one, its out of warranty anyway as I said above. Also not sure after I opened her up like in the pics still stands for warranty

Just felt cool to share the pics. As you mentioned also, probably a short was the issue; note to self, ziptie the wires or route them in a way that they don't get disconnected.