RX8 fried - help a noob please

After the initial problem my battery read 0v at the connector like yours and the balance was fine. I opened it up and the lead at the negative was fried. I cleaned a little solder up and did a little sanding. They have an extra tab at each lead so I just soldered that one on. And soldered the old tab to the new one. After I was finished the battery was reading about 23.6v at the leads. After it started on fire I checked it over again all the tabs look good and it is still reading 23.6v. As long as I'm not doing anything wrong I'm sure I'll get this working eventually.

I didn't use the kit from Losi. I used a pinion adapter, one speed hub and motor mount from TD Racing. I had New Era make me a custom roll bar that would let a battery tray fit up front. Then Mike was kind enought to make me a standard 150mmx50mm tray, but with a flat bottom. :D I had to mod the tray a little for the roll bar, but it fits about perfect between the tranny and radio box. I have a RCM 26T and 30T pinion to start with. Running the stock 63T spur. In the tranny are the new gears from the Losi BL conversion, 27/17 I think. ESC is mounted in back where the fuel tank was. I did a bunch of other little things, but I think the only other one that might be of interest as far as BL conversion goes is the HD diff cups.

I was going for a clean build that kept the weight up front and would hold up to abuse. As soon as I get this ESC thing iron out I think I'll be set.

[jhautz]

The reason it wouldnt run on the NiMH battery is you had it set for a 6s LVC setting so it saw the voltage as to low and wouldnt run.

I suspect that something wasnt right in the battery after the repair. If there was something wrong enough to melt a tab in the pack, whatever was wrong the first time was probably still wrong and it completely melted down the next time.

Originally Posted by jhautz

The reason it wouldnt run on the NiMH battery is you had it set for a 6s LVC setting so it saw the voltage as to low and wouldnt run.

I suspect that something wasnt right in the battery after the repair. If there was something wrong enough to melt a tab in the pack, whatever was wrong the first time was probably still wrong and it completely melted down the next time.

True about the settings, I didn't try to run it, but you're right, I'm sure it wouldn't have worked.

So, about the battery. I think I need to learn some more because I'm not understanding. Here is what I thought happened:
- ESC mostly died and shorted(but still lit up the lights when I plugged in the NiMh pack)
- Short drew enough current to burn through a tab on the battery
- I repaired the tab, all voltages were normal again
- Plugged it back in and ESC finished frying because there was voltage again

Can these batteries go bad and do something to fry ESCs? Or how would something wrong with the battery cause the ESC to fry? Can the voltage spike or something? This battery worked fine for 15-20 minutes of messing with the steering endpoints and other stuff. Then worked fine for around 5-7 minutes of driving. Before hooking it up the first time I checked the battery and polarity was correct and the voltage was just over 24v. After repair I tested again and it all tested out fine again.

I'm not saying I don't believe you guys, just want to understand more. This thing is a HK battery so I know it's not top notch. I figured for bashing it would be fine, but maybe I was wrong.

[TC5racer]

Contact Ty Campbell at Tekin (208)634-5559 he will take care of you.