My brushless Revo

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by BrianG

I don't see why those caps don't work right. Maybe it is the temperature since the traces may get quite warm and the heat will tend to be sinked through them.

High speed caps would be more of an issue for oscillator or high frequency filter, but I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) those caps are actually to provide a little amperage oomph during high current spikes.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how those new caps work. If you are concerned about the working voltage, I found some inexpensive ones here. Temp ranges from -40 to 85C. These are from partsexpress so they tend to use the higher quality caps for use in audio crossovers so they may be faster switching as a result even though they don't specifically say that.

Honestly I don't know why they are used as such. But pulling the Rubycon part # off the caps, the spec sheet lists the caps as high freq switching (or whatever exactly.) I'm just trying to replace the caps with as close a match as possible. The whole spec was 220uf, 50V, 105C. The allelectronics caps I bought are exactly that. If that does not correct teh problem (I'm worried it may not) I will have no choice but to sent it off. My best hope is that it is the caps as its something I can repair cheaply.

I know what you are saying about the amp spikes, but on the other hand I don't know why BK would have used 4 small caps for that. It seems easier and more reliable to have used 1 large cap. The caps are only 220uf, so they aren't really that large at that. When one of the caps was bad, the esc did not work properly at all.

I'm concerned about the heat build up, something is casuing a high amp draw.I don't see it being the setup. It got warm even whenI tested it in a 2 min drive in my rusty. Worst case would be some internal short Would a bad FET do something like this? Dunno, I don't see a whole lot else there. Nothing smaoking or burning, so not a whole lot for me to go off of. I have a feeling there is more power there too which is not getting to the wheels. I would think the 8xl/16 cells could break 40. Its still off that by a bit. We'll see what Monday brings I guess.

In the meantime I've got to figure out a roll bar. I don't want to crush the motor or esc on a bad flip or landing. The stock body is pretty light& flimsy and doesn't offer a whole lot of protection in a crash. When I get everything together I'll put up some more pics.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by Finnster

...I know what you are saying about the amp spikes, but on the other hand I don't know why BK would have used 4 small caps for that. It seems easier and more reliable to have used 1 large cap. The caps are only 220uf, so they aren't really that large at that. When one of the caps was bad, the esc did not work properly at all.

I'm concerned about the heat build up, something is casuing a high amp draw.I don't see it being the setup. It got warm even whenI tested it in a 2 min drive in my rusty. Worst case would be some internal short Would a bad FET do something like this? Dunno, I don't see a whole lot else there. Nothing smaoking or burning, so not a whole lot for me to go off of. I have a feeling there is more power there too which is not getting to the wheels. I would think the 8xl/16 cells could break 40. Its still off that by a bit. We'll see what Monday brings I guess.

Actually, several smaller caps in parallel have a better transient response (charges and discharges faster) than a single large cap. Plus, multiple smaller ones are usually cheaper and easier to mount, but may take up more physical space than one would. Those four 220uF 50v caps have the same capacity as one 50v 880uF cap, if in fact they are all wired in parallel.

As to your heat question; FETs have an "on" resistance. Having several in parallel (like these ESCs do) effectively decreases this total "on" resistance. If one FET has, say, 0.1ohm of resistance, then ten of them in parallel will have 0.01 ohms of resistance. Higher resistance creates more of a voltage drop which, combined with the current, generates heat. Less resistance, less heat. The point to this "lecture" is to say that if you have one or more burnt out FETs, then the total resistance goes up, creating more heat for the same current. I don't know if this is the case in your situation, but it is a possibility.

Something like the Eagletree system would record your battery current for you and tell you if you had too much amp draw.

Could be one or more phases on the motor itself is bad but I doubt it's that since it ran perfectly fine with my Bk 12020, and I really didn't use it all that much anyway. If you had a meter with a "conductance" mode, you could get accurate readings of the windings. With a regular meter, the winding resistance is so low that it will look like a short when it isn't. The most you could do here is check the resistance from each terminal to the motor case - it should be an open circuit for all phases.

An interal short would definitely blow something, but how would that happen? Even water doesn't short electricity unless it is very high voltage, it's the corrosion that gets ya. Most semiconductors usually open when they give up the ghost as opposed to shorting. Kinda like a fuse; too much current will burn up the small parts inside the devices.

Sounds like the ESC to me, hopefully the new cap will help. While you are at it, you might want to replace all of them. If they are all in parallel, what happened to one happened to them all. Maybe only one totally crapped out, but the others may be weakened.

[Finnster]

Well I had bought a number of caps just in case of that very reason. Re placed all the caps and still no luck. The caps I got from Allectronics are very nice, looks like a direct replacement, brand is Tesco.

Unfortunately that did not solve the problem. Initially it was a bit more responsive, but got very hot very quickly. Even the caps were very hot. This was just trying to make it go back and forth in my basement. All I can think of now is that something is worng with the fets or something less replacable like that. The Bec jumper is def pulled BTW.:019:

I think I am just going to go with another esc. This thing is a pain, and I'm not sure worth the effort. The rest of the truck is really good and its lame to let the esc hold it all up.

[BrianG]

That sucks. So, what are you looking at getting then?

Once you get a new one, it might be economical to see how much it would cost to fix. At least you'd have a spare.

[squeeforever]

Originally Posted by BrianG

That sucks. So, what are you looking at getting then?

Once you get a new one, it might be economical to see how much it would cost to fix. At least you'd have a spare.

Perhaps your right Brian. I don't think it can be to expensive to fix a controller that works and isn't burnt to a crisp.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by squeeforever

Perhaps your right Brian. I don't think it can be to expensive to fix a controller that works and isn't burnt to a crisp.

Hopefully it's not a few burnt FETs. If there is no obvious damage when they pull the heatsink off, there is no way to find the burnt one(s) since they are all in parallel. Just one more reason to have a two-part controller: one part with the "brains" and the other for the power section. At least you'd only replace half of it if something blew in the power section (the most likely place) and might be simple to build oneself.