Quark fried, blown capacitor...

[suicideneil]

If you can get to the internal caps to desolder & replace them then by all means do- how much does Quark charge to fix a moded esc, or wont they?

personally i think it would be easier to jus cut the legs on the caps and then put a bunch of caps connected externally should work just as well.

[zeropointbug]

Oh man AAngel! :019: You are having such bad luck with your controllers! I feel for you man! I really do!

Unfortunately, you probably damaged other parts of the ESC itself. That's what Frank told me, and just said for me to send it in for replacement.

I thought you were going to put the caps on it like I was going to? :032:

[zeropointbug]

That looks pretty good Suicideniel.

Please don't tell me that is your antenna wire running along in that pic?! :eek:

Well, I had the caps on it, but was having thermal troubles. I took the cap bank off to do the cooling mod and was running it after having done the mod, without the cap bank. I didn't think it would make a difference taking it easy. I just didn't want to have to go soldering on the power leads again and wanted to make sure that all was well before I soldered the bank back on.

Anyway...check out my pleasantly plumped caps...





OK, so am I to understand that replacing the caps won't fix this thing? Is S&T going to fix your esc even though the cooling mod had been performed? If they are willing to take it back AGAIN, I'll just reassemble it and wait for a return email.

Oh, I don't smell anything burnt. Maybe it is just the caps. I'm just itching to get this thing up and running.

[zeropointbug]

Actually, I doesn't look like they 'blew', there is no electrolyte anywhere, is there?

If not, then it might be okay.

If you are able to get the heat spreader off of that, would you be interested in the custom case I had designed? It should never ever thermal with it, or at least that what it looks like. :027:

BTW, what epoxy did you use? Is that your homemade stuff?

[suicideneil]

Originally Posted by zeropointbug

That looks pretty good Suicideniel.

Please don't tell me that is your antenna wire running along in that pic?! :eek:

Cheers. One of those wires is the antenna, but believe it or not there is no glitching or anything, since the radio was ment for a plane the aerial wire is about 2 foot long- had to bundle it up abit (wouldnt dream of cutting it down). I just want some good weather to take it out and do a proper test run....:007:

[zeropointbug]

rainy UK... :024:

[suicideneil]

Originally Posted by zeropointbug

rainy UK... :024:

Same old same old. When Im working its usually beautiful and sunny outside. When its my day off the sky turns grey- it might not actually rain, but its so gloomy I wouldnt want to walk all the way to my spot then risk it start raining on me. No problem though; its a rollover on the lottery tonight so when I win £7,000,000 I'll just buy a nice barnconversion or bungalow with a few acres of land & build a giant glass roof over the top, that way the grass still gets sunlight, and I can drive the truck without getting wet.:027:

[jhautz]

AAngel... Before you start removing the caps, call S&T. I've heard a few mention that they warantied the controller even tough it had been modified. Worth a try before making more mods IMO.

jhautz, too late. I already replaced the caps. I did a preliminary install on the esc and the zip appears to be back. When I hit the throttle, it winds right up and balloons the tires.

The caps that we got, however, are taller than the stock caps. It will just barely fit into the case. I decided to do a couple of "upgrades" anyway. I'm going to wire it all up and take it out to the track to see what happens.

Some pics...





I added the 5.5mm connectors because it will give me a good base for the additon of the cap bank and I like the idea of being able to replace the battery leads without having to tear everything apart to get to them.

I am, however, a bit concerned about the weight of those connectors on the pcb. Being banged around in the track may prove to be too much for the pcb to stand. I'm going to try to reinforce them somehow. If I can't come up with a satisfactory way to do that, the connectors are going to have to come off.

I also have to say that replacing the caps was a snap. It literally took me a couple of minutes, after I had the esc apart.

ZPB, I used arctic alumina. No homemade stuff for this application.

I did save all of the stock parts. That way, if all is not well, I can just put it back to the way it was and send it back.

[suicideneil]

Dude, cool. What were the specs o the original caps again vs the new ones?
As far as supporting the gold connectors goes- if the pcb is braced nice and firm inside the esc case, then all that needs doing is bracing the battery wires close to the esc case too = zero flex near the esc will mean no stress on the pcb. I would ziptie down the wires to part of the chassis or a custom little 'mount' just along from the esc, and make sure the esc is mounted solidly too, then you will have no problems what so ever. The main thing is to prevent the pcb from shifting in the case, and stopping the wires from flexing near to the esc- a 'no movement zone' if you like....

[zeropointbug]

http://www.nichicon-us.com/english/s...ini/pict_f.htm

Those are the caps Suicideneil. PM series is the same as PL series.

DANG AAngel! You have confirmed to me that I think I will do the 5.5mm mod to mine when I get my custom case made... when I get my Quark back....IF I know that two of those caps will do the job.

Do you think you could do a test of running without the case on it? To see how hot the caps get, and the top set of FET's? thanks

Looks great! I don't think the connectors are going to stress anything, although it wouldn't hurt putting something in between the connectors in case they get hit, to prevent it from bending.

OK, I test ran it and all seems ok. I, at this point, believe the the only problem was the caps. I left the esc out of the case and wrapped it in shrink wrap and epoxied the aluminum slab directly to a piece of 1/4" aluminum which is mounted to my chassis.

For some reason, I'm not liking it. The Quark PCB seems very weak with lots of flexing. I'm going to see if I can machine a delrin support for the connectors and pcb. If I can, I may just run it without the case to keep things cooler. I have to say at this point, that the Quarks do generate some heat.

A couple of pics...





Any constructive critism? I think I've gone overboard with this rather expensive of equipment.