ESC Question

[Rok Krawl]

So a while back my Novak super duty started to smoke as I was showing a new neighbor my cralwer. Speed controller is several years old now. I have a theroy that the internal BEC has burned up and not the whole unit itself. I say this because if I turn the system on now it still functions the same only in a shor time the heat sink will become warmer and warmer. So I am going to try an external BEC and see if I can bypass the internal one.

Seeing if anyone has ran into this before. After talking with people and seeing how much everyone is frustrated with the M2, I prolly will not get one. I will more than likely run a dual set of Holmes Hobbies ESCs when i completely burn this one up.

Wish someone could repair ESCs. Instead of just junking them when it could be a simple fix.

[Charlie-III]

Try this out, better than nothing.... http://www.teamnovak.com/cs/web_opti...x_tradein.html

[Greatscott]

The problem is, you just don't know what was actually damaged in this ESC. It might have been just the BEC, but there might have been heat damage to other components; their reliability will be questionable. When those questionable parts fail, they might do so catastrophically, causing serious damage to your rig and causing injury to you when you try to save your rig.

Unless you have the technical knowledge and/or experience to know what you are tinkering with, I recommend sending it in for repair or replacement.

[Agustin Mireles]

Well , let me tell you my experience with electronics. When you have a unit like an ESC which is compact, high current and usually potted semiconductors, they are quite difficult to fix. I am not saying this is impossibe but, it is just not cost effective. The most indicated people to fix them would be the manufacturer since they know how they are assembled together and they could take it apart without breaking other good components. In reality this units are very cheap to build once they get the design right and all the bugs out, they just crank up the mass production line in China, just a few dollars to manufacture. What they charge for is design, the overhead here in the US, shipping, etc.
Now I am just stating the obvious, once semiconductors start to fail on temperature, unless you have a very good way to keep them cool, you will have to replace them. I had a Futaba ESC with exposed transistors and one of them burnt. I decided to fix it myself and after all the hassle finding the right replacement, I was able to fix it, a few weeks later another transistor burnt. Too much hassle, I just bought a Velineon combo. In my line of work is just what I do with electronic boards, I replace them and they could be several hundred dollars each, it does not matter, I just junk them and buy a new one. I have no time to sit at a bench and test all the components, find the bad one , remove it with out damaging the rest, find a replacement, make phone calls,etc. Just buy a new one , that is the easy way. Made in China for cents.