Kinda wish I hadn't tried that, Volumes one, two, and three.

[Trubble]

Okay, first up,

Never comp'd, haven't been in an organized race since the mid-80's. Now I've just about got myself a good 99% comitted to going to the comps over in Oshkosh next weekend. All I had to do was keep my hands off my crawler and keep it in one piece. Then I started to wonder about my batteries and electronics.....

Oddly enough, my best packs are my two smallest packs (6 cell NiCads, one 1500mAh Tower Hobbies brand, and another I can't idetify, maybe 800-1000mAh). I was wondering if my 8 cell pack would work. I don't yet have an external BEC, but I have read the thread, I know...... yes, I do need a BEC. Anyway, just running stock, the AE-1 turned on and ran, but was very glitchy and seemed to just stop (thermal?) an awful lot. So I decided to run one of my heli LiPo's as a receiver pack to simulate a BEC (more on this in volume 3). Worked like a charm! Plenty of voltage, nice speeds available (for a 55 turn), and the servo was quite happy with it's own power. Found out the Futaba receiver, the AS-2 servo, and AE-1 ESC were all quite happy running off an unregulated 2S LiPo.
But, some damage was done. Snapped off a tab trying to get the red wire out of the ESC's receiver plug. Dang! I have some unassembled Futaba style connectors (from EMS?), but haven't checked to see if the stock sleeves will fit in the conectors I have. But I put the pin back in and got it back in my receiver, works fine, just hafta wonder if there's any chance of that pin weaseling back out.
Kinda wished I'da just kept my hands off, but no serious damage done. Anyone care to share what you've done right before comps? Can't hardly believe I'm the only one who got the idea to tinker with something right before I needed my truck.

Volume two,

I was perfectly happy and content with my AX-10, perfectly content with my 6 cell NiMh's, even tried some of my bigger 2S LiPo packs and was happy with those too. Kept reading here on the forum about going 3S, and always thought "Psssssshhhhh! Why bother, I'm fine with what I got." Then I tried the above 8 cell pack, and got that little taste of extra voltage. Ooooooohhhhhhh! So now I see what the hub-bub was about! Had good bursts of speed available, no thermalling or glitching, really woke that vehicle up. I'm not sure the AE-1 would put up with a full-on 3S, but it tolerated the 8 cell fine. Thankfully, this was before I bought some batteries specifically for my crawler. I was wanting to get a little more debt off my back and wait 'til spring to look at buying electronics, but after getting that taste of nearly 12 volts, I don't wanna go back to my 6 (and in a few cases 5) cell packs!
Kinda wished I wouldn't have tried that, I was so much more happy and content in my ignoarnce, knowwuduhmean? Now, clearly, I hafta go 3S & BEC, and also be prepared for the reality that my ESC may not live long.

Volume three,

a) Now this one I'm none too proud of, I shoulda known better, and this coulda gotten very bad, very quickly.

b) Newbies note! Don't follow my lead on this one, this was not a bright idea.

Like I said above, I was looking through my battery packs and have a 8 cell NiMh that I've cobbled together out of several packs (w/ dead cells). I had previously tried this in my Slash, and the XL-5 wouldn't even turn on. Okay, that I expected. In my AX-10, the AE-1 did turn on, and the crawler would run on 8 cells, but it was very glitchy, and always shutting off temporarily, like it was thermally shutting off. It would come back on shortly, but wasn't what I'd call 'running' well.
Here's where the stupid decision comes in. I don't have a BEC, because I typically run 6 cells and occasionally 2S, so to 'simulate' a BEC, I plugged in one of my heli packs (2S) into the receiver's battery slot. I did remove and tape off the red wire from the ESC's connector. Running an unregulated 8.something volts, I thought for sure I'd toast something, but everything ran fine. No radio glitching, no thermalling, plenty of servo speed/strength. It was really fun, until the truck stopped. Felt like somebody just flicked a switch off. Checked all my connections, good. Then I got kinda nervous. Cut the zip ties holding the heli pack to the chassis, got the Onyx 230 all set up to charge this little battery, before I hit charge, I decided to check the pack's voltage. Zero point eleven volts. Checked it on the EOS Sentry, didn't even come on. Checked the EOS with my other heli pack, 8.12ish volts, I think, but it worked fine. So..... with trembling hands, I pulled a Curly from the Three Stooges (Nyahahahah!), and that pack went into a sack, post-haste! The pack still felt hard as a brick, but still.. see a) above. I have 2S alarms, but that pack doesn't have a balance tap, it has a circuit board under the shrink wrap for balancing. Initially, I thought 'oh, I'm just testing it'll just be a minute or two, I'll pull it out if I see the servo slow down'. Then came the classic "started having fun, never did see the servo slow down at all, lost track of time" deal.
Now, I get to try and learn about those internal circuit boards. Could be that it just cut out like a circuit breaker and the battery's not actually toast, but I tend to doubt it at this point. If any of you have experience with those boards, I'd be glad to gain some insight.

Got the truck back to stock configuration, seems to be working just fine. House didn't burn down. Nothing blew up in my face. Guess I should just thank the good Lord for another lucky day.

[Charlie-III]

Sigh...."Been there, done that".........

Yes, I tell myself & my son, "DON'T mess with the rig before a comp UNLESS you can fully test changes!!!!!!!"

You may not have hurt expensive stuff, hopefully.

That is one issue of LiPO, it works GREAT right up to the time it dies. When it dies, it may be a horrible death.

As JRH says, "Volt up, gear down". Power can corrupt, ultimate power can corrupt ultimately.
It's a drug, find your local "high power RC AA" quickly.

[Duuuuuuuude]

I've run the AE-1 on 3s with no problems. BEC was installed of course.

Your lipo may not be as dead as you think it is, there may be a bad connection somewhere internally, though since its showing such low voltage, I'd have to say it is most likely toast. You can CAREFULLY cut the shrink wrap and tape off of it and inspect/test the board on top to verify voltage readings.

Don't feel too bad, we've all done dumb stuff, sometimes the same dumb stuff more than once.

I killed a buddies 2200mah 3s lipo in my sc truck the other night. All that voltage was fun, and I only meant to run it a minute or two, but kept going until it pooped out and puffed. The sad thing is I knew it would happen if I kept going, as I had done it all once before with the same results.

[jokers_toys]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

I killed a buddies 2200mah 3s lipo in my sc truck the other night. All that voltage was fun, and I only meant to run it a minute or two, but kept going until it pooped out and puffed. The sad thing is I knew it would happen if I kept going, as I had done it all once before with the same results.

but that was fun as hell

[Trubble]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

You can CAREFULLY cut the shrink wrap and tape off of it and inspect/test the board on top to verify voltage readings.

Had to do that with the other heli pack when I originally got it, as that one came in DOA. With that one, soon as I got the shrink wrap off the top, it worked.

Originally Posted by CharlieIII

You may not have hurt expensive stuff, hopefully.

This time......

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

Don't feel too bad, we've all done dumb stuff, sometimes the same dumb stuff more than once.

Amazing, isn't it? How the allure of unaldulterated 'fun' can just throw up an impenetrable smoke screen in from of common sense?
EDIT: "....in front of common sense?"

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by Trubble

Amazing, isn't it? How the allure of unaldulterated 'fun' can just throw up an impenetrable smoke screen in from of common sense?

Every time.

[SINister]

Something tearing up doesn't bother me it's when I start thinking my truck is 100% ready to go when I get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Besides if you don't break anything what excuse do you have to upgrade.

[Trubble]

Okay, went downstairs to check on my supposedly dead LiPo pack. Got the tape and just a wee bit of srinkwrap off the top, just enough to expose the board. Found the tabs, and measured..... around 3ish on this cell, around 3ish on that cell, total pack... just over 7. But at the connector, the VOM needle wouldn't budge. Since I was making bad decisions anyways, I slid it back into the charging sack, and hooked it up to the Onyx 230. Still read 0.11 volts. Okay, fine. I peeled the charge rate down from 0.5 amps (1C) to 0.3 amps and let 'er rip. The output volts immediately jumped up to about 7-1/2. Half hour later, it was coming up on 8. So I stopped it, set it back to 1C (0.5 amps), and restarted it. Apparently, that balancing board is also a cutoff, and it would appear that to reset the cutoff, you simply charge the battery. I know, rocket science, right? Well, now I know.
Still might stop by my LHS this week and pick up a BEC. I suppose if I was really feeling particulalry brilliant, I'd put some effort into learning about balancing connectors and put one on, if for no other reason than so I can use my LVA.
Thank you School of Hard Knocks for yet another lesson.