Sidewinder ESC Woes

[VaultBoy]

Finally got my XR-10 going this week and am very impressed thus far aside from an issue I can't resolve with my esc. I'm running a Castle Sidewinder with brush motors and a 3 cell lipo. I'm having 2 problems with this esc. The first is that I have to have the low voltage cutout disabled entirely for it to work at all which for some reason isn't an issue since it cuts power to the motors when the voltage gets low anyway (go figure). The second and most annoying problem is that damn reverse delay! I have 3 options in the castle link program and none of them get rid of the delay. It sucks going over backwards because you can't blip it in reverse to level it out. Anybody have a trick to getting rid of the delay???????

[irokcrawl]

Crawler reverse is what it needs to be set to. Also change the reverse power from 50% to 100%. I'm having issues with mine cutting power to the front motor after a while of running (5 min or so) I think it is because of the bad ass brood motors I have but honestly I'm not sure. Mamba micro pros don't have that issue, well until I plug the batt up yo the wrong plug when trying to make a change via castle link. Also remember you can call castle and they will help you out.

[VaultBoy]

Thanks for the advice, got it working a moment ago by reverting back to a very early firmware. Still have the voltage cutout issue however...

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by VaultBoy

Thanks for the advice, got it working a moment ago by reverting back to a very early firmware. Still have the voltage cutout issue however...

My guess would be either a cell in the pack going bad, or a small capacity pack (the "mah" rating) with a "low C" value. When you punch it, the voltage drops enough to hit the LVC.

Does the ESC do the same thing with other packs?

What pack connectors, if Tamiya, they are likely on their way out. I have never had a LVC issue with any of my packs until they get to ~3.2VPC (volts per cell) where my LVC is set to.

[VaultBoy]

I have 2 batteries, both identical. If i have the cutout set to any voltage, when I hook it up, the yellow and green lights blink on the esc which indicates low voltage even though both packs (and one of my buddies packs) are fully charged. When the esc senses low voltage, it wont send any power to the motors. If I turn off the cutout, it works just fine till the battery runs down (about a half hours run time) and then it cuts them out anyway. I'm using Deans connectors throughout and my lipos are 3 cell, 800 mah 25c batteries

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by VaultBoy

I have 2 batteries, both identical. If i have the cutout set to any voltage, when I hook it up, the yellow and green lights blink on the esc which indicates low voltage even though both packs (and one of my buddies packs) are fully charged. When the esc senses low voltage, it wont send any power to the motors. If I turn off the cutout, it works just fine till the battery runs down (about a half hours run time) and then it cuts them out anyway. I'm using Deans connectors throughout and my lipos are 3 cell, 800 mah 25c batteries

OK, your connectors sound good.

How are you programming the ESC? Are you using a CastleLink or through the radio?

Does the ESC cutoff early in the run (a few minutes) or later on? It sounds like you are stating it happens immediately.

[SMR 510RR]

You likely have your LVC set improperly, you should set it to auto lipo and 3.2 volts per cell.

The drop off in power you are feeling is not your ESC cutting off it is your batteries quickly losing power, if you look at any lipo discharge graphs you will see a huge drop right before pack voltage gets to 3.0v per cell. You will eventually damage your packs if you have not done damage already.

[VaultBoy]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

OK, your connectors sound good.

How are you programming the ESC? Are you using a CastleLink or through the radio?

Does the ESC cutoff early in the run (a few minutes) or later on? It sounds like you are stating it happens immediately.

Programming thru castlelink. The esc only fails to operate if I have the voltage cutout set.

[VaultBoy]

Originally Posted by SMR 510RR

You likely have your LVC set improperly, you should set it to auto lipo and 3.2 volts per cell.

The drop off in power you are feeling is not your ESC cutting off it is your batteries quickly losing power, if you look at any lipo discharge graphs you will see a huge drop right before pack voltage gets to 3.0v per cell. You will eventually damage your packs if you have not done damage already.

I know I'm supposed to have it set on auto lipo that's what I'm trying to fix, I cannot use ANY LVC settings other than off or the esc does not operate. If I set it to auto lipo, the green and yellow lights flash on the esc and it does not respond to throttle input at all. If I set lvc to off, I can run for half an hour at least without problems. I either have a faulty esc or haven't found the correct firmware version yet. I tried the latest first and I couldn't get it to operate at all so i'm using a very early firmware version at the moment so I can even use it.

[Meatwad]

http://www.rogershobbycenter.com/cas...shootingguide/

That 3s/800mah/25c pack is good for about 20amps, could be not enough battery for your setup.

[VaultBoy]

Thought about that, but with it fully charged, it has about 12v. And the lipo cutoff is 9v so what im trying to sort out is why the esc is reading battery voltage incorrectly and shutting down when there's plenty of battery power. Im not using high draw motors or anything here so these packs should be fine and if they weren't enough, it would still work until it hit the low voltage limit. Only way this could be a battery issue is if one of the cells were bad in both packs, but then they wouldn't get to 12v. I did notice that upon arming, when the esc beeps the number of cells it only beeps twice when i know these are 3 cell packs. Starting to look like a faulty esc if it can't even get the cell count right.

[Meatwad]

Doesn't matter how much juice is in it, if the voltage sag is enough to trip the lvc then its tripped. Only way to reset it is to power cycle. The blinking green and yellow signify lvc, that doesnt change with firmware.

Bottom line, no one will know until you switch out some electronics to test. Good luck.

[VaultBoy]

Problem is, the voltage doesnt have time to drop with lvc enabled. as soon as I connect the battery, the esc arms then trips

[SMR 510RR]

How are you charging your packs? Seems like there is a lot of guesswork involved...Do yourself a favor and stop running it without the LVC enabled, you will kill your packs and if conditions are right (or horrible in all reality) they will burst into flames in your crawler, in your car on the way home, or in your house.

There is a problem if it only recognizes your packs as 2s packs, 2s voltage is 6-8.4v and 3s voltage is 9-12.6v so there is no reason that it would recognize them incorrectly. Also if it did recognize your packs as 2s packs then it would allow you to run down to 6v so it would work, likely it is thinking they are 4s packs.

Have you tried using a cuttoff that is not auto lipo set to 9.6v? That should work fine. Maybe try 9.3 because with those small packs and low C rating voltage sag is going to kill you.

[Charlie-III]

It's sounding like a ESC issue, but try this.

When plugged in & turned on, let the ESC hit LVC, then, using a meter, check the voltage going to the ESC from the pack to see where the issue may be.

Did this issue just start, or have you had it for a while? Is this a new or used ESC?

[VaultBoy]

Alright. I let the esc hit lvc and i get 12.2v at the esc when it happens. I have tried just about every lvc setting available and all of them, aside from just off causes the esc to arm then instantly trip into lvc when connected to either of my batteries. This is a used esc that I had from my old AX-10, but worked fine before. If it's the esc I will just buy another one, but I don't want to just throw parts at the problem till it goes away, thats not how i operate and it's too expensive. I will however try a new battery from a friend and see if the issue goes away but my guess is that the batteries are not at fault seeing as i have over 12v from them and I realize this doesn't mean that the batts will load test ok but the fact that I can run my crawler at full power for a good half hour with the lvc disabled further indicates the batteries are not the problem.

[SMR 510RR]

Take a screenshot of your castle link settings.

[VaultBoy]

Note:
I have the cutoff turned off at the moment so I can run it, otherwise, as stated I cannot.

[Twisted Nuts]

Change it to auto lipo and the voltage from 4.0 to 3.1 and see if that helps.?

[VaultBoy]

Tried it, esc arms then hits lvc instantly