Xl5 esc smoked while crossing circuit on servo to test operation.. rx caught fire

[Moneypitrc]

So guy I have a trx 4 bronco. Stock garbage electronics. Just so happens my bec And Holmes bypass and castle link just came in the mail today....for the esc I just smoked.... when I got the truck I went through 3 2075x servos that traxxas sent to me for no cost... months down the road I have a real servo and find a video showin these 2075 servos aren’t broken they are just a fuse and if you solder it it fixes the servo. So smart me I decide to test this and when I get a good connection on the fuse the servo did come to life for 3 seconds until my tx literally bust into flames and hopefully just the esc is smoked. No electronics engineer here so what did I do wrong guys. I’m sure lots but I know other people have done this with no issue... like Kevin Talbot on YouTube where I got the idea(actually saw other people before him just he did it on YouTube)... where should I go from here guys. What was the cause and what do you guys think is smoked and how can I test it... I have no confidence in mu own skill right now


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[Rekreant]

Id recommend buying a new ESC, and also dont try to do electronics work unless you know what youre doing. You likely shorted the wrong connections, or the fuse could have actually blown because of a fault somewhere else on the board. I know the 2075s have a lot of issues, and many times it is the fuze, but the truth is sometimes the fuse blows because of shorts elsewhere on the board.

[Moneypitrc]

Yes I understand it was an idiot thing testing servos off my rig like that just for fun reallly not know exactly what I was doing. Also they must put it there for a reason huh? Oh well lesson learned. Don’t want to go brushless so quickrun 1080 it is I guess


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[durok]

This is unfortunately not uncommon when swapping parts...

RTR electronics are notorious for having these kinds of issues.

Check all parts for scorching if one goes up in smoke.

A good friend of mine had practically every electronic part in his RC toasted when buying what looked like a brand-new Bomber on fleaBay, it had shiny tires and not a scratch on the entire vehicle.

Plugged in a LiPo and "poof"...

Then swapped in a non-high voltage steering servo on his TRX-4 to replace the dead one and the Traxxas ESC went up, too.

Major suckage, as those were his first crawler purchases and his first RC vehicles in many years.

He certainly wasn't clueless about electronics, he's quite a competent mechanic (way better than me!) and it still happened.

Chalk it up to experience and be glad they weren't high-end replacement parts that got ruined!

[Moneypitrc]

Thank you for that... I like to know what I am doing and think that I do. At least I get to upgrade. Have seen many xl5’s do the same now that I look


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[Rekreant]

Traxxas RTR stuff is pure garbage in my opinion. I recommend the hobbywing 1080 if you want to stay brushless and affordable. Hard to go wrong with Castle products, but they come at a higher cost.

[Hydrocarbon92]

You didn't really explain the "crossed circuit" part. It sounds like you somehow fed the Castle BEC's higher voltage into the RX and the ESC. That could blow out any tantalum capacitors in the RX (usually a brilliant flash/flame & smoke), and if it fed to the output of the ESC's BEC it could torch it's internal BEC. BEC's don't like higher voltage fed to their output.

Without really knowing how the BEC/ESC/Bypass/servo/RX were connected we can't really say what might have gone wrong.

One last thing: a servo tester is only $1-2 from a Chinese seller on ebay or aliexpress.

[Greatscott]

The fuse is there to protect against the exact thing that happened to your rig. You put in a higher capacity fuse, turned on the truck and the servo pulled too much amperage, without the proper protections in place too much amperage got pulled across the RX and poof...

Originally Posted by Rekreant

Traxxas RTR stuff is pure garbage in my opinion. I recommend the hobbywing 1080 if you want to stay brushless and affordable. Hard to go wrong with Castle products, but they come at a higher cost.

For RTR, Traxxas electronics really are not bad (compared to other RTR offerings on the market). The 2075 servo is actually very reliable in most situations, but Traxxas made a mistake putting a 120oz servo into a rig that should have a minimum of 200oz.

[ferp420]

I had a simmiler experiance i bought a brand new servo plugged it in and poooff fried wires all the way back to the esc luckely my momba monster x servived i put some liquid rubber on the burned wires and its still running normally i dont even want to open the reciver box im sure there are somw bear wires i there that i just do t feel like dealing with yet lol