Xl5 won't turn on.

[Afterbang]

So everything worked fine last weekend. I bought a smaller battery pack, but the LHS didn't have one with the correct plug and my charger has deans. I figured I'd just swap everything over to deans. After I soldered the deans plug into my esc, it won't turn on.
If I plug the battery in, the car comes alive without turning on the xl5, I've got steering without pressing the button on the esc, but the light does not come on when I press the button. I disconnected the motor while soldering the new plug. I tried two different batteries with the same result. Any ideas?

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[BrainBucket]

I am not an expert with the XL5, but here are a few troubleshooting questions I would ask myself.
When soldering the deans plug onto the ESC cables did they get too hot, the heat can travel up the wire to the ESC and cause damage.

The Deans plug forms a 'T' when looking at it from the end, the top of the T should be red, positive. the vertical should be black, negative.
What is your new battery, 2s, 3s. check the output voltage. 2s should be between 6.4 and 8.4 volts and 3s 9.6 and 12.6 volts.
Just a start for troubleshooting.

[Afterbang]

Originally Posted by BrainBucket

I am not an expert with the XL5, but here are a few troubleshooting questions I would ask myself.
When soldering the deans plug onto the ESC cables did they get too hot, the heat can travel up the wire to the ESC and cause damage.

The Deans plug forms a 'T' when looking at it from the end, the top of the T should be red, positive. the vertical should be black, negative.
What is your new battery, 2s, 3s. check the output voltage. 2s should be between 6.4 and 8.4 volts and 3s 9.6 and 12.6 volts.
Just a start for troubleshooting.

Thanks for the ideas. I didn't charge my battery all the way when it was connected. By the way, it's a 3s 850mah helios battery, I think.
This was the last two solder joints I made, they are the cleanest and best looking.i felt like it was pretty quick, but I suppose the heat thing could be the issue. But I have servo power, I don't know if that means anything. I'll do some more digging, is there any way to figure out if it did get to hot and fried something?
Thanks for your input!

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[BrainBucket]

You could carefully pry the top off the ESC and look for popped capacitors.


Try checking the voltage from ESC to motor using the throttle (without motor plugged in).

If the steering servo is working do the other servos work too?

[ferp420]

dont worry about it the esc is junk to begain with so even if it is ok scrap that junk you will be happy you did

[amigaman]

A non working XL5 can be caused by numerous issues, one being that traxxas makes excellent plastics, but electronics not so much...

Servo power without throttle could simply mean it does not arm because your throttle signal is bad, e.g. the ESC lost the calibration, you fiddled with the trim, expo, dualrate or have a problem with the trigger. Try to recalibrate Throttle signals as stated in the manual.

Then, the Rx is known to die instantly when you plug the ESCs servo plug in there in reverse and switch on. Disconnect the motor (!) and swap Ch1 and Ch2 plugs on the receiver, then power the model. You should now be able to steer with the trigger. If you can't you've blown the Rx.

And: did the XL5 get wet? Water and Dirt cause corrosion, which may cause the XL5 to falsely think it is still rolling, usually you notice this when it does not want to reverse. The three coolers are different potentials and high ohmic connections between them cause this. Clean it if dirty.
It signals this with the LED. Your's is not coming on at all, i had this with my Stampede in the snow: Coolers were wet and suddenly only servos work. As it was dark we stopped playing, and when i looked the next day everything worked again, only to stop again after like 20 minutes fun. After cleaning the car with compressed air it did work again and then it dawned on me: adding a few drops of water on the XL5 and the light went crazy.

As for the soldering heat: I've never seen anything damaged because of a soldering inches away on a thick copper wire. Heat travels along the copper, and maybe it's too hot to touch, but electronics has no problem with prolonged exposure to 100+°C, and your fingers start burning at 60°C. Soldering is done with 250 to 400 °C and does not damage parts for like 5 seconds or even more, so if you're not excessively trying to melt anything and use a reasonable electronics soldering iron nothing should happen.
You melt the plastics, Deans plugs are notoriously known for that, but as long as neither Epoxy nor casing of the ESC are showing signs of excessive heat you're good at this end.

And the last thing: Do you have any other wiring in your car except Battery to ESC, ESC to Rx, RX to Servos? Anything that connects to the battery except the ESC may cause a loop that bypasses BEC or switch signals.

[Afterbang]

Originally Posted by amigaman

A non working XL5 can be caused by numerous issues, one being that traxxas makes excellent plastics, but electronics not so much...

Servo power without throttle could simply mean it does not arm because your throttle signal is bad, e.g. the ESC lost the calibration, you fiddled with the trim, expo, dualrate or have a problem with the trigger. Try to recalibrate Throttle signals as stated in the manual.

Then, the Rx is known to die instantly when you plug the ESCs servo plug in there in reverse and switch on. Disconnect the motor (!) and swap Ch1 and Ch2 plugs on the receiver, then power the model. You should now be able to steer with the trigger. If you can't you've blown the Rx.

And: did the XL5 get wet? Water and Dirt cause corrosion, which may cause the XL5 to falsely think it is still rolling, usually you notice this when it does not want to reverse. The three coolers are different potentials and high ohmic connections between them cause this. Clean it if dirty.
It signals this with the LED. Your's is not coming on at all, i had this with my Stampede in the snow: Coolers were wet and suddenly only servos work. As it was dark we stopped playing, and when i looked the next day everything worked again, only to stop again after like 20 minutes fun. After cleaning the car with compressed air it did work again and then it dawned on me: adding a few drops of water on the XL5 and the light went crazy.

As for the soldering heat: I've never seen anything damaged because of a soldering inches away on a thick copper wire. Heat travels along the copper, and maybe it's too hot to touch, but electronics has no problem with prolonged exposure to 100+°C, and your fingers start burning at 60°C. Soldering is done with 250 to 400 °C and does not damage parts for like 5 seconds or even more, so if you're not excessively trying to melt anything and use a reasonable electronics soldering iron nothing should happen.
You melt the plastics, Deans plugs are notoriously known for that, but as long as neither Epoxy nor casing of the ESC are showing signs of excessive heat you're good at this end.

And the last thing: Do you have any other wiring in your car except Battery to ESC, ESC to Rx, RX to Servos? Anything that connects to the battery except the ESC may cause a loop that bypasses BEC or switch signals.

Amigaman, that's alot to unpack but I'll do my best.
As for soldering, like I said, this plug is the best looking one I did. I melted a bit of the plug on the first two plugs, the one on the esc looks like I knew what I was doing. The wires seem fine and didn't get too hot too touch.
I've driven it many times in the snow (before i swapped plus) , I even have a set of "winter tires" with no foams, that's how many times I've driven it in the snow. Never had any issues. The last time I drove it, it was completely dry.
When I made my joints on the esc,I unplugged the motor. Otherwise nothing has changed. I did replace the plug for the lights with a spliter but nothing is plugged into it.
I've now got a fully charged battery in it and I get nothing at all, no lights on either rx or esc, no steering as before, nothing. I can hear the esc making a sound but that's it. Battery has 12.4 according to my charger.
Before, all the servos worked, now there's nothing.

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[amigaman]

If the ESC does make noise and nothing else it's frying inside.
There is nothing in there that will make noise whatsoever in normal use, so what you hear are cooking caps or smelting FETs.

It's done. Get a better ESC, like ISDTs ESC70 or the Hobbywing 1080.

[Afterbang]

Originally Posted by amigaman

If the ESC does make noise and nothing else it's frying inside.
There is nothing in there that will make noise whatsoever in normal use, so what you hear are cooking caps or smelting FETs.

It's done. Get a better ESC, like ISDTs ESC70 or the Hobbywing 1080.

Ahh! That's kinda what I was thinking. Maybe I'll open it up and see what it looks like.
Any idea how this could have happened? Just cheap electronics?
Like I said, the wires never got to hot too hold.

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[Afterbang]

Any things to look out for when choosing an esc? Is there only one 1080 quicrun esc?

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[BrainBucket]

Amazon has it for $44, ships from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Hobbywing-Ele...d_bap_d_rp_1_i
There are fakes out there, beware.
For brushed motor.

Comes with XT60 connection, you'll need adapter to Deans, or solder new plug.
You will need to solder on connections for your motor.
I have two, they work great. Lots of programmable options.