Lipo issues
 

just took my buggy out and all was well for about a minute until all the power went and it was coasting around as if i was running a flat nimh pack,

so i walked home and plugged it into my charger and it read 7.96v my charger takes it to 8.4v (is this correct ?) so if it was nearly fully charged whats gone wrong ?

and tbh i think my charger is innacurate because when i fit my lipo monitor readout to it it mainly reads a different of -0.6 to what the charger is telling me

and i also think my lipo cut off in my esc is turd it cuts off at 3.0v per cell and ive checked it after a run and s1 was 3.19v ans s2 was 3.23v

also when i balance theres useually a +/- OF 0.4v

is this all normal or could this be why my pack is acting funny ?

cheers

what esc do you have?

Dont laugh its a orion vortex 70a i bought on the cheap cos my MM had a blue smoke moment a few weeks ago

Check your motor as your batteries sound fine.

The motor's rotor could have broken up (the magnets slipped off the shaft or similar). That would explain the sluggish performance - I've had it happen to me on my 1/8 scale stuff.

i did think this it cogs on takeoff and give half performance,

there is alot of heat i think somewhere along the setup theres a gearing and resistance issue

lipo is a headache :confused:

just took my buggy out and all was well for about a minute until all the power went and it was coasting around as if i was running a flat nimh pack,

so i walked home and plugged it into my charger and it read 7.96v my charger takes it to 8.4v (is this correct ?) so if it was nearly fully charged whats gone wrong ?


I bought a used lipo off ebay and after a few runs it did exactly what yours did. I've tried to revive it but it looks like one of the 2 cells is goosed so I am going to bin it.

Did you get your lipo new? Is it possible it could have been discharged too much at some point? If it's fully charged and not performing it doesn't look good, hope I'm wrong!;)

well i did have an issue with my charger on its third charge when i had a powervut while charging i started the balance charge again and it never said full or finished the charge

the first charge was 40 mins and took 3400mah and the second was 50mins and reached 2550 and i stopped it because it was getting worrying :blush:

The charge current does slow right down towards the end of the charge so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Does your Orion Vortex ESC really have a lipo cut off? If not you might have discharged your lipo too much unfortunately:(

get the impression this might be the case

i think a new lipo and a novak smartstop might be the way forwards

Check the motor first! This could be the cause of all the heat and the problem. I've had rotor issues with my Tekin T8, always the same when they fail: I suddenly get a lack of any torque or bottom end power.

ok if it isnt this issue am i safe to assume its the battery ?

the motor isnt rebuildable its a MM 5700kv sensorless

I would be interested in the ESC setup, and what the voltage cut-off is set to, thats first port of call.

what C rating is this battery pack?

Have you got another motor to put in there? I would give that a try if you can.

As Big G says, what packs are you using, what is the continuous discharge, and what capacity are they?

it's normal that an ESC kicks the Voltage Cutout in when voltage drops .. and it's completely normal that after picking up your car, the Battery-cells read out more then the 3V per cel.
When under tention the voltage drops. But when the pack is left to recover a bit, the voltage goes back up again. Not much, but from 3V till 3.2V is normal.

its a turnigy 5000mah 20-30c 2s pack its a week old

no i havent got another motor

and the cutoff is 3.0v per cell

its not gone below 3.0v per cell

on thing i have noticed is when the motor cog's it wont move if the wheels are being turned

is this an issue with the esc ?

if the 'cog' aka pinion won't turn on the motor there's your problem

the motor should spin freely all the time not like a servo that centres itself while powered up.

I've run my lipo cut off at 3v/cell and that works fine. when I tested a pack that had cut out it was showing 6.3v. didn't test each cell though, but they are generally the same since I balance charge them more often than not and the packs are a few months old

sorry i mean it judders before it sets off cog's

itsas if its not getting anough juice from the battery to pop a wheely like normal :confused:

just to clear it all up.

if you move the motor so it's no longer meshed with the spur does the car free wheel?

can you turn the motor by hand without any effort?

does the car drive properly with another battery pack?

yes the var spins freely done all this last night stripped and cleaned and the motor spins freely for atleast 20secs

i havent tried another battery pack im at uni and thats where my stuff is and my nimhs are there i only have 1 lipo

i will do this when i get home later

so to clarify my symptoms are:

a fully charged lipo last about a minute before it goes flat but sill reads around 7.5v

cogging or juddering when i hit the throttle

when mind hit the lipo cut off I got about 20 seconds of 'dumping' before it stopped in the middle of the track. I was on the 3rd race of the night on the same pack though hehe.

hmmm i get that but after a miniute of run time not the third race of the night

i shall try my nimh pack later on

BREAK THROUGH !!!

my nimh packs do the same thing

and theres alot of heat coming from my esc after only a short run

so which one is it motor or esc ?

motor and esc are coming out tommorow

so anyone got one for sale ?

its orion vortex my did that it will run a 15c rating battery its not the battery as i have just got 1 off ebay. its your esc fryed it did the same to my motor and esc .plus your using a big motor pick the car up off the floor and try if it does not spin the wheels its the esc that no good

i got a traxxas combo forsale £100 posted with a mamba castle 4600kv

nah i only need an esc

bit gutted really theres a mm sidewinder on the bay dunno if it will be upto the job tho :confused:

The wrong gearing will cause cogging and overheating of your speedo. are you sure the gearing is ok?
If not then, what car is it and what gearing are you running on what wind motor?

leave the sindwinder alone. get a mamba max

its a Hpi e firestorm, im running 19/84 i should be running 18,17/84 but i didnt think for the couple of runs before my new pinions arrived there would be any problems

and to be honest i didnt run full runs i let it get warm and then let it cool before finishing the pack

but i can only blame myself if ive fried my esc just need a new one now :blush:

you wanna split the esc ?

A Sidewinder will be up to the job in an E-Firestorm, you don't pull that much current in a 1/10 set-up. People have been running Mamba Maxes in 1/8 scale buggies with the BEC disabled.

The Sidewinder is what HPI put in the E-Firestorm Flux.

hmmm

i think anything will go in a firestorm but i just need an esc that does the job really

i suppose not frying the last one would have been a start

this blows the B4 budget out the window tho

might sell up and actually get myself to broxtowe and dip my foot into racing ;)

If you want to race stay away from the Mamba stuff. Try and get something sensored.
Speed passions for example will run sensored and unsensored so that you could still run your existing motor.

i was just thinking this why buy another basher esc when i can get something half decent

althought i love my firestorm It wont break before it died i spent the day jumping it off a 20ft bank onto my driveway and apart from the motor slipping once or twice it didnt break a thing

other than the esc going bang but this happend on a big patch of soft cleared dirt so i was giving it the beans quite alot

hmmmm

its decision time

It hasn't occured to you this might have something to do with your speedo dying?

Electronics are fairly robust but some things just go a little far :)

£70 for the esc thereb£120 new its 2 months old

well yes par for the course this thread was mainly about my lipo tho tbh somethings broken as to why it died is another thread in itself

and it lasted quite a while before it did die, ive jumped roads, off cliffs taken it through massive puddles (it was hidden) driven it on all surfaces and had atleast 50 packs through it each time doing something it shouldnt be doing

so it was a long time coming

if i could race my firestorm id be down the track now :lol:

i have used mamba stuff for along time and there there good no problems with mine

hmm you alright mate ill find something ive got a tight budget ;)