Granite Arrma Granite 4x4 mega shutting off

[D3MON]

hello new to the forums!
so i just purchased an Arrma Granite 4x4 brushed version and am having an issue.
so i bought the truck and got it home, charged up the batteries and tested the trims, and made sure the esc plugs were correct positions for NiMh and reverse lockout was not activated. (everything was good from factory). turned it off and went through all the screws that i could find on the outside making sure everything was good and tight. for the most part everything was. then got it packed up in the car and went to run it.
ran great for the first part, really surprised handles really well, doesn't feel top heavy good responses from the controller, (also surprised about the strength of the stock servo) near the end of the run right when you could tell that the battery was starting to get low, the truck cuts out.
go to switch on and off the esc runs again for a few seconds then does it again. check temperatures of the electronics, battery was warm, motor was reasonable, feel the esc, its a bit warm not really alarmingly hot so pack it up and bring it back home. out of the trouble shooting all i could compare is a thermal shut down.
then the weather got cold so put it up for a week or 2 and was able to run it again today. ran fine for most of the time then did it again right near the end. this time the esc and motor were good temps but the battery was quite warm.
any ideas what could be going on? battery seems to last a decent amount of time, esc seems to work properly, radio seems fine.
( both runs were in just a parking lot not necessarily speed runs or anything.)

Thanks!

 

[bicketybam]

Are you running the battery that came with the truck?

 

[D3MON]

yes everything on it is stock.

 

[bicketybam]

yes everything on it is stock.

My experience with the stock battery was it ran for about 10 minutes and then it was dead. Yours is not lasting that long?

 

[D3MON]

it is lasting about that long, i am more or less concerned about the cutting off near the end, resembling a thermal shut down, or low voltage lipo cut off.

 

[D3MON]

my main worry with electronics is temperature, between the battery getting quite warm with an entry RTR, and the ESC going into either thermal protection mode or low voltage shut off. to me it seems that what its doing should not be the case. going to talk to the LHS when i can, brought that up to them last time i was in and they said it shouldn't be doing that either, especially when its 15F or so outside while running it.

 

[bicketybam]

my main worry with electronics is temperature, between the battery getting quite warm with an entry RTR, and the ESC going into either thermal protection mode or low voltage shut off. to me it seems that what its doing should not be the case. going to talk to the LHS when i can, brought that up to them last time i was in and they said it shouldn't be doing that either, especially when its 15F or so outside while running it.

The stock brushed motor/ESC hitting thermal is a well known issue with the Mega Senton and Granite. The motors don't tend to last long either.

 

[Jeremy in WI]

Consider picking up an IR thermometer. Then you can at least verify if temps are a problem. If I remember correctly my mega 4x4 would go into a limp mode when it got too hot, which was more prevalent when running 2s lipos or 5000mah nimh in the summer or in the grass. It sounds to me lile you are hitting some sort of lv cutout. When you turn it off and then back on the battery recovers a little bit getting you going again.

 

[D3MON]

didn't think that NiMh mode had a LV cut off, will grab the temp gun next time i go out, have never needed one for electric rigs.

 

[MeesterC]

Are you by chance running the nimh battery with the ESC set yo lipo? Check the jumpers on the ESC and make sure it's set to the proper battery, nimh in your case.

 

[D3MON]

was the about the first thing i checked when i was getting it ready for the first run. it is set to NiMh and reverse lockout is de-activated.
thank you for mentioning that though!

 

[OCBmeister]

D3MON - did you ever get an answer? My sons granite is doing the same thing.

 

[D3MON]

The first ESC was getting hotter than it should quite quickly, so our LHS warrantied the first one, the second one does the same where it just cuts out, I am pretty sure it's something like a LVC so power does not lack for steering. We were only getting around 12 minutes of run time. We have since upgraded to brushless though

 

[OCBmeister]

Thanks for the info. My son is only 8, not sure I'm ready to upgrade to brushless yet. Did any you get any other advice on how to keep the ESC cool? I'm a total novice, is a fan a possibility?

 

[D3MON]

Thanks for the info. My son is only 8, not sure I'm ready to upgrade to brushless yet. Did any you get any other advice on how to keep the ESC cool? I'm a total novice, is a fan a possibility?

i could only imagine a fan would help, i do not know if one would directly bolt on though. before we went to brushless i was planning on making an "L" bracket out of some thinner aluminum that would place the fan vertically in front of the ESC.
sorry not much help.

 

[OCBmeister]

It's only happening with the 8.4v 3000mAh venom battery we got. Stock battery seems to be fine. Friends venom battery works fine in our car. Guessing it's the battery.

 

[OCBmeister]

In case it helps anyone else, my issue was the battery. Venom is replacing it under the warranty.