Caps from the deepest part of ...?

[RCbuzz]

Just doing some maintenance on a Firma 150 and plan to remove or rebuild the cap pack.

I have never seen caps in such bad shape, quite literally smashed with exposed holes in them. Figured they are dead right?

Wrong, they measure between 440µF and 450µF. (Rated 470µF)

Still probably a "problem" waiting to happen but wow, Rubycon brand, tough caps!

if only Lipo's were built to withstand this sort of thing!

 

[King blitz]

Is changing caps something part of maintenance? I mean if mine don't look like yours do I need to replace them?

 

[RCbuzz]

Short answer, no.

For the most part I beleive ESC manufacturer's use a high quality capacitor built to withstand the high frequency switching of the FET's for quite some time.

Longer answer, maybe? Depends on how hard you are on your equipment and how much the measured ripple voltage increases over time (this would indicate your capacitors are degrading).

Since onboard caps cannot be replaced, I suppose if you have an esc with an unusually high ripple you could add a capacitor pack.

I have a very old castle mamba esc (used) that still functions great. You would need an oscilloscope to measure the ripple. I think the new super fancy Castle esc's measure it for you?

I am actually still trying to figure out why Spektrum added these 4 caps to the Firma150.. If you compare a rock solid BLX185 to the Firma150 you will find the 3 onboard caps are exactly the same... Since I have not measured it myself I can only guess Spektrum wanted to see an overall lower ripple.

 

[King blitz]

So I recently bought a motor and ESC combo .it's a mamba monster 2 with a sensored castle motor..I looked at the esc and I see no visible caps or resistors..are they somewhere under the fan assembly or inside the esc cover it self ? Or does it not even have any? I have not installed this in my build yet and I'm glad this thread came up because i never thought about this .