Electrical issue, ESC issue.... SOS!!!

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Speedy0009

Fairly New Member
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Location
Massachusetts
Arrma RC's
  1. Nero
Hello Arrma Nero community.... this is my first experience with an Arrma vehicle, my second RC but the third in the family. I bought my son a brushed EMaxx for his 4th birthday, in the meantime I bought myself an XMaxx and most recently was intrigued by the Arrma Nero (I was lead to believe I got a great deal on it when the price dropped $100, little did I know it was because of the Big Rock release)!

Anyway, I made the purchase through TowerHobbies, grabbed some Proline Big Joe II tires on F-11 wheelie and outfitted it with Tbonesracing thrasher bumper, center skid plate, wheelie bar and Arrma dirt guards. I was more than pleased when it all arrived within a couple of days.

I got right to it..... Bashing! Two sets of batteries, SMC 7200mAh 65C and SPC 7200mAh 70C and fresh AA cells for the transmitter. Set the ESC, brake on low and the Punch to level four(4).... What a "Blast" to drive it, all is superb! Jumps like a Boss... Wheelies like it's it sole purpose in life.... Drifts in hard packed dirt with insane donuts... And climbing can be fun too!!!!

Fast forward to present day.... About three weeks later! This is long winded, I know but I felt the backlog was necessary. The truck randomly started "acting up". Shortly following power up, the truck drives and steers okay then as if it goes instant Low Voltage... Applies the break and comes to an abrupt hault, with the transmitter trigger held at full throttle! Release the trigger And sometimes it goes and sometimes it needs a second or three. Then the issue doesn't disappear, it's persistent (Extreme Buzzkill)
I have Factory reset the transmitter and ESC to no avail. I thought it may be a resistance issue since I made XT90 to Traxxas connectors.... But this worked great for a few weeks then "bam" all of the sudden. So I tried a buddies connectors, questioning my soldering job, those connections yielded the results! So I wrote to Arrma with my dilemma and got a less than prompt reply due to high volume online support traffic (completely understood), but they're suggesting it was likely the TTX300 transmitter settings (which were not messed with at all) since it was fine out of the box! Other possibility was connectors if I wasn't using the XT90's. Since there's no adjustability to Low Voltage Cutoff that was eliminated as a culprit. My batteries are only a few months old and run my XMaxx really strong (the Nero too until it went haywire)!!!
..... So while awaiting a new response from Arrma, I am still thinking it's simply a failed or faulty Arrma/Hobbywing ESC. (It is indeed a Hobbywing with less programming options, I peeled the double-sided tape)) Maybe a possible capacitor issue????? To rule out any possibility of resistance issue with batteries or connectors I upgraded to Castle Creations 6.5mm, 200Amp connectors! I have since tried the truck and still the same issue... As if, it's gone low voltage or even thermal shutdown!!!! Beyond annoyed at this point and would really like a Hobbywing Max6/8 to hopefully resolve the issue and give more ESC custom adjustability.... I'm even tempted to try my Hobbywing Max6 off my XMaxx but really don't want the double downtime.... And the BLX motor I'm sure is 4-4.5mm connectors so I'd need an adapter for that too.

Please Help... If you can....
Advise a newbie (RC enthusiast since March 2016)
Thanks in advance!
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hmmmm...

looks like you did the right stuff concerning esc and trans...

how far away were you?...just wondering if you were at range far away...if it lost signal...or frequency hop got mixed up and it did a safety "full brakes on" thinking it was a runaway ...fresh batts in remote?..

you say that your are relatively new to rc...the batts you picked look like they meet the requirements. ...what is your charging method?...you always do a balance charge?...be sure that you are not mixing batt types in the rc like a 65 c with a 70c...places I have read say that wouldn't be good...

and since you are saying it seems like it is hitting the LVC ...I would describe hitting LVC as the truck running slow for a short period...like no full power...and same symptoms for thermal...maybe the batts do need to be refreshed a bit with a full discharge cycle and see if the electronic charger can bring the batts back...maybe a cell is dropping out...or getting out of sync...

as far as possibly being a thermal cutoff...with nero wires having alot to be desired...are they shrouding or covering the esc fan?...is the fan running properly?...

more thoughts on thermal...how many MAH are the batts you running?..extremely high MAH batts have potential if overheating things simply because you can run the vehicles longer and may not be giving the vehicle a rest...to let things cool down...30 mins continuous fun may be a bit too much...so keep in mind motor temps....and battery temps...like how hot are they batteries getting by the way?..

pick up a laser temp gun and give a report on the temps you are seeing at esc...batt...and motor...shouldn't be seeing 200deg f numbers...should be in the 110 f range ...but there are some who report slightly higher or lower...lots of variables...but temp can be a problem...

let us know...report back and let's see what we can figure out. ..
 
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Thanks for the reply. I'm going try and keep this one short and sweet answering in the order you asked.

How Far away? This issue can happen within a few feet of where I'm standing. Think Rebinding the transmitter is necessary? It does act like it's a "runaway" and applies full brakes, other times it just drives slow then stops like low voltage. Rebinding is one thing I haven't tried since the problem is intermittent.

Batteries: always a balance charge. Storage charge when not planned to use within three days. Always running twin packs, no mixing!

LVC/Thermal:. This is how I described the issue. It does run slow (power decreased), it does apply brakes and stops.

Wires: Wires everywhere. ESC fan running properly, constant run! I do have a single zip tie holding the ESC down to the flimsy mounting plate. I will upload a photo of such.

Battery mAh: both pairs I use are 7200mAh.

Temperatures:. I do have a infrared thermometer (one of my first maintenance accessories along with LiPo Safety bags, when I first started the hobby in March). Temps I've seen have not been anything out of the ordinary. ESC hasn't hit 100F(typically stays in the 76-88F range), motor I have seen only up to 108F, batteries after a speed run I've measured 109-111F, I have taken a reading of 120-130F on the clutch assembly after some hard driving.

Hopefully that's everything....

Thoughts?
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hmmmmm....yeah...try rebinding.. and resetting...and do it more than once...some past threads actually mention taking several times to fix a problem...

see what happens. ..and we can give a final conclusion. ..cause in the case there is a return needed. ..It may be a good idea to share this forum post with arrma. ..so they can get an idea of what was tried...documentation never hurts...
 
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