Vorteks LVC cut in after 6 mins

[vortekyteky]

Just got my batteries for my brand new vorteks today and took it for its first run when after 5-7mins the power was cut and the red light was flashing on the esc. checked battery voltage and it was at about 3.9v per cell. I have a zeee 5200mah 80c lipo

Have seen others with this issue but thought it would of been resolved by now.

Help please

 

[parcou]

Just got my batteries for my brand new vorteks today and took it for its first run when after 5-7mins the power was cut and the red light was flashing on the esc. checked battery voltage and it was at about 3.9v per cell. I have a zeee 5200mah 80c lipo

Have seen others with this issue but thought it would of been resolved by now.

Help please

Question...A battery can recover if it sits long enough, and voltages can go up slightly at rest. Under load/play the voltage will drop and could hit the LVC threshold during bashing. How soon did you connect check the battery? How or your style of bashing during those 5-7min....light/soft or canon ball style full throttle out?

Edit:
Also possible to have a battery with a lagging or bad cell that drops faster than the other cells and could put you at LVC. I'm no pro at that one, so others need to speak to that. Are all your battery balanced and charged? Still does not solve this issue if you have a bad cell so what is each cell reading immediate after LVC...just asking

 

[vortekyteky]

Question...A battery can recover if it sits long enough, and voltages can go up slightly at rest. Under load/play the voltage will drop and could hit the LVC threshold during bashing. How soon did you connect check the battery? How or your style of bashing during those 5-7min....light/soft or canon ball style full throttle out?

Edit:
Also possible to have a battery with a lagging or bad cell that drops faster than the other cells and could put you at LVC. I'm no pro at that one, so others need to speak to that. Are all your battery balanced and charged? Still does not solve this issue if you have a bad cell so what is each cell reading immediate after LVC...just asking

I was going very hard on the car, on road. Yes all batteries are balanced and pretty sure there are no bad cells, they were all within about 0.05v of each other when I checked. However my charger says that the IR of each cell ranges a lot.

 

[Xjeepguy]

I’ve found that the Firma ESC’s tend to be extremely conservative when it comes to LVC vs. other brands. You can turn it down on some of them, but do that at your own risk. Last thing you want to do is wind up over-discharging.

 

[GraniteFox]

If the IR on one cell is high that cell will lag. If this is a brand new battery and the IR is say 15-20 on one cell I would return the battery. Have them replace it. The resistance should be low on each cell and relatively similar. Something like 2-2-6 would be acceptable variance. You can turn off the LVC and use a simple battery alarm to notify you when the pack hits say 3.4 or 3.2. I'm no expert on lipos but this has been my experience. There are others on this forum with much better knowledge than me.

 

[RedOctobyr]

Also, if the battery was cold, it will experience larger voltage sag. What was the temperature when you were out? I try to keep my batteries warm beforehand, if it's like 40F or lower, etc.

 

[King blitz]

If the IR on one cell is high that cell will lag. If this is a brand new battery and the IR is say 15-20 on one cell I would return the battery. Have them replace it. The resistance should be low on each cell and relatively similar. Something like 2-2-6 would be acceptable variance. You can turn off the LVC and use a simple battery alarm to notify you when the pack hits say 3.4 or 3.2. I'm no expert on lipos but this has been my experience. There are others on this forum with much better knowledge than me.

Exactly what I use is the lipo alarm.i set mine at 3.7 allways works.

Exactly what I use is the lipo alarm.i set mine at 3.7 allways works.

If I do 3 hard speed passes my lvc sets off also on my Big Papa long Rock speed build .I just let it sit for about 5 minutes and it's ready again ..

 

[slick2500]

From what I see the Amazon cheapo lipos tend to experience a lot of voltage sag.

 

[Velodromed]

Just got my batteries for my brand new vorteks today and took it for its first run when after 5-7mins the power was cut and the red light was flashing on the esc. checked battery voltage and it was at about 3.9v per cell. I have a zeee 5200mah 80c lipo

Have seen others with this issue but thought it would of been resolved by now.

Help please

It’s been resolved on new models, as well as replacement ESCs but I’m sure there’s plenty of first production run models out there. If you have a program card, you may be able to lower the LVC. You could also go ahead and the warranty it. That’s what I did with mine and they sent me an esc that works fantastic.

 

[parcou]

I’ve found that the Firma ESC’s tend to be extremely conservative when it comes to LVC vs. other brands. You can turn it down on some of them, but do that at your own risk. Last thing you want to do is wind up over-discharging.

Good point it is risky, and I take on the challenge by setting my LVC to 3.4v, but I do take great care of my batteries. I would not recommend this to anyone with cheap lipos and those who wait long periods of time for storage charging. All mine are done less than 4hrs after usage.

@vortekyteky, if that model has the Firma 130A it is the only Firma I am aware of that can change the LVC. You cannot on the 150A, 160A correct fam if I am wrong on those two. Yes, on the 130A. Why I like HW ESC for LVC control and BEC options where the Firma 130A, you cannot change BEC.

 

[vortekyteky]

If the IR on one cell is high that cell will lag. If this is a brand new battery and the IR is say 15-20 on one cell I would return the battery. Have them replace it. The resistance should be low on each cell and relatively similar. Something like 2-2-6 would be acceptable variance. You can turn off the LVC and use a simple battery alarm to notify you when the pack hits say 3.4 or 3.2. I'm no expert on lipos but this has been my experience. There are others on this forum with much better knowledge than me.

yes thinking of running in nimh mode and using a lipo alarm

Also, if the battery was cold, it will experience larger voltage sag. What was the temperature when you were out? I try to keep my batteries warm beforehand, if it's like 40F or lower, etc.

pretty warm, around 26c / 79f

It’s been resolved on new models, as well as replacement ESCs but I’m sure there’s plenty of first production run models out there. If you have a program card, you may be able to lower the LVC. You could also go ahead and the warranty it. That’s what I did with mine and they sent me an esc that works fantastic.

not sure if I can warranty it, I'm in New Zealand.

Good point it is risky, and I take on the challenge by setting my LVC to 3.4v, but I do take great care of my batteries. I would not recommend this to anyone with cheap lipos and those who wait long periods of time for storage charging. All mine are done less than 4hrs after usage.

@vortekyteky, if that model has the Firma 130A it is the only Firma I am aware of that can change the LVC. You cannot on the 150A, 160A correct fam if I am wrong on those two. Yes, on the 130A. Why I like HW ESC for LVC control and BEC options where the Firma 130A, you cannot change BEC.

can't change lvc on 100A

 

[slick2500]

The most common denominator I see with the guys having issues with LVC is Amazon lipos. But lipos in general are a total crap shoot because the cells can and will change from batch to batch, there really isn't much consistency to them.

 

[RedOctobyr]

Ahh, enjoy the warm weather, then!

It's also possible there is a high electrcal-resistance connection somewhere, causing an extra voltage drop. But it could definitely be a bad pack, especially if your charger is reporting a wide range of internal resistances. What values is it reporting?

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I'd swear Zeee 5200s are more like 4000mAh packs based on how they run and last in the car. They have to be that cheap for a reason....

 

[Velodromed]

It’s been resolved on new models, as well as replacement ESCs but I’m sure there’s plenty of first production run models out there. If you have a program card, you may be able to lower the LVC. You could also go ahead and the warranty it. That’s what I did with mine and they sent me an esc that works fantastic.

I remember now, can’t adjust the lvc but can update the firmware, which fixes the lvc issue. Need the spectrum card though. There’s a good post about it somewhere on the forum…

 

[Hector_Fisher]

This may sound like a cliche response, but i think you need to try another battery. Ripping around hard will cause a big voltage dip on the battery which could trigger low voltage early on a lower quality battery. Then it would rise back up to a resting 3.9v like yours did after the load gets taken off the battery.

With alot of my zeee batteries, the mah's all seem to be in the lower voltage range, so the only way to get close to the advertised range is to use them in low power applications. I suspect that's the case here.

 

[Velodromed]

Here it is. I need to try this on my original vorteks esc. Maybe a bit later today.
Anyway, it’s not a battery issue. It’s a well known (or should be) esc issue. I still say warranty it. Took me several months haggling back when they were first released before they replaced it.
Thread 'FIX: Vorteks and the Spektrum Firma 100 ESC's LVC Issue'
https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/fix-vorteks-and-the-spektrum-firma-100-escs-lvc-issue.53183/

 

[jkflow]

Nothing wrong with your ESC etc, these lipos are bottom of the barrel rough junk. Used to love Zeee but they are beyond terrible by now.
I still have some that do exact same thing as yours advertised 80C but at best a 15C reality. Unusable for what I'm doing.
This goes for everything lipo they sell on Amazon, fake reviews and only difference is the shiny wrapper. Stay away

 

[Velodromed]

I don’t believe it’s just a fluke or lipo issue that so many vorteks owners have issues with the first run smart 100 esc while the so many more blx 100 owners haven’t. I owned a first run vorteks and dealt with the issue for months before giving up and putting a blx 100 in it. I tried all the batteries I owned back then, including 7000mah lipos, CNHL 6200, 120kv, lipos and glitch busters. Nothing worked, it always LVCd between 3.9-4.0.

Finally my warranty claim was accepted because ‘first run RTR smart 100 esc had faulty firmware’, they explained, and sent a new one that hits lvc between 3.5-3.6. The seven other 3s cars (with blx100s) never had this issue regardless of the battery used. I will dig up my old smart 100 and attempt the firmware update indicated in my last post in the next day or so. Ive been meaning to do so, but keep forgetting.

 

[Senton_Prime]

Junk a$$ lipo's.. I'm mean seriously who needs 3 zzz's!!