Infraction Short runtime blinking ESC after one run

[CherrieNL]

Hey fellow Arrma fans,

New to the forums. Hope you can help me out. Recently ive upgraded my Infraction to the high speed pinion. Wanted to get that 100km+.

Had some runs but since couple of days i can get one run and then power drops and the car becomes a crawler. Bought new tires etc and was ready to run...The ESC/engine arent hot... ive read some topics and youtube videos and what i found out that the ESC keeps cutting out. Im running the stock ESC 100 spektrum and stock 3900 engine.

Went to my local hobbystore and they advised me to change to smaller pinion or upgrade the ESC. Im looking at all kinds of different options and would like to hear your inputs. I also bought the ESC computer card to read information and change settings only thing i changed was the brake percentage. The fans on both ESC and engine are LOUD don't know if that is a issue. On the Arrma website i saw that the stock 3900 engine performs perfect with the 130a Spektrum ESC...

My question is whats the best course of action? Upgrade the ESC or switch back to lower pinion? If i change to different brand of ESC would i loose the AVC option or is that connected to the reciever/transmitter? My plan is to upgrade the engine fans just in case to a YEAH racing 40-42mm twin fans motor cooler. Or other option if there is different option.

For the ESC im doubting between the following options (including prices) i think i need to upgrade the ESC if i want to run the high pinion gearing.

The spektrum 130a / 160 euro
Hobbywing Ezrun MAX10 G2 ESC 140a / 99 euro but then i also have to buy the Hobbywing program box..
Arrma BLX185 6s ESC / 150 euro

I hope that my fellow fans can help me out.

Kind regards

 

[jkflow]

My guess, you killed your lipos by now or are not treating them right.
If you run until the car just 'crawls' that is definitely bad for your batteries. Everything I read above is only battery related.
Get a small lipo checker and your cells should never be below 3.7V at the end of a run.
Leave those ESC settings alone, they have nothing to do with your issue.

The 'speed' pinion is for single runs with nice pauses in between while checking the battery often.

Alternatively, check your motor wires and the ESC to battery cable, maybe something came loose or de-soldered itself.

Stay away from Amazon batteries, they are cheap for a reason. CNHL is a good option but learn to treat them well or this hobby will get expensive fast.

 

[CherrieNL]

Hello JKflow,

Thanks for the reply. Let me clarify want i meant about crawling is. I boot up my car, place it on the ground run it in one direction (full speed) and when i turn and the car comes back it turns into a crawler qua speed(about 25% speed). Also loose the trottle and reverse only thing i can do is steering. Happens with full packs. Checked the controller and nothing weird.

I know that if car slows down its a battery issue and when i switch it with full pack i can bash full on again. I really do take care with my Lipo's and issue only happens with high speed pinion. With stock setup i can run several batteries with no problems.

I have hard case gens-ace-r-spam/bashing lipo's, i have different brand cars as well and when i place the packs in those cars no issues. I thought well maybe a bad battery but when i switched them to different car no problems.

Ive checked both ESC cables and motor cables but no loose wires. Even unplugged and plugged everything back.

 

[Senton_Prime]

My guess, you killed your lipos by now or are not treating them right.
If you run until the car just 'crawls' that is definitely bad for your batteries. Everything I read above is only battery related.
Get a small lipo checker and your cells should never be below 3.7V at the end of a run.
Leave those ESC settings alone, they have nothing to do with your issue.

The 'speed' pinion is for single runs with nice pauses in between while checking the battery often.

Alternatively, check your motor wires and the ESC to battery cable, maybe something came loose or de-soldered itself.

Stay away from Amazon batteries, they are cheap for a reason. CNHL is a good option but learn to treat them well or this hobby will get expensive fast.

+1

What lipos you running!?

 

[jkflow]

You could be running into LVC cut-off which places the car into limp mode, as you described.
What capacity do you have and what are the cell voltages? Might just have 1 weak cell.
Gens are typically a good choice.

 

[Vulthraxis]

I'm going to say it again sounds like a batterie problem. Check cell internal resistance. It sounds like LVC under voltage Sag. Larger pinion would make this more of a problem as you up load you have higher voltage sag.

Blink code on ESC would help https://www.spektrumrc.com/on/deman...SE1085 SPMX SMART Firma ESCs Manual-MULTI.pdf

Short single pulse red flash is battier low and that would mean you tripped LVC.

 

[CherrieNL]

Just bought a gens-ace-r-spam 6500mah 11v 100c hardcase 3s lipo during a blackfriday presale.


The ESC is blinking red after one pass with the car.

 

[jkflow]

Take a look at your ESC manual, blink code tells you what happened.

 

[CherrieNL]

Checked the manual and its LVC. This only happend after i installed the high speed gear pinion. English isnt my native language so im sorry for any mistakes in grammer, went back to my local hobbyshop and their advice was to gear down on the pinion. My plan is this weekend.

Recharge all my batteries don't have time during the week to drive so its bad to leave them full charged and not use them.
Change back to the stock pinion
Let the car bash and find out if the car keeps on driving. (not after 50meters cut off)
Smile and enjoy ripping the new tires haha.

Rechecked my batteries and have the following;
3S 5000mah 50C 11.1V 55.5WH (came with my car) haven't had any problems also use them in my different brand cars. Problem started with high pinion.
Just bought pre Black friday 3S GenAce 6500MAH, 11,4V 74.1wh battery. haven't had the change to run through the pack because of the cut off.

 

[Senton_Prime]

You could run 2 3s lipo's in parallel, you would want them to be the exact same specs.. I imagine that your trigger pull is short and quick and the esc just can't hang with the load draw, next time u try it, turn punch down to 1 and get a spot where you can really open her up nice and slow.. your looking for around 2 football fields in length, give or take

Also I see you have a 50c lipo, meh.. look for lipo's with 100+ c rating!!

 

[CherrieNL]

Oke people,

Yesterday i had time to dissamble the Infraction. When i removed the motor i was like oh no... some small gravel fell out and when i opened the spur pinion gear there was more gravel and somehow the E clip was gone. There was some damage to the spur gear(gravel stuck in spur) so my guess is that was causing the problem. Changed back the pinion to the stock version and when testing if everything was running smoothly (just testing the gears) it was doing way better. Will wait for local Black friday deals for new spur or metal slipper gear.

 

[Bustedaw11]

You should try this velcro trick to help the junk from getting into the module with your gears. Just place the soft side as you see in my pic below. Helped mine out a ton and I run it on a gravel road a ton.

 

[CherrieNL]

Looks cool Bustedaw11 will try it out.

Picked up a new spur this weekend and will change it.

Recieved emails from stores with BlackFriday offers and one shop has the Spektrum 160a in sale for 190 euros. Is things a good deal and will it fit in the Infraction 3s or is it to much?

Hope you hear from you soon.

​

 

[Senton_Prime]

They throw XLX2's in them, should be good

You'll need an extra esc mount!!

 

[razorrc]

Looks cool Bustedaw11 will try it out.

Picked up a new spur this weekend and will change it.

Recieved emails from stores with BlackFriday offers and one shop has the Spektrum 160a in sale for 190 euros. Is things a good deal and will it fit in the Infraction 3s or is it to much?

Hope you hear from you soon.

​

FYI, “rc5” gets you 5% off at eurorc.com

 

[CherrieNL]

They throw XLX2's in them, should be good

You'll need an extra esc mount!!

So no Spektrum?

 

[CherrieNL]

Today i was running my car. And it happend again. Red blinks.. my battery was still at 75% that first oh battery is low. Strange thing is when i turn the car of and turn it back on the red light is gone and i have throttle. Both engine and ESC don't feel hot just warm. Was doing some runs and keep hitting the 90 km+.

Temps outside are around 4/5 Celcius so don't think the ESC is overheating. Running a GenAce 6500MAH, 11,4V 74.1wh battery.

ESC is a 100 Spektrum. If the cutout keeps on happing im thinking of upgrading the ESC to a hobbywing Ezrun MAX10 G2 140 amp ESC or should i get a Hobbywing EzRUN MAX8 150 ESC or the Hobbywing QuicRun WP8BL150 G2. All three of them are around 100/150 euros. Or do you guys have a other suggestion? Different brand, bigger fans on ESC or motor.

 

[cazrack]

Have you changed the ESC cut off setting?
Change it to lowest cut off setting and see if the same issue apply.

 

[jkflow]

No, your ESC is not overheating.
Set your ESC LVC to auto-low and if that still doesn't work you have a weak battery i.e. 1 cell has a high IR value.

 

[CherrieNL]

Will check it out. Keep you posted if that changes anything.