Strange issue with Kraton

[bicketybam]

So if anyone saw my video from yesterday, you saw that my Kraton is intermittently losing throttle. It's really odd. So today I went to check it and the closest battery to me was a storage charged single 4s battery. I never run this battery in my Kraton. I only run dual 3s batteries. Anyway, I installed the loop and the 4s battery. I take it outside and it runs perfectly, albeit slower than I'm used to. No issues with throttle loss.

I brought the truck inside and put in the two storage charged 3s batteries I ran yesterday. I take the truck outside and run it. I immediately get the intermittent throttle loss. WTF?? So now I'm thinking it's the batteries. I grab another pair of storage charged 3s batteries and try them. Same issue. Still losing power every 5 seconds or so.

Now I stumped. So I go back to the 4s battery that I started with. Truck runs like a champ. I even swapped the loop from one ESC lead to the other and the truck still ran fine.

What in the word is the issue? One of the ESC battery leads is damaged but it has been for months.

Could this be the issue and if so why just on 6s? I have a spare BLX185 so I am going to try that and see what's what. Bit this really has me mystified ?

 

[Notorious J]

Chances are, when you're running with the loop on a single battery, the damaged connector is affected as much because of the amps being drawn. Two 3s batteries could be affected by the damage, and causing the lag. I bet if you try one 3s at a time, they'll both work fine. Time to change that connector Ed.

 

[bicketybam]

I took the ESC out and there is a pretty bad nick on the receiver wire. I'll post up a picture in a bit. I think that is more of the issue than the battery connector, but you are right - it needs to be changed. I put my spare BLX185 in and when I turned it on I got a whiff of burnt electronics, the fan started and stopped and the red light just flashed. Totally unresponsive. I made a quick video:

I submitted a warranty claim to Horizon, but I am not going to put a BLX185 back into my Kraton. I am heading to the LHS in a bit to see if they have a Max8 or Max6 in stock. Hopefully they have a Max6, because that it was I really want to run a long can motor in the future.

 

[bicketybam]

 

[olds97_lss]

Could be one of your 3S packs power wires/plug has overheated and/or broke the solder joint. Then you get enough power to turn stuff on, but not enough flow to get it moving well.

4S lowers voltage, but not amps. Pretty sure you pull more amps on 4S than on 6S, or at least very similar.

 

[bicketybam]

Could be one of your 3S packs power wires/plug has overheated and/or broke the solder joint. Then you get enough power to turn stuff on, but not enough flow to get it moving well.

4S lowers voltage, but not amps. Pretty sure you pull more amps on 4S than on 6S, or at least very similar.

I fixed the problem.

Max6!

 

[olds97_lss]

Did you run it yet?

 

[bicketybam]

Did you run it yet?

No. It was freezing today with 50 mph winds.

 

[bicketybam]

Oh, forgot to mention. When I swapped in the spare BLX185 that ended up with the red blinking light of death, it apparently cooked my Savox 1210SG. When I put the Max6 in and tested everything, the servo was completely dead. My LHS is going to try and warranty it for me. And speaking of warranty, HH wants me to send in the dead BLX185. They didn't even view the video I made.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Was the sound of that cackle the fan or the esc itself? Whatever it was couldn’t be good. I’ve had many esc sensor wires go bad, but all of my esc’s are extremely old school so there’s no warrenty, I just solder them back up myself. That broken blx 185 with the red light definitely killed your servo. You can see the fan twitching so it’s signaling something wrong with the internal BEC, which is connected to the fan, also connected to the reciever, which is connected to the servo. Did the receiver survive?

 

[bicketybam]

Was the sound of that cackle the fan or the esc itself? Whatever it was couldn’t be good. I’ve had many esc sensor wires go bad, but all of my esc’s are extremely old school so there’s no warrenty, I just solder them back up myself. That broken blx 185 with the red light definitely killed your servo. You can see the fan twitching so it’s signaling something wrong with the internal BEC, which is connected to the fan, also connected to the reciever, which is connected to the servo. Did the receiver survive?

Receiver is fine. That sound was the fan.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Receiver is fine. That sound was the fan.

Ah ok. What was the sound after the fan stopped? Was that the esc then?

Edit: probably the fan pulsing back and forth trying to start but struggling from overvoltage. Which is probably what happened to your servo. Receiver is fine as you said and I’m really not surprised because they tend to not blow under a sudden overvoltage, rather a long period of time.

 

[bicketybam]

Ah ok. What was the sound after the fan stopped? Was that the esc then?

I really don't remember and I'm certainly not plugging it in to find out!

 

[DoNoHarm]

Yeah we don't need a fire. Seems like your blx 185 was an xmaxx vxl 6s in disguise trying to blow up.

 

[Jimbobjr]

So, what motor are you going with now? and what KV? Im in the same boat leaning toward the Max6 but the =>1500kv is a bit of a turnoff. Maybe its so over powered for the 1/8 scale Kraton the 4092 1730KV variety would be fine...don't know.

 

[bicketybam]

So, what motor are you going with now? and what KV? Im in the same boat leaning toward the Max6 but the =>1500kv is a bit of a turnoff. Maybe its so over powered for the 1/8 scale Kraton the 4092 1730KV variety would be fine...don't know.

Do you really need to run 1500kv or less when running 6s? I just read that in the specs. I was going to run the stock BLX185 until I figured out what I wanted. Will I damage the ESC?

I will eventually go with a long can lower Kv motor. I'm just not sure as to which one yet.

 

[Jimbobjr]

I’m not sure how they rate them or what they go by but man, look at that thing. I think it will be fine.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Do you really need to run 1500kv or less when running 6s? I just read that in the specs. I was going to run the stock BLX185 until I figured out what I wanted. Will I damage the ESC?

I will eventually go with a long can lower Kv motor. I'm just not sure as to which one yet.

All brushless esc’s can only spin a motor up to a certain RPM. It can only fire so many times per minute. Hobbywing obviously makes some reliable esc’s, we all know that, but one thing they definitely cost cut is maximum rpm. That said you do need to stay within spec of the kv and voltage they say. If you fail to follow this your truck will have a rev limiter type feel (if you know what I mean) and it’ll get hotter.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

Do you really need to run 1500kv or less when running 6s? I just read that in the specs. I was going to run the stock BLX185 until I figured out what I wanted. Will I damage the ESC?

I will eventually go with a long can lower Kv motor. I'm just not sure as to which one yet.

Keep in mind that those specs listed are for a 5892 motor. I am almost positive that when you are running a smaller motor that you can run higher kv than what they have called out, but I'm not 100% sure.

I've always wondered how they come up with those specs as well as they don't make it easy to pair up the esc with a motor.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Keep in mind that those specs listed are for a 5892 motor. I am almost positive that when you are running a smaller motor that you can run higher kv than what they have called out, but I'm not 100% sure.

I've always wondered how they come up with those specs as well as they don't make it easy to pair up the esc with a motor.

If that’s for a 5892 motor than he’ll have no problem going to 2000kv with a smaller 8th scale sized motor. Sorry I didn’t know he was referring to that can size.

That maximum rpm increases as motor size decreases. For mamba monster 2’s it’s 200k for 3674 cans, 150k for 4068 cans, 125k for 4074 cans, 100k for 4092 cans, but it can run 4582 cans but I’m not sure of the maximum rpm on that one.