Weird Mamba Monster X issue on Kraton EXB

[Astronought]

Hey all! I was hoping that someone will be able to help me figure out what's wrong with my MMX ESC. I've got it running on my Kraton EXB with the Castle 2200kv 1515 sensored motor on the stock EXB 12 tooth pinion, a Castle 1515 motor cooling fan and I'm running it on 4S power only.

So it will run fine for a little bit, sometime as long as10ish minutes, but then it will randomly stop dead in it's tracks and repeatedly play the startup tone before counting out the cells and rearming. Then it will run fine for another few minutes and do it all over again. It doesn't seem to matter how hard I run it, how hot of day it is or how hot the motor/ESC gets it just always does it. I swapped the receiver from my Erevo into the EXB and it does the same thing even thought both recivers run fine in the Erevo. Batteries also have no issues in the Erevo. I've reset the ESC to stock settings, updated the firmware, really everything I could think of, so any help would be much appreciated! I've linked a video of the random restarting in action below (turn sound on in the lower left hand corner first).

https://streamable.com/52lhqk

 

[bicketybam]

Hey all! I was hoping that someone will be able to help me figure out what's wrong with my MMX ESC. I've got it running on my Kraton EXB with the Castle 2200kv 1515 sensored motor on the stock EXB 12 tooth pinion, a Castle 1515 motor cooling fan and I'm running it on 4S power only.

So it will run fine for a little bit, sometime as long as10ish minutes, but then it will randomly stop dead in it's tracks and repeatedly play the startup tone before counting out the cells and rearming. Then it will run fine for another few minutes and do it all over again. It doesn't seem to matter how hard I run it, how hot of day it is or how hot the motor/ESC gets it just always does it. I swapped the receiver from my Erevo into the EXB and it does the same thing even thought both recivers run fine in the Erevo. Batteries also have no issues in the Erevo. I've reset the ESC to stock settings, updated the firmware, really everything I could think of, so any help would be much appreciated! I've linked a video of the random restarting in action below (turn sound on in the lower left hand corner first).

https://streamable.com/52lhqk

This has happened to me with both the MMX and the new MMX8S. I believe what is happening is voltage sag. You will hit LVC when the voltage drops and then it rebounds enough for it to start back up. I verified this by checking my logs when it happened to me the other day. Check your logs and pull up the voltage graph. See where your battery voltage is at when it resets.

 

[SrC]

Can I ask what 4s pack you are using?? Not that I think it truly matters just yet.
2200kv seems too high a Kv overall for the Kraton in general. Especially on 4s.
You covered all your bases, I would contact CC about this ESC.
I've had similar issues with a BLX185 ESC. Intermittent restarts like yours, But eventually it went dead. The FETS were fried. You can use a Dig. volt meter set to continuity with the ESC disconnected from the lipo and motor. Check for continuity from + lipo lead to each motor wire, then same for - lipo lead to each motor wire. There should NOT be any continuity among any of those connections. If so, the ESC FET's are bricked. Just one quick way to trouble shoot. Process of elimination. It just could be defective.
Others may chime in. Good luck.
Welcome to AF.

 

[jondilly1974]

My guess here is you’re losing power and it is cycling. This could be a bad ESC, wire, connector, etc.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Question for those who use full battery packs, when this ESC hits LCV does it normally cut power and drive really slow?
I suspect a bad connection. If all battery connections are good then something is wonky inside the ESC or power switch.

 

[jondilly1974]

Question for those who use full battery packs, when this ESC hits LCV does it normally cut power and drive really slow?
I suspect a bad connection. If all battery connections are good then something is wonky inside the ESC or power switch.

I will let you know if I ever get to LVC ??

 

[bicketybam]

Question for those who use full battery packs, when this ESC hits LCV does it normally cut power and drive really slow?
I suspect a bad connection. If all battery connections are good then something is wonky inside the ESC or power switch.

It does not cut power. It just stops and beeps a code (short beep long beep). I had this happen a bunch of time towards the end of my battery and when it would cut out it would immediately do the start up sequence. When I get my internet back I'll post up the data logs.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

It does not cut power. It just stops and beeps a code (short beep long beep). I had this happen a bunch of time towards the end of my battery and when it would cut out it would immediately do the start up sequence. When I get my internet back I'll post up the data logs.

Not the behavior I would expect... I suppose as an alternative you could disable LVC and use those alarms that fit on the balance plug.

 

[SrC]

Those alarms have failed me.... a few times. Faulty cell reads and all. But is an option if you get good ones.

 

[Astronought]

This has happened to me with both the MMX and the new MMX8S. I believe what is happening is voltage sag. You will hit LVC when the voltage drops and then it rebounds enough for it to start back up. I verified this by checking my logs when it happened to me the other day. Check your logs and pull up the voltage graph. See where your battery voltage is at when it resets.

Hey bicketybam, thanks for your answer, I pulled the logs and this doesn't seem to be the case, I never the short beep, long beep code... Just the random restart, sometime it will make the truck do a front flip if the restart happens while the truck is moving fast. I'll go ahead a link the log if you or anyone else wants to take a gander, god know I'm *very* new to all this!

My guess here is you’re losing power and it is cycling. This could be a bad ESC, wire, connector, etc.

This could be it, I mean the wires and connectors for the batteries look solid, maybe buying a new wire harness would be a good idea before just calling it lost cause?

 

[bicketybam]

Hey bicketybam, thanks for your answer, I pulled the logs and this doesn't seem to be the case, I never the short beep, long beep code... Just the random restart, sometime it will make the truck do a front flip if the restart happens while the truck is moving fast. I'll go ahead a link the log if you or anyone else wants to take a gander, god know I'm *very* new to all this!


This could be it, I mean the wires and connectors for the batteries look solid, maybe buying a new wire harness would be a good idea before just calling it lost cause?

I'll take a look. I can tell you that I have had this happen with the Mamba X, the Mamba Monster X and now the Mamba Monster X 8S.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Hey bicketybam, thanks for your answer, I pulled the logs and this doesn't seem to be the case, I never the short beep, long beep code... Just the random restart, sometime it will make the truck do a front flip if the restart happens while the truck is moving fast. I'll go ahead a link the log if you or anyone else wants to take a gander, god know I'm *very* new to all this!


This could be it, I mean the wires and connectors for the batteries look solid, maybe buying a new wire harness would be a good idea before just calling it lost cause?

I suspect thermal shutdown:

 

[bicketybam]

I suspect thermal shutdown:

View attachment 93336

That definitely looks like it could be the case. You know the fan probably is busted. I'd bet money on it.

 

[SrC]

It can't be thermal cut. Thermal usually wont reset till a cool down . The OP states getting constant resets without much use at all. How could heat be an issue. Sounds like a defect. Double check your motor leads.. I know data doesn't lie.. but maybe I missed something here?
I don't pretend to be any expert on CC ESC's.
I would still check the ESC with a DVM.
edit: Faulty fan aside, Fried FET(s) will cause high temps. Hope not the case.

 

[Astronought]

I suspect thermal shutdown:

View attachment 93336

I didn't notice that! Thanks LibertyMKiii!
Looks like it's time to make a trip to my LHS...

 

[olds97_lss]

Mine was doing that in my savage flux hp. I had asked castle about it and they suspected water was getting on the sensor/power plug on the esc (why they made it that was is silly if that is the case) and it was causing it to reboot. I was running in wet grass at the time. I haven't run that thing in a year, but the last couple of times I had it out, it was dry and I didn't have any rebooting that I noticed.

 

[Astronought]

Okay, so I replaced the fan and the wiring harness on the MMX, no change in behavior
I guess my next step is to contact Castle support?

 

[jondilly1974]

Okay, so I replaced the fan and the wiring harness on the MMX, no change in behavior
I guess my next step is to contact Castle support?

Did you possibly get it wet? Have you tried another lipo? Calling Castle is going to be a good idea anyways but just trying to maybe get you going today.

 

[The_Otherside]

My MMX 8s ESC is doing the same thing it sounds like.

Not in the video: when I go off a jump of any size, for about .7 seconds after the jump, the servo won't turn. After the .7ish, it turns fine.

Also not in the video: truck stops responding to the transmitter. Fans still running, transmitter shows all batteries are fine. Then after a set period of time, truck fires back up and responds to transmitter.

Instead of posting a new thread, I'll post here.

OP, did you ever figure this out??

Thanks guys!

 

[olds97_lss]

My MMX 8s ESC is doing the same thing it sounds like.

Not in the video: when I go off a jump of any size, for about .7 seconds after the jump, the servo won't turn. After the .7ish, it turns fine.

Also not in the video: truck stops responding to the transmitter. Fans still running, transmitter shows all batteries are fine. Then after a set period of time, truck fires back up and responds to transmitter.

Instead of posting a new thread, I'll post here.

OP, did you ever figure this out??

Thanks guys!

Have you dumped the logs on it to see what it says? If it was doing what mine was, you would end up with a bunch of "sessions" in the log data.

If you haven't tried that, clear the logs, set it to not clear when reaching 100%, then bash with it and see if it happens repeatedly again. If so, dump the log afterward and see if you see a bunch of sessions in the log data.

I put red boxes around the lines for the end of each "power cycle". It will put that in if you turn it on/off or if it reboots.