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What would cause my Viper 10 to do this???
This what happened to my unit in the Seaview sd after some 30-35 minutes of run time. It's hard to make out in the picture but there is a section just under the negative wire that looks like it burst. Also what ever happened seemed to short out the power wires to with more damage done to the negative lead. It was almost like a short circuit result which resulted in my lipos going PHHZZT!! And the negative powere lead being fused to the battery and slightly to the inner wall of the sd which also received a fine 1/4 inch crack in it at the burn point....
Not only was this power lead burnt through but almost all the plug in connectors had gotten hot enough to melt the solder! With the lipos getting hot and smokey the front bulkhead popped from the expanding gases which then let water into the sd.
Fortunately this last bit happened as I was lifting the sub out of the water so there wasn't that much water in the hull but every compartment did get water in it...!!! At first I thought I had thrown the drive shafts to the pump jets because it lost all forward thrust but none of the planes answered the tx either. At least it coasted to a halt a couple of feet from the platforms forms edge so I was able to use a pole to guide it in.
I was amzed how calm I was about seeing all that light grey smoke waft up through the limber holes, however my reaction was some what different on setting on the table, opening it up and seeing the mess in the power dry compartment. And that smell! Not wanting to loose the plot in front of the other rc'ers at the lake took a bit of effort but calm I remained. In truth I was as angry as all hell but what could I do. Closer inspection revealed that the esc had spewed out copious amounts of melted resin and in that were dozens of little beads of what looked like solder giving the inside of the sd a look of burnt out horror. So packing up my Gato, Seaview, sd's, tools n table I headed home for a postmortem and cleanup. The best news from the bench and tests is that all the components in the power dry space were undamaged just stained. So at least I don't have to replace servos, rx or the motors. As for batteries well I am now going to run a nickel metal rechargeable pack which will mean re-trimming the model but I can live with that.
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