I think my viper 10 blew up

[xilence]

Merriman

Thanks for your answer.

Do you meant with 'bum units' that they are suspicious?
I'm not so happy with that idea, now I have three left which be can toasted. :(
They are not so cheap that you can trow them away and order an other brand.
Beside that, I'm dutch, we folks trow nothing away. :biggrin:

[RCSubGuy]

Hmm... now that I think of it.. would it be bad that each was running a BEC circuit?

[RCSubGuy]

I just had TWO of these explode on me. One came from OTW and one was in my parts bin. They both exploded in a like manner (yes.. literally exploded). They were pulling power from the same source, however they were driving two different motors, one the main drive motor and one a little Graupner motor for a bow thruster.

Smoke billowed out of them and they literally spat gunk all over my shiny WTC innards. Both were working perfectly up to the time they died.

Weird as heck.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Xilence,

Just got word this morning from an MTronik's technical representative about this very issue. He's sending me a 'new' style of ESC for evaluation that, if it checks out, will replace the Viper 10's in our Caswell catalog.

Steve (the MTronik's guy) did report that of the many units they have sold, that particular ESC did not evidence any failure reporting above the norm. Anyway, it may be a moot point as it seems they have dropped production of the Viper 10.

Stand by, I'll post findings and the alternative ESC here when we get this worked out.

My own opinion is that there was a bad lot of this ESC that got out of the plant and they have, over time, found their way into the hands of guys who actually use them and suffer a failure. **** happens as they say.

Other than this single item problem our experience with the quality, price, and availability of the MTronik's line has been nothing short of outstanding.

Also, the voltages and load you have applied to your ESC is well within its operating limits. Me thinks you have some bum units there.

David,

[xilence]

Hello.

I"m from the Netherlands and in my search to an answer why I toasted my ECS Mtroniks viper 10 I came on this forum.
My English is not very well, but I will give it a try.

I ordered recently four viper 10 ECS for my project in England and build them in my project.
Each ECS has his own (little) 12v 25 mm gearmotor like this one
Ouput power 10w, no load, 004 Amp, at maximum efficiency, 0.17 Amp.
Al of them are fused with 5 amp.

On several tests everything goes well, but when I build them in my project and connect the power again I saw a very little spark, nothing els like a burning smell or something like that. When I want to test it I noticed that one function doesn't work anymore. The ECS which connect to this function seems completely dead and extremely hot, and no red or green light. I can't see any damage om the ECS whatsoever.

The ECS are 4.8 to 12v, I use a 12v 7a lead acid battery.
On the moment when this happened I got 12.6 volt. Was that to much? Could that be the problem?
What is the really maximum volts they could have?
I know that a 3 cell lipo has also fully charged 12.6v. People use them all the time for this type ECS with no problems.

I ordered a new one, but I'm afraid to connect it to my battery again before I know what the maxmium volts they could have, maybe someone here has some experience with it.

Or maybe do I have also a bad ECS, like mentioned here.

[Kazzer]

David,
I am the other guy. I sent it up. I had a 10 Amp sloblo fuse between the battery and input side of the esc and it still went toast. That's what has me stumped. I killed the mission switch asap but it was too late. I installed a new esc from spares and all was ok. Also I made no changes after it went toes up and the new one is fine except for the bec that came off the side but I resolved that problem which I'll post tomorrow under the d&e section on my 2.5 wtc.
Bob

Did we do anything about this? I was under the impression all these defective units had been replaced.

Lets carve this in stone now folks. Send defective ESCs etc to CASWELL Inc with a note explaining what happened, invoice #, etc. We'll fix you up with a new one from our inventory and deal with Mtroniks. That way was have a chain of command and the paperwork will flow better. Mtroniks and I will resolve the exchanges etc. so you folks won't need to mess with sending stuff to England.

[639mpa]

David,
I am the other guy. I sent it up. I had a 10 Amp sloblo fuse between the battery and input side of the esc and it still went toast. That's what has me stumped. I killed the mission switch asap but it was too late. I installed a new esc from spares and all was ok. Also I made no changes after it went toes up and the new one is fine except for the bec that came off the side but I resolved that problem which I'll post tomorrow under the d&e section on my 2.5 wtc.
Bob

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Ugh! Sorry, I'm addressing the wrong guy here. Another member send me (at my request) his toasted Viper 10 -- I got you confused with him.

As to your Vipers. hook them up with a 15 or so quick-blow fuse between the battery and input side of the ESC -- I normally don't do that, but it will prevent a cook-off if you have a bum ESC.

David,

[roedj]

David & Mike,

Whoa big guys, whoa.

I have not sent any Mtroniks ESC's to anyone. I have not had any Mtroniks ESC failures. I DO have at least 3 unopened Viper 10's in my possession. I was just wondering (out loud, I guess) if I should build a test rig and run them all for awhile to see if they smoke. Then Mike said, "Send them back to me." Me is Mike, I think.

OK, ball in your court, what do I do next, if anything?

Muddled in Michigan,

Dan

[Kazzer]

Dan,

I'm sorry about my tardy response and action on this matter. I completely forgot my promise to you to get your turned in unit off to MTroniks (along with the one that failed on me). Tomorrow I'll box both up with a cover letter explaining our observations.

Very sorry about this oversight.

David,

Send them to me David. I'll send them ALL back to Mtroniks in ONE hit and issue credits/replacements etc.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Dan,

I'm sorry about my tardy response and action on this matter. I completely forgot my promise to you to get your turned in unit off to MTroniks (along with the one that failed on me). Tomorrow I'll box both up with a cover letter explaining our observations.

Very sorry about this oversight.

David,

[roedj]

Maybe you should simply send ALL the units back and we'll ship them to Mtroniks along with any others that had this problem. So David should send his to me as well.

Mike,

Thanks for your clarification.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page here, do you want me to send the unopened units back to you at Caswell? If so, is there a RA#?

Dan

[639mpa]

ESC

I was asked by David to return mine to him for forwarding. I was just trying to find out if he heard any word yet.The other one i purchased from Caswel is working fine.
Bob

[Kazzer]

Mike,

I must admit that I'm really puzzled by your reply. Is this not the Mtroniks forum on your website?

I have purchased at least of the three of the aforementioned ESC's from you that are still still sitting in their original package in my basement awaiting future projects. I'm now wondering if I shouldn't build some sort of test rig just to run them all for a few days just to see if they smoke. And if they do smoke, what then? Do you want me to email Mtroniks directly about it or call them (I'm not thrilled about having to call the UK)?

I bought them from you with the understanding that Caswell would back what they sell and, at least, help us work out the issues, if any. Perhaps I was wrong or perhaps I just don't understand what you meant by your reply.

Please advise,

Dan

Dan
I'm sorry, looks like I was screwed up. I mis-read the auto-email from the forum and thought the question was in the general section. What I was trying to say was it would be better if we dealt with Mtroniks directly over this, rather than via David, then me, then Mtroniks.

Mtroniks get an auto-email on every post here, so hopefully they'll respond. Actually, I thought we'd figured all this out with these units weeks ago. Maybe you should simply send ALL the units back and we'll ship them to Mtroniks along with any others that had this problem. So David should send his to me as well.

[roedj]

Mike,

I must admit that I'm really puzzled by your reply. Is this not the Mtroniks forum on your website?

I have purchased at least of the three of the aforementioned ESC's from you that are still still sitting in their original package in my basement awaiting future projects. I'm now wondering if I shouldn't build some sort of test rig just to run them all for a few days just to see if they smoke. And if they do smoke, what then? Do you want me to email Mtroniks directly about it or call them (I'm not thrilled about having to call the UK)?

I bought them from you with the understanding that Caswell would back what they sell and, at least, help us work out the issues, if any. Perhaps I was wrong or perhaps I just don't understand what you meant by your reply.

Please advise,

Dan