I think my viper 10 blew up

[Subculture]

I wouldn't use any power system unfused. Nuisance blowing is generally the result of poor speccing of the fuse. A correctly specced fuse (25% above the maximum current draw of your system) of a slow blow variety will prevent onboard fires. Without the fuse, your cabling becomes the 'fuse'.

Ramesh runs his boats sans fuse, ask him what happened to his Lafayette a couple of years ago when his ESC went short circuit.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I can present no valid argument against your advice here, Andy.

So, a 50 Ampere fuse ahead of the ESC is what you're saying? (The Sub Viper 10 is rated for a maximum motor draw of 40 Ampere's).

Oh, and did the pictures show up for you in the above post?

Thanks for the help, by the way. As usual, you're the go to guy for serious, well thought out, no bull-**** answers.

David,

[Subculture]

That's it. And go for a slow blow version. It won't save the controller if something goes, but it will save your wiring and your wtc.

50A at 12volts is 600 watts- well that's a serious fault or a very powerful motor (going for the Subdog record?) before the fuse goes pop.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Thanks, Andy.

If I hear it from you or Kevin McLeod, then it's gospel to me. I'll take your advice.

This morning I plugged in an 'old' Viper Sub 10 ESC into the system and it all worked well. Me thinks we have a bad batch of ESC's out there in submarine land. But, final say-so on that theory will be made by MTroniks after they examine the bad units me, Dalton and others send in.

Good stuff, Andy!

David,

[Subculture]

I would much rather have a boat stuck on the bottom with a blown fuse, than an onboard fire turning my expensive wtc and hull into a novelty fondue kit.

Regarding the problem of ESC internal BEC's and a blown fuse making your sub dead in the water, the only way around this is to fit a separate BEC, and fuse that too.

This way if a fault develops in the ESC, you will still be able to blow your tank etc. With good quality BEC's available for under $5, it makes good sense to me, added to this, they're tiny and will fit in all but the smallest of models (you'll probably struggle with the Revell Skipjack wtc).

On the flip side, you have an extra piece of kit to fail, win some lose some. If you're sailing in fairly shallow ponds or swimming pools, then I would just use the ESC BEC. Big lakes or ponds, I might look towards the separate route.

[Kazzer]

On the flip side, you have an extra piece of kit to fail, win some lose some. If you're sailing in fairly shallow ponds or swimming pools, then I would just use the ESC BEC. Big lakes or ponds, I might look towards the separate route.

As The Wiz and I are probably the only model submarine supplier that caters to a large range of boats and consequently attract more 'newbies' to the hobby, we frequently have people very unsure of which model to purchase. They seem to not consider where they are going to sail their boats, and often choose a model which is really unsuited to their particular puddle, so I'm pleased to see Andy make this distinction.

Since we developed the Snort System, neither Mr. M or I ever fill the gas bottle if sailing in a swim or paddling pool, as we can easily recover the boat. I'd like to develop some sort of chart to show which boats are suitable in which environment, and consequently which failsafe and ballast systems are required. I haven't quite got it all figured out yet, so if you have any ideas, I'd be grateful for any input.

[Subculture]

Choice of boat is very subjective.

Even very large boats can get round in fairly modestly sized pools, although you will arguably have far more fun with a smaller nimble model. The Summer Dive-in I have run over the past two years is held at St Albans Sub Aqua club, and makes use of their club house pool, which was once the old cities municipal swimming baths. It isn't huge at 100x60ft, but two Engel Typhoons were quite happily swimming around in it.

Clearly very small boats won't suit big lake diving too well, as they'll disappear if taken out more than a few feet from the bankside.

Here in the UK, most people tend to go for 1/60-1/72nd scale for Nuke attack class boats, 1/96-1/100 for bomber boats, 1/32-1/48th for WWII vessells, and a few larger scales 1/9-16th for midget boats etc.

Those scales tend to result in a boat that will fit in the back of an average sized car, although there are exceptions.

Andy

[639mpa]

MY new ESC SUB10 just went toast. I hooked it up and ran it for a few seconds and all was fine. I then got a very fast beeping sound from the ESC. ????? I have a 10A fuse in the line from the battery to the ESC. It blew. Checked all the wiring and connectors visually. All were ok. Inserted another fuse, flipped on mission switch-blown fuse. Replaced fuse. Disconnected ESC from power wires. No blown fuse when powered on with mission switch. Disconnected ESC from motor turned on mission switch and the ESC lit up crackled and smoked. New to this hobby and smoked my first and hopefully last ESC!!!! Where are the ET's when you need them? Any ideas? Is the warranty void if you solder motor wires from the ESC to the motor terminals? I'll send mine back so they can do a post mortem. Thanks

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

This is beginning to sound like a bad batch of ESC's. Send it to me and I'll forward it, along with an ESC that blew on me, to MTronik's for some answers.

David D Merriman lll
835 Holly Hedge Ave.
Virginia Beach, VA 23452

[639mpa]

The new ESC has been working pretty well up to yesterday when I noticed the external BEC was getting hot thru the subdriver wall. I haven't noticed this before. Tonight I had the same thing. Didn't notice any shorts but I get a lot of chatter from the blow/vent servo with the stick in neutral. I'll have to troubleshoot with the ET's and MM's. Also, it got warm enough to melt the glue that holds it to the ESC body. No visible damage anywhere.

Things always get better after ORSE

Thanks

[639mpa]

This is beginning to sound like a bad batch of ESC's. Send it to me and I'll forward it, along with an ESC that blew on me, to MTronik's for some answers.

David D Merriman lll
835 Holly Hedge Ave.
Virginia Beach, VA 23452

Hi David,
Any word from Mtroniks about the ESC I sent to you to go back with yours? Thanks, Bob

[Kazzer]

Hi David,
Any word from Mtroniks about the ESC I sent to you to go back with yours? Thanks, Bob

Pose the question on the Mtroniks forum and deal with them directly please.

Keep this stuff separate and focused on the product manufacturer, otherwise we'll all get screwed up.

[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

[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.

[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