brew99

iTrader: (6)

So I calibrated the ESC at 100% throttle EPA on the radio, then proceeded to back it down to about 25% so that my nephew could drive the truck. The ESC lasted a whole 5 min like this. It is now dead. Fortunately it was a new cheapy from HK, so no big lose.

Anyhow, does running it at such a large difference from 100% have any effect on the ESC? It ran fine for the 5 min I played with it at the 100%.

VenturaDC

iTrader: (32)

My 5yo has been running at 60% for months on both a stock hpi esc and an Lrp, no issues.

EricW

iTrader: (1)

I've highlighted the issue for you

But to answer your question, I know lots of people who turn down their EPA without issue. With our new track layout the mod guys have pretty much all turned down their EPAs and haven't seen a single one have an issue.

Ropes

iTrader: (41)

I remember a few years ago, Lucien Miller from innov8tive designs, hosted a power systems Q&A with the guys from the allthingsthatfly podcast, that covered just this topic. I know I'm going to butcher it a little bit, but here goes.

Assuming your running a brushless ESC...all of the brushless ESCs on the market now control the power to the motor windings using Pulse Width Modulation. This means that the power going to the motor from the ESC is 100% whether your transmitter is at 25% or 100% throttle. What you're actually controlling is how long and how many times that pulse stays in the "ON" position for each phase.

- When you're at a 100% throttle at the radio, you're telling the ESC to turn on each phase to 100%, 100% of the time it's allowed to during its cycle (or ON 1 time per phase).

- When you're at 25% throttle on the transmitter, you're telling the ESC to turn on each phase to 100%, 25% of the time it's allowed to during its cycle (or ON and OFF 4 times per phase).

Think about it this way....turn a light on in your house...your hand and the light switch are the ESC and your bulb is the motor. When you want 100% of the light turn the switch on once and done...no real workout there. Now if you want 25% of the light, using PWM, you would have to turn the switch ON and OFF four times per second (arbitrary rate thrown in there...but hopefully you get my point). Now I don't know about your endurance, but my hand and arm would start to get tired and overworked in a short amount of time. That's essentially what's going on with your ESC.

In short, it's actually better/healthier for your equipment to be run at 100% for as long as you can. As far as your nephew goes, it might be worth your time, while you're ordering a replacement ESC to get a slower motor and some extra gears to mechanically slow things down for him.

I hope this helps you understand better what's going on in your system.

howardcano

iTrader: (37)

If the ESC is designed correctly, there will be no problems running at less than 100%. There is no extra "wear and tear".

It is quite likely that your ESC was going to fail regardless of how you ran it. It just happened that it failed after you turned down the EPA, but that doesn't mean that was the cause.

MarkA

iTrader: (21)

+1. Quality equipment can do it easily. Almost everybody runs a mod class, from 4wd SC to 2w mod buggy with the throttle EPA at less than 100% by me due to track size and I can't remember the last non-Novak or el cheapo Chinese un-brand ESC, failure I've seen.

brew99

iTrader: (6)

It may have been a coincidence, who knows. I just thought I would pose the question in case I was missing something. I'll dig into it a little further over the Holidays, and install another ESC and see what happens. I don't want to install a lower motor, as I would still like to have the option of running it as a back-up 2wdSCT, so that is why I initially thought that dropping the EPA would be a good and simple way for a beginner driver.

Thanks all for your input

dan_vector

iTrader: (27)

I've run reduced EPA's on lots of different ESC's from cheapos to high end. Brushed and brushless. Never had a failure attributable to the EPA setting. I agree with the others that the failure was probably gonna happen regardless the EPA issue is unrelated. I would agree however that a cooler motor maybe a good idea as well for your nephew and many esc/motor combos are great value like the hobbywing justock or speed passion stock. Either would probably last a lot longer than another cheap esc.

Wildcat1971

iTrader: (84)

my daughter ran at 50% - 75% for over a year. never had anything go boom.

Cpt.America

iTrader: (52)

Whenever I am running mod, I am fine tuning my top end and throttle response using both the full throttle EPA, as well as throttle curves. I can't say I have ever run mod with my epa at 100. Usually between 70% and 90%. I once ran for 5 or 10 minutes around the track with a friend of mine bot of us running 8.5 motors with our EPA set to 15%. Was a riot.