Traxxas ESC Problem
 

Hello,
I recently upgraded my Traxxas Rustler with a Velineon 3500 that came with the VXL 3S ESC. I used it one time for about an hour and flat ground , no dirt or crazy stuff. When I went to use it for only the 2nd time the ESC light does not come on and there is no forward or reverse acceleration. The fan comes on and the steering servo works but the green light on the ESC does not go on and it won't turn of unless I unplug he battery. Any ideas what could be causing this? Anyone else ever have this issue? This thing is brand new and has been run foro barely one hour. I reached out to Traxxas support but they have not go back to me?

sounds like you may have lost radio calibration. If when you plug in a battery (with the radio on) hold the "on" button down until it lights up (red I think) and then let go. it will start to blink. pull full throttle until it blinks twice, then move the throttle to full reverse, then when it blinks again let go of the throttle, return to neutral. then the light should blink and you might be good to go.

This is from memory, if you r manual has different "throttle calibration" directions, follow those


Tim

Lipo Battery?

Your Lipo Packs may need to be charged up...
It is possible it lost calibration as well.

I presume you had the XL5 brushed motor/esc setup prior to installing the VXL System?

What would be a good non traxxas motor and control system that would fit my Rustler? If I have to go the warranty route on this I may want to try something totally different and can use this one when it gets back for another car I'm building

Castle was the go to replacement at one time. Hobbywing Might have taken over during the sale of Castle creations.

What battery are you using? The traxxas ESC has a mode for lipo and one for nimh. If you have it set to Lipo cutoff but are using a nimh battery then it won't work properly. The opposite can cause damage to your battery if you run it too long. Did you run a single lipo battery for an hour?

Check the calibration too as mentioned above.

The Hobbywing EZRun MAX10 Combo is available with a 3300kv motor and would be a decent budget replacement, like the Traxxas it is a sensorless system so won't be as smooth at low speed as the more expensive sensored systems.

I am using a 4 cell lipo and I have gone through everything possible. My buddy brought his ESC over and we installed it and it works perfect. When I put my ESC back in same issue. So it is definitely the ESC has gone bad. Are there other ESC units compatible with the VXL Traxxas motor I have? All I need is a new ESC but I don't want to go with Traxxas again and risk getting another dud.

It blew after running a 3s esc with a 4s battery? That isn’t a warranty issue or a dud, you have given the esc more voltage than it is rated for and blown it.

My bad, that was a typo. I have a 2 cell lipo 5000 MAh battery. In the instructions is calls for 2 or 3 cell battery.
Do you know if there are any other non-traxas ESC's that are "plug and play" with the motor?

Most brushless ESCs will be compatible your Traxxas motor- the main exceptions being those designed for single cell (1S) use, or those with a low KV limit. Some of the 'stock only' escs will have no ability to apply timing/boost, so unless you are racing avoid those because you won't be able to make your Rustler run as fast. Feel free to post up any of the ESC's you are looking at if you want to check. Hobbying, Reedy, Tekin, Castle Creations all make plenty of ESCs that will work for you.