I'm having electrical problems, need some help.
 

I'm having some problems with my stadium truck. From time to time it just decides to take off full speed with no steering and no brakes, basicly I have absolutely no control of the truck. Today it took off full speed, no brakes, no steering, straight into a wall. It broke the chassis in half and a bunch of other parts to boot.

I have tried two esc's, three servo's, three receivers, and two batteries and I am still having electrical issues. The only thing left is the motor it seems. Is it possible the motor is causing the problem? I use the radio for three other cars/trucks and I have no issues with them. I used the transponder on another truck afterwards and it did not have any issues.

Make sure your receiver antenna isn't touching/resting, or strapped to anything electrically conductive... Graphite/Carbon Fiber is conductive. Insulate your antennas well if you must have it touch something like that, aluminum, steel, these are all conductive...

Also, make sure there's enough antenna exposure. Bundling up your antenna and sticking a bit out will reduce your range to some effect...

Also, make sure you turn on your transmitter first, before turning on your receiver...

Lastly, this is a long shot since you claim that it works great in other cars, make sure you're not being jammed. The AM scheme is more prone to jamming.

I really don't think it's a motor issue. Motors usually will draw current if speed control is putting out a signal (switched power)...

Thank you. The antenna was looped on top of the receiver. The receiver was a Spektrum SR3000.

I should have mentioned, this happened about two minutes into a race. I did turn the radio on before the receiver though.

I find it hard to believe that it is the motor as well but I'm starting to run out of options. :(

Just for the heck of it here is a picture of my speed-t. May it rest in pieces. :cry:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...okenspeedt.jpg

You didn't mention anything about your transmitter. If you have changed all that other stuff and still having the same problem, it is likely in your transmitter. Try another radio.

Actually I did mention that I use the radio on three other cars/trucks. One of them was the stadium truck that I purchased yesterday after smashing mine into a wall. :cry:

no, you mentioned receivers, esc's and servos. If a transmitter works with the others, it still doesn't mean it's good. Try a different transmitter with the truck you are having problems with and see. I assume from your response that you hadn't tried a different radio transmitter. If you have tried all that then you have some kind of problem with how you are routing your antenna or you're trying to go too far away for the transmitter or if it always happens in the same area, you might have some external radio interference. I've seen that happen where many people have a problem in the same section of a track and we find there was a powerline problem in the powerlines that go by that side of the track. If you are using a system with crystals and not synthesized or 2.4GHz, you could have a problem with a crystal. I've seen them go bad.

Other than that you got me.

The last really good gremlin guy had found locally on a XXXTcr was actually a problem with metal on metal in the diff...
The truck would usually cut out after a hard landing/launch, but come right back...

The same truck also had one screw vibrating on the aluminum motor plate, but after fixing that it was narrowed down to inside the diff.

He had tried:
3 speed cons
2 motors
2-3 receivers
2 servos
various batteries
transmitters
different brand radio completely
etc.

They had physically nearly changed every thing on the truck, but it was the truck.

If it is indoor on carpet, some guys have had "static" issues on dual layer carpet landers or plexi-glass "ice" that was laid out...
That is usually cured with some spray on static guard, or increasing humidity.

It's nice to hear that it's not just me that has problems like this. I am running all metal gears in my transmission so I'm sure that could add to the problem that he was having. Would ceramic diff balls help with that problem? I am getting ready to order some bearings for my T2 I could throw in some diff bearings while I'm at it.

but that was one singular VERY odd occurance, and the chances of it replicating itself again is nill to none.

the OP is having "runaway" problems, and just hasn't found what IT is yet - but it's not "the truck" :rolleyes:

one thing I noticed looking at your pic is that you're running a receiver pack.......... why? :weird:

the other simple thing is that you don't have your motor wires from the ESC to the motor "braided" - and the castle motors are notorious for voltage spikes that cause glitches, and even they recommend (along with most BL motor manufacturers) to braid the wires to eliminate the possiblity of interference to the radio.

finally, you have all your wires just flopping around in the truck. not a good thing, and "could" lead to all kind of issues

There is no receiver pack. The blue you are seeing (assuming that is what you are refering to) is velcro for the transponder. It is a crappy picture so I can see why you are seeing that.

I didn't know about braiding the wires but I will certainly do that. That will be an easy fix.

The wires are just flopping around because I removed the mamba monster pro right before this run and put the sidewinder in to see if it would take care of the problem. Normally the wiring is pretty clean looking.

I have seen brushed motors cause radio glitches but so far not brushless. I'd suggest re-binding your radio/receiver.

I understand what you are saying as far as re-binding but I had to rebind every time I changed receivers trying to fix the issue. :(

okay, the blue velcro fooled me. I thought it was shrinkwrap on a rx pack.

the "braiding the wires" thing has been talked about and advised for a while. so definately do it.

i said something about the "flopping wires" because nothing's tied down, or tie-wraped, or anything, and loose wires tend to develop unforeseen issues that wouldn't normally exist and are hard to pinpoint later. it is even like your antenna wire, even with a spektrum I use a small antenna tube shoe-gooed to the chassis to keep it from flopping and getting damaged. :nod:

The wires are definitely flopping in that picture, not disagreeing with you at all about that. I was just "explaining" why I had it like that. I'm normally not that sloppy I swear. :D

I'll be rebuilding the truck this evening. I bought an xxx-t at the track yesterday that has the graphite chassis and a bunch of other graphite goodies. Basicly it is going to be a bunch of spare parts for my speed-t. I imagine I did at least $70 or $80 of damage to my truck yesterday if I would buy the parts at retail so it only made sense to buy the complete truck with all the goodies on it even though I will just be tearing it apart. When I rebuild it I will do the receiver antenna in the tube like you mentioned. I'll also braid the wires to the motor.

The speed T does use the same transmission...

Who braids their motor wires, seriously?

Flopping wires won't cause this either, all the wires are shielded...This guy isn't experiencing electrical problems :D

when the manufacturers go as far as suggesting things I'm always all ears ;)



NICE RIG, definately something to brag about :lol:




jsyk - flopping wires have a way of rubbing that "shielding" off

I don't know what the cure was other than the diff was rebuilt properly.
It wasn't my truck, & I was only part of the initial trouble shooting...

Make sure there is a little grease between the teeth, or swap out the idler for a composite.
Also make sure the diff grease in the diff isn't dried out...

If there is a "fail safe" built into the radio kit, make sure it is set properly.
I don't use Spektrum, so I'm unsure of all of the features.

I run ceramic balls only because they are so smooth, otherwise a good quality hardened steel is fine. Not all balls are equal (Losi being the worst).

I rebuilt the diff on Saturday, new rings sanded down but I did not replace the balls. I am running carbide bearings so I didn't think they would need replaced yet but I didn't think about the possibility (no matter how slight) that they could affect the signal. Acer doesn't have 12 ceramic balls in stock so I will have to wait to order them. Even if they don't help with this problem they should last long enough to make them worth the money.

The Spektrum failsafe is just set during binding, it is not adjustable. I checked the manual earlier today after talking to Castle and them telling me that it most likely had something to do with the failsafe. I'll probably give Horizon a call this evening to see if they have any settings suggestions for the radio.

I can throw a little grease in the transmission as well.

I had this same problem at trackside during the tcs race last year. [Mini class w/ silver can] After asking around a guy refferred me to a guy that worked at horizon hobby that was also at this race, [Garyk I think] and he looked at my setup, I also had the antenna wire looped on top of the sr3000 receiver. He advised me to get it up in the air, plus he changed my antenna on the module. There is an updated longer [ internally] antenna that some modules need. It hasn't happened since. Hope this helps.
Larry.

Looped the RX antenna over the RX?? That's asking for trouble. This is most likely the culprit. Sounds like the RX didn't have a clear signal.

Spektrum Failsafe - always sets itself during the binding. If you want it to brake then hold the brake on when turning on the TX during binding. If you let it sit at neutral then that's what the failsafe will default to, neutral. Same with the steering, if you leave it centered while binding it will default to center on failsafe.

Hopefully that is what caused it. I'll be fixing that as well as braiding the wires to the motor and cleaning up all the rest of the wiring (try to always do that) when I rebuild the truck this evening.

Thanks, I missed that part but I will make sure to set it to either brake or neutral.

It's not a common practice, in fact I will go as far as to call it rare...






Yea, DEFINITELYnot my rig, just used the picture for an example. ;)




jsyk - flopping wires have a way of rubbing that "shielding" off [/QUOTE]

and you can just as easily wear the shielding by folding the wires and bundling them too tight as the shielding tends to get stressed at the folds.

rofl :lol: ^^^

Braiding the motor wires will not be so helpful. Braiding or twisting is commonly used in telecommunications to eliminate crosstalk on heavily crowded cables (pairs of wires packed in as tight as possible to save space). the space between the motor wires will not be subject to the same EMF. Hitec is one of the few that twists their servo leads.

Of course keeping the RX antenna and servo leads off of a carbon fiber deck wouldn't hurt and neatly bundling the servo wires makes a clean easy to work on area.

Probably why you don't see motor wires braided, not to mention the extra length of wire it would take to get 12 gauge wire braided to go the same distance as unbraided wire. :rolleyes:

I agree with tiding up the wires but I pardoned the mess seeing how the truck is tore into multiple pieces...:D

"These systems are capable of putting out over 1,000 watts of power. As a comparison, an average 10 turn system might be capable of around 200 watts. When that much power is flowing from the ESC to the motor, you need to be careful about your radio installation. If the antenna is near, or laying against those high power wires, you will have very poor range. Make sure to locate the Rx and antenna routing with as much physical separation as possible from the motor wires. Another helpful tip for any electric powered vehicle, is to keep those wires as short as possible (less resistance = better voltage and more power) and also twisting or braiding them helps to choke the energy fields that surround them. So remember – short and twisted/braided motor wires not only improves range, but also leads to a neater installation and more power!"
http://www.castlecreations.com/suppo...ing_guide.html

plenty of other links = http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=ut...%20wires&type=

After a rather expensive race day followed by a long day at work I came home and got to work on resuscitating Skittles. It took a little while and a bfh but I got 'er back up and running. All she needs now is a front shock tower and she will be ready to run.

List of broken parts:

Chassis
Front bumper / skid plate
Front pivot block
Front shock tower
Lower shock mount
Front Kickplate
Front Bulkhead
Steering/Servo mount assembly
Heavy duty rod end
Titanium turnbuckle
Front wheel

Here she is now, ready for action.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...kittles3-1.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...kittles2-1.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...kittles1-1.jpg

Hope you get it sorted out man.

The reincarnated Skittles truck ran perfect last night. I put yet another new esc in it, another mamba max pro. I also put in another new receiver. I put the wire in an antenna tube and shoe goo'd it to the chassis as suggested. I braided the wires from the esc to the motor as suggested. I re-routed all the wires to try to avoid interference.

I also changed the shock fluids to 30 in front, 40 in the rear with zero rebound in all four. I managed to win both heats, tq, and I won the main by about three laps over second place.

Anyway, thanks for all of the tips. I'm not sure what exactly was the problem but I'm pretty sure it is solved.