Brown Outs, Battery Issue?
 

Racing this weekend, I had an issue that seemed like brown outs(loses power for a few seconds then comes back). My buggy specs are in my sig. I always run a glitchbuster, so it's not that. I also run 2 2s batteries in series.

This weekend I have solely used 2 turnigy 5000mah batteries that have worked fine. When charging earlier today, I noticed that one of them would not finish charging. I let it charge for about 3 hours and most of the time it just seemed like it was trying to balance but it wouldn't finish. I don't remember what the cells were but I think they were like 4.20 and 4.15? I ran Q3 and had severe brown out issues(momentary power loss). It also happen one time in Q1 on Friday for about 10 seconds(didn't really think much of it after because I couldn't reproduce the problem).

I just threw the batteries on the charger and the cells are 4.20 and 3.99(also checked with multimeter). Is that battery damaged? I am assuming that battery was causing the power loss issues. For the mains tomorrow, I am going to use my Gens Ace batteries but I was wondering if that battery could cause my problems.




ps...Sorry for that long winded post lol

Certainly possible. I think you are on the right track of trying another set of batteries first. Couldn't hurt to check all wiring and connections too, these E 1/8 beasts are hard on everything.

Hmm. The problem is your running a savox on a spektrum system. That combo has been known to cause issues. try running a RX cap, or even investing in a seperate BEC system.

He mentioned he has a glitchbuster already. Speed Passion BECs are a little better than some in my experience, many guys don't even need a cap. No guarantees with a Savox though.

Pretty far out of balance. If your charger can't balance it, I would scrap it.

Well I tried the other batteries. Drove fine for about 6 mins then it started dropping to like 20% power like it hit the LVC. I checked the batteries with a multimeter and all the cells are 3.84 and 3.85 and the LVC for the speed controller is set to 3.2

So to recap

1st set of batteries: brown out issues, one battery will not balance.
2nd set of batteries: starts cutting power after about 6 mins like it hit the LVC. Before this weekend, I've been able to get about 13 minutes of runtime before it hits the LVC. These batteries seem fine.

Don't know if the ESC is going bad, if both sets of batteries started going bad during the same race weekend or if there is a bad wire somewhere. Problem now is I don't have any other batteries nor do I have a backup ESC to troubleshoot with so it looks like a may be making some purchases in the near future.

The way to see if you are actually hitting the LVC is to run a data logger in-line and look at the voltage. See if someone has an eagletree system that you can throw in for a couple of packs. Then you can take a look at the logs and see what the difference is between the packs.

I'll have to look into that. Buying that eagletree system may be a good investment.

I did run it today with the LVC turned off. Had no problems with the Turnigy batteries(the pair that had one battery that wouldn't balance). Those worked fine and had no brown out issues. I am in the process of charging and discharging the one that won't balance in hopes I can fix it

I then ran the the Gens batteries(pair that would only last 5 mins) also with the LVC turned off. They lasted about 5 mins then they started slowing down a TON. Seems like they just don't hold a charge anymore. They are over a year old and seen a good amount of use.

I have an eagletree that has proven invaluable when it comes to troubleshooting. Because of the data I've collected from it I was able to figure out an ESC that I have isn't bad, just not capable of the load I was passing through it, that the load brushless motors are capable of handling really taxes the batteries (which you pay for in voltage sag, etc...). Good luck with your troubleshooting.