Can you wreck an ESC by testing the failsafe?

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tomchaps
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Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 4:51 pm

Can you wreck an ESC by testing the failsafe?

Post by tomchaps »

A friend finally rebuilt his 150g horizontal spinner (Afro 20a OPTO esc, the typical red dys1806 motor), and wanted to test the failsafe. Spun the weapon up to full power, but when he turned off the transmitter, the blade stopped VERY suddenly. He thought maybe it might have produced some back EMF that fried the ESC? When he powered the bot up the next time, the Lipo blew.

Is this something others have experienced? Or did he miswire something else, somehow?
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Shakey
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Re: Can you wreck an ESC by testing the failsafe?

Post by Shakey »

This is unlikely to cause ESC death, the ESC's are designed to take that and Afro 20A would be very robust (quite overspecced for an ant) should be more than enough to handle it. Also an ESC dying would be more likely to destroy itself than a LiPo, either it's not wired right or the LiPo has suffered damage/mishandling.

EDIT: On a second thinking, check the resistance across the ESC. Possibility that the Afro has enough current capability to short the LiPo out meaning ESC damage would kill a LiPo instead of itself. In any case try and do a test with a current limiting power supply if you can get your mitts on one, should tell you if the electronics are happy or sad.

As a side not do your failsafes on lowest power. It's well... safer and also what are you going to do if your failsafes are wrong and the robot decides to take a roam with a full power weapon? Or won't rebind after?
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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DieGracefullyRobotics
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Re: Can you wreck an ESC by testing the failsafe?

Post by DieGracefullyRobotics »

I like the idea of an overly enthusiastic failsafe safety officer.

"THIS IS TOO DANGEROUS, SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN!!"
Dave
Die Gracefully Robotics - Barely Even a Proper Team.
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