Help! Lipo's puffing immediately.

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golfmonke

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I've got an old (but never used) Kyosho Twin Force that i'm trying to get working.

I've fried 2 pairs of 3S lipo's from Maxamps already trying to get this thing running.
That's about $600 down the drain.

I have a Lehner Brushless Motor and Warrior ESC.

The lipo's puff very quickly after hooking them up. The radio will turn the servo, when I hit the throttle nothing happens and then the batteries smoke/puff.

Don't know how to troubleshoot this. Any idea's of what I can try without risking burning yet another pair of lipos'?

Thanks.
 
Unfortunately no links.

Bought them a long time ago and can't find anything on them.

Lehner Basic XL-1600 motor.
BK Warrior 9020 ESC

The batteries weren't 3s, they were 2s 7.4v 9000mah 100C MaxAmp lipos.

Throttle servo? I assume that's in the ESC?
 
How are you charging them and with what? Are you balance charging them properly and does your charger show the individual cell voltage?
ESC issues usually fry the motor or just fry themselves and don't work. Never heard of one causing a battery to instantly puff. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like an issue on the charging end or the leads you're using shorting out somewhere.
 
I used an Astro flight 109 charger, no balance board.

This was quite a while ago, pretty sure it has a cell voltage readout, scared to hook them up to charger now... might try it later.

Not sure if I have to start a charge to get readings, not sure if I should do that with them already puffed.
Ah nevermind, they have been sitting way too long now, lol
 
I think your throttle servo might be shorted, something must be.

You realize they're talking about an electric RC right?

OP, sounds like your packs are under amped for your setup. If it's a factory setup then the amp rating the motor/ESC need should be in the manual somewhere. If it's a setup that you've pieced together then the only way to truly know is to put a device like a watts up meter inline between the pack and ESC with a pack that you know has enough amps to not puff, and take readings under load. I puffed a pack on my Wraith years ago by being under amped for it's setup.
 
The charger only does 8A max and they are 9000mah packs, so I charged them at a max of only almost 1C.
This was a while ago, don't remember the settings, but still couldnt have been more than ~1C.

HPIguy

Manuals, I wish, can't find any manuals for any of these parts anymore :( I've searched high and low.
The suggestion to hook up a meter I like, wish I had one.
The ESC I believe is a ~100amp esc. I think the motor is only 50A max.
What amperage would I have to be drawing on 9000mah 100C batteries to be over amping them?
 
Last edited:
Whoops a daisy. Guess I wasn't paying attention to my words. ESC is what I meant. If I don't have time to pay attention, I'll just take it easy for a while. Seems I had the wrong answer anyhow. Latez all. OP good luck with your batteries.
 
You said when you hit the throttle nothing happens. Do you have binding in your driveline somewhere? Does everything roll freely? What happens if you remove the motor from the trans and then try it? Does the motor spin?
 
Everything rolls freely. I've only tried it while hooked up to the drive-train...

I assume the motor is powerful enough to turn the wheels, if it wasn't , could it draw enough amps to blow the batteries?

I went off of people's suggestions at the time (early-mid 2000's) for a motor for this vehicle. Wish I could get some specs on it.
 
Yes, if the trans or something else has the motor bound up it could very well do just that. Pull the motor, see if the trans spins freely. Then see if the motor will spin when removed from the trans with a battery hooked up.
 
I went off of people's suggestions at the time (early-mid 2000's) for a motor for this vehicle. Wish I could get some specs on it.

Less than a minute google search... Did you even try? ;) Also the discharge rate shouldn't matter. It's up to the ESC to control the AMP rate going to the motor regardless. It's only a problem if there isn't enough, and 100c should be more than enough for any esc/motor combo. Also make sure your wires aren't connected wrong from the esc to motor just to be sure.

Says there should be a motor sticker on it as well. That still on there?
Spec sheet pdf: http://www.lehner-motoren.com/doc/man_basic_en_11_2013.pdf


119502
 
Yes, I was on that site. What I didn't do as click on those drop downs!

I clicked on the spec sheet too, didn't tell me amps.

So should that motor work fine on 14.8v ?
 
When you say make sure the wires are connected properly to the motor, how does one know which goes to which?

I've heard they could be connected any way and it should at least still work.
 
It's up to the ESC to control the AMP rate going to the motor regardless.

This is not quite correct. The motor is in charge of asking for amps to have delivered. The ESC will try to comply with that request, sometimes at their own peril if you buy a larger motor than the ESC can provide for the demands of. Think of the motor as the light bulb, and ESC as the circuit breaker.
 
I've had shorted/fried escs short nimh packs and start melting the protective coating off of them within about 5-10 seconds of connecting them, that much draw on a LiPo i would not doubt would be enough to have it start puffing immediately and the fact that you are not getting any forward/reverse motion from the esc, would leave me to believe that was the culprit as well.
 
I've had shorted/fried escs short nimh packs and start melting the protective coating off of them within about 5-10 seconds of connecting them, that much draw on a LiPo i would not doubt would be enough to have it start puffing immediately and the fact that you are not getting any forward/reverse motion from the esc, would leave me to believe that was the culprit as well.

Any ideas on the cheapest ESC I can get to test this? Seems the motor is 55A max draw.
 

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