Pack is starting to die.

[ohmygahitscoby]

Hey guys. First of all, my Orion NiMH 4500 pack is starting to die out. It begins normally with my brushless TT01, but when it loses power after a while, it starts to act weird. My servo causes the ESC to glitch, so if I were to turn and accelerate at the same time, it would glitch, if I didn't turn and accelerate, it would act fine. This doesn't happen with my other battery pack, which is a Tenergy NiMH 3800. They both are charged the same way, all the settings are fine (Except for the setting for how much MaH each pack has).

Should I be checking for a dead cell or should I cycle it through the discharging and charging and discharging etc. process?

Thanks!
-Coby.

 

[Lessen]

I don't think your servo is causing your ESC to glitch. Honestly, it just sounds like what happens when you've just about depleted the capacity of the pack. Is everything glitching or is it only the steering or only the ESC? It sounds like a failsafe is activating because the pack is dicharged to the point where the ESC is taking all the power it can get and it's affecting the the other systems (steering and radio reception)

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

I think it is that. It's just the ESC that glitches when I turn, the servo stays in the turning spot perfectly fine, no glitching. I'm not sure if my ESC has a built in failsafe, but I don't have one connected. But what's happening is that it doesn't happen with my other battery pack. It can deplete fully without glitching one bit. It goes all the way until its out with no glitch. With this battery pack, it starts to glitch before it's all the way out. I thought it could be that there's a dead cell so it's only putting out 6 volts.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

It sounds like what happens in a crawler when you're not running an external BEC. The Castle stuff has a weak internal BEC, and if you don't run the Castle Creations 10 amp external BEC, whenever you turn, the motor cuts out, or "glitches", so it sounds like the ESC is not getting enough power to me, like Lessen said, or the internal BEC is too weak, but I would think you would have that problem with all batteries if that was the case. What ESC are you running?

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

It's a Sidewinder ESC. The Tenergy one is about 3 months older than the Orion and the Tenergy got to be discharged first of the two when I got my first discharger. The Orion pack hasn't been used for 2 months until I received my TT01 which was about 3 weeks ago. I was using my Tenergy one in my starter box 2 weeks ago. This led me to believe I may have a dead cell, so i might bring it over to my uncles to see how much it is outputting. If it does turn out to output around 7.2v, then I'll get a BEC.


For the BEC, I solder it to the wires that go to the ESC and then I plug in the BEC to the receiver slot that says "Bat/DSC" right?

 

[Lessen]

but I would think you would have that problem with all batteries if that was the case.

Yeah, that's the part that gets me. :shrug:

 

[CharliesTheMan]

With it being a sidewinder, it very well could be the BEC problem. It sounds EXACTLY like the same problem that every person has when I tell them to buy a BEC with their ESC and they say they dont need one, and then they come whining to me that their motor is glitching when they turn and they can't figure out why lol. Then I get a PM a few days later and they say "Guess What, I can't believe it, but that BEC totally fixed the problem".

You solder the positive and negative leads to the battery inputs on the ESC. I just in my BEC wires and ESC wires together, and then solder them both to the Dean's tabs. Then you cut the red wire that goes from the ESC to the receiver, and plug the BEC into the battery slot on the receiver. If you have a Castle Link programmer, you can program the BEC to 6 volts. Your sidewinder is only putting out 5.1 volts, so your servos aren't running at full power right now. If you don't have a Castle Link, I can sell you a programmed BEC at whatever voltage you want for regular price to help you out.

 

[chip cross]

Why do you cut the red wire ?

 

[CharliesTheMan]

uh, cuz it says to in the Castle instructions. Did I get the color wrong or something?

Whew, you scared me. Technically I guess it doesn't hurt to have power going in both places, but you disconnect the red wire so that the receiver is getting power from the BEC only and not the ESC and BEC.

Here's what it says in the Castle directions "Disconnect the red wire from the ESC to the throttle channel on your receiver when using the CC BEC" (Disregard if using with Phoenix HV Controllers)

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Oh okay, got it. Hopefully I can get to my LHS tomorrow to buy one, I'm sure they have lots in stock. Thanks everyone! I'll let you guys know soon.

 

[chip cross]

I have always just remove the red wire from the rx plug. If you cut the wire then you got put it back together, so I pull the red wire from the rx plug and put some heat shrink on the little glod plug. I have also always did the same thing on the yellow signal wire on the BEC. I have had problems with the yellow wire putting the RX into bind mode.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I always use a short extension and cut the red wire, so I don't have to alter the actual ESC wiring at all, I can just unplug the extension to put it back to stock. You scared me for a minute, I thought I was doing something wrong lol. I'm glad to know about the yellow wire, I haven't run into any problems but I'm sure I will down the road.