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Permalink Reply by Don Brooks on January 19, 2012 at 2:25pm

Really? No opinions on this, or is everyone just laughing behind their keyboards at my attempt to get this to work with  6$ speed controllers? lol

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Permalink Reply by Jan Schermer on January 24, 2012 at 12:23am

What's there to say... I think it's a wrong batch - try writing HK, maybe they know about the problem already and will ship a replacement?

And just a thought - Are your bullet connectors well insulated? Isn't there some kind of short? 
The same might as well go for the motors - a faulty motor batch can cause this too.

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Permalink Reply by Don Brooks on January 24, 2012 at 9:15am

Thanks for the reply Jan,

I've since had another burn up. The bullets are all shrink-tubed and well separated. One of them that burned happened when the motor was not connected, and I was just using the BEC to power things. I've since ordered 3 jdrones 20a from Dany at Canadadrones, which arrived yesterday. I will fire up the soldering gun again tonight to see.

I haven't asked HK yet, but my understanding of their return policy is that I will have to ship each one, individually, on different RMAs.It would be cheaper to order more, but at this point I think I'm better off to abandon the project, or order more reliable and proven components.

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Permalink Reply by Don Brooks on January 25, 2012 at 11:48am

I got things reassembled with 3 jdrones ESCs last night, and for the first time, I was able to get each one calibrated, connected and did an auto calibration with APM. I was able to get all three motors spinning, and even a small attitude response test to see that the motors increased/decreased in RPM appropriately as it was pitched and rolled. I tried a dozen or so times connect the battery, arm, short throttle rev, disarm and power off to see if anything would pop, and things held up.

Looks like I'm going to see if HK is willing to do anything about this... the jdrones 20a ones held up where the HK 25a ones all fried on me.

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on January 25, 2012 at 12:00pm

I stay away from the Hobby King branded stuff, and mostly buy Turnigy.  So far so good.

Knock on wood.  But I'm sure mine will now blow up next time I plug it in.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Schermer on January 25, 2012 at 12:43pm

s*t happens - even to turnigy stuff. Some HK ESCs are rebranded turnigy I think.

It's like Tesco selling the same stuff Marks&Spencer sold last year for 80% less as "discount", just because there were leftovers :-) And - as with all chinese stuff - quality control doesn't always react as fast as we might like, so good thing they burned still on ground!

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on January 25, 2012 at 7:05pm

And don't forget about all those exploding Castle Creations ESC's.  I'm not sure if that ever affected quad-size ESC's, but guys with big helis had a lot of problems.  I'm talking.... destroyed the entire model because of the flames.

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Permalink Reply by Cliff-E on January 25, 2012 at 1:13pm

I'm using those HK SS's on a miniquad, maybe 4hrs flight time and so far so good. They hit about 95-100deg. after 10min of hovering, playing around. It appears using a 3S on the choice of motor maybe pulling too much current--a lot of ESC never like working at their limits for more than 60secs. I'm using a 4S on those escs.

HK blue series are much better. I've got 10hours flight time on one of my quads with them, so far so good. And it works with one of the common  "firmware mods" to get rid of the low pass filter (and get better esc response).

On my Arducopter, I've killed a jdrones ESC via the USB/BEC issue (in the old boards), and currently use HobbyWing Pentiums--very good quality and can also apply the firmware mods out there.

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Permalink Reply by Don Brooks on January 25, 2012 at 1:34pm

Cliffy,

Glad to hear they worked out for you. In my case, they would shoot a small flame out the side when I connected the battery, long before I could even attempt to apply any throttle, so they certainly were never driven anywhere near rated max for 60s.

As I expected, HK is willing to replace them only after inspection, requiring me to return each individual ESC separately under separate RMA numbers. A policy which I'm sure is designed to discourage returns s the postage to return it is more than the value of the item.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Schermer on January 25, 2012 at 1:43pm

100deg C or F??

Most ESCs shut down at about 85C I think...

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