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Battery power

Started by Jon Nazareth, Sep 25 2019 13:02

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John Candy

QuoteThe charge socket and the toggle switch are mounted on a brass plate fixed to the copper smokebox, neither are insulated.  Should they be?

So long as the motor feed wires and all the other wiring connections are isolated from the mounting bracket there should be no problem.

Is the Rx antenna in contact with metal.....that would cause a reception problem as could close Rx proximity to the motor or ESC?

John.
My fellow Members, ask not what your Society can do for you, ask what you can do for your Society.

Jon Nazareth

John
I'm returning the batteries and the charger to Strikalite for their attention.

Er, I have a receiver and a transmitter, that's all.  The antenna on the receiver is insulated and is located in the smokebox, the motor is in the firebox.  What's an ESC?

Jon

John Branch

The esc is the electronic speed control. It gets its control input from the receiver, is connected to the power source and the motor.  Depending on the signal it gets from the receiver, the output to the motor goes up and down.  Often the 3-wire lead from the ESC carries a regulated 5.5 v feed to the receiver (the red and brown leads), whilst the white lead delivers the control signal in the other direction.
John

John Candy

Jon,
ESC is electronic speed controller.
The ESC receives the signal from the receiver and controls motor direction and speed.
Some units combine the functions of Rx and ESC and it may be that yours is one of those.
It is not usually a good idea to have the antenna within a metal enclosure, since this reduces the strength of the signal and the range over which the Rx can can receive.
Regards,
John.
My fellow Members, ask not what your Society can do for you, ask what you can do for your Society.

joewatt

Bit of a scare when I switched to 'charge' on my Prairie yesterday. A short circuit at the charging plug caused lots of smoke from the plastic on the plug and both ends of the battery. Am replacing the plug and battery pack - I can't trust the battery now it has severely over-heated, such that the plastic wrapping at both ends melted.
The cause was probably a failure within the charging plug. However, it is in the floor of the tender and I had not covered it since a rebuild, so it could have got water on the terminals when passing a wet plant!


John Candy

Nasty!

If there was a short at the socket, the fuse should have blown ..... you do have a fuse on the +ve lead from the the cell pack?

John.
My fellow Members, ask not what your Society can do for you, ask what you can do for your Society.

joewatt

I have an 'NA2 1.6 Amp" cut-out inline as per the 'Mac 5' circuit diagram. It might have functioned, but not in time to stop the damage. I'll see what happens when I fit a new battery pack and plug!!

John Candy

I do use the thermal cutouts/trips but always have a fast-blow fuse as back-up in case of a major overload/fault.
I generally use a 5A or 7.5A fuse to back-up a 1.6A or 3A cutout. The thermal trips, I have read, operate at around twice their nominal rating and of course self-reset, so the overload will repeat itself ad infinitum....or until the battery is depleted or has burnt out.
Regards,
John.
My fellow Members, ask not what your Society can do for you, ask what you can do for your Society.

Jon Nazareth

I sent my battery pack and charger back to Strikalite and by return of post, another set came back.  Re-fitted the batteries and re-soldered the wires back together and everything is working now.  Not sure about this ESC but all seems to be okay okay.

Jon