Trouble with my Hyperion Atlas ESC

[hondahirny]

Braking works by effectively shorting the motor windings together. This way, as the motor tries to spin, it's effectively fighting itself.

[Don Cohn]

We're going to figure this one out for sure! What radio are you using Duncan? Is your throttle on a switch?

Don

[Dunqun]

Ok, I've done some more work but I'm still having this issue. I think the motor may have a problem.

I tried a Phoenix Icelite 75 ESC, set it up, was able to set different brake settings, works but still not braking.

Took the plane back home, started to test, motor jerked back and forth convulsively and smoke rose from the Phoenix! Burned out, no longer works. Plugged the Hyperion ESC back in, works as before, no brake, continues to run after throttle down. Tried a different radio, tried a simple AERO program, tried programming "Throttle Cut" switch which does exactly that, zeros the throttle. All with the same old results, no brake.

So can the motor continue to draw power even when the radio and ESC are sending 0 throttle to it? I've switched out everything but the motor at this point, but this puzzles me, I wouldn't think the motor would be able to do that.

Searching in RCGroups I see that some others have had similar issues and a possible explanation is that a short in the motor can burn out the ESC FET and it can no longer regulate the power. I can't think of anything else to do at this point but buy a whole new motor and ESC.

[hondahirny]

If a single phase is shorted, it's possible that a motor would run. It's also possible it would smoke something. Depending on the ESC firmware, who knows how CC handles this vs the Hyperion. The motor is definitely suspect here, given the now dead Castle.

Do you have another brushless motor you can try? I wish I lived closer so you could borrow my MVVS outrunner. It's a known good unit.

To answer your other question, the motor should not draw current when radio commands zero throttle. Ultimately, it is the ESC that controls this. Even a shorted motor can't draw current unless the FETs inside the ESC are switched on.

[Dunqun]

Well I bought a nice Hacker motor, swapped it out and the same thing is happening. I'm still using the Hyperion ESC so if the old motor shorted something out in the ESC then that could still be the problem. I guess I could buy another ESC and try it again but I'm getting very frustrated and can't afford to keep pumping money into this thing. I'm considering selling the plane and getting out of ALES altogether, too much headache, expense and frustration. I really have no idea where to go from here.

[Dunqun]

It works!

So I told myself I'd try one more thing and then give up. Well I tried 2, I bought a new castle controller, couldn't get it to work, did some more reading on RCGroups, seems like some guys had trouble properly setting the brake without the castle link USB controller, so for the second thing I tried, I bought one of those and set it to "hard brake" and that finally worked, motor is properly and obviously braking. Next is a field test and we'll see if it works in flight.

Duncan

[7sp]

Glad you got it sorted out... It's also true with some of the other ESC, not all the setting are available unless you have the programming card/usb link for the particulate controller. Sorry for the late info, but I had one situation another brand that I could not get the break to set until selecting the "reset controller to factory default" option. After that was able to set the break and other setting without a card or usb link.

7sp

[Dunqun]

Interesting, thank you.


Duncan