Had a very frustrating day yesterday.
Let the smoke out of 2 motors and a speedie without moving from the bench.
I had a motor which was showing signs that it might be broken so wanted to test it. Took a 2nd generation ESC that I last used at the Nats in November 2009 and has been sitting in my pit box ever since – it was fine when I took it out of the car in November. Hooked the suspect motor to the speedie and then the speedie to a battery – without even turning the speedie on smoke came from the motor – fair enough it was a suspect motor anyway I suppose – write that off to the mysteries of brushless. How did the battery power get to the motor before I turned the speedie on ?
Naturally started wondering about the speedie and so took another motor – an old 13.5 that was good last time I used it 2 years ago – connected it up and – guess what this time I got smoke again but this time I got the double wammy – both the speedie and the motor smoked – and not just a whiff – it was bushfire stuff.
Now all that lot wasn’t a particularly sad loss – a speedie that would probably never be used again since the programable ones came out and an old 13.5 that would probably never be used again since we don’t have a class for them anymore, and my el cheepo 21.5 that I am currently doing testing with as a replacement for 540, but the point is, the mystery is – what was faulty in the first place. Had the speedie somehow developed a gremlin while sitting in my pitbox for 6 months, did the first suspect motor I tested cause problems with the speedie when it let the smoke out or did the 13.5 develop problems while sitting in my pitbox for 2 years.
What did what to what that’s the question ?
Maybe the real question might be – Is Heavy getting to old for the Hi-tech world that RC has become, should retirement be looming ?