Black Thunder 130a V4 Fire

[DarkSyd3D]

Originally Posted by jgiannakas

Why? It's only 1 incident for all we see. I'm using the align 130a v4 on the BT and it works great, knock on wood. If they had reliability issues, align would be in some trouble considering their flagship Heli is using them...

Two so far actually that we know of. No other reports I've heard of

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[OnTheSnap]

We only know the ones reported here. Align process far more RMA than get posted online (most don't run to the forums to complain).

Without access to real RMA info fro HW and Align we have no idea what the failure rate is. Anything said here is speculation.

[jsbach#1]

Originally Posted by DarkSyd3D

I'm sure Kyle Stacy has well over a thousand flights put on his 130s so far and no fires. I have close to 100 on my first one and zero issues.

Maybe, hopefully this is a first batch issue. We have all seen the issues first batches of almost everything has...

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With all due respect to all parties you can't really use that as leverage for your conclusions. I watched that young man fly in person recently and its on a whole other level. His helicopter almost never makes the blade fart noises, its always being pushed along exactly as it needs to be, no waste. I seen him do over 2 minute flights of fast sexy flying and land with over 50 percent remaining in his packs.

Consider also, that he did at least hundreds of flights of testing the black nitro and they still had a one way bearing issue when it got released to the public. He never had the issue (and I believe it ! ) Thats cause his machine is dialed and he flies so well.

Durability testing is best done by the goons like me, not the pros.

[TheKingPhisher]

Originally Posted by mverhorst

Is it just me, or does it look like the Align ESC has the soldering job on the wires looking like a cold solder?

There isn't any real sign of solder flowing and the top of the wire looks like it was pre-tinned but not heated properly when soldering it to the board.

Plus, that is the only know and sure difference between the Align and HW ESC and the fire took out the neg lead on the bbq-ed bird...

That was the first thing I noticed between the two versions...

[DarkSyd3D]

Originally Posted by jsbach#1

With all due respect to all parties you can't really use that as leverage for your conclusions. I watched that young man fly in person recently and its on a whole other level. His helicopter almost never makes the blade fart noises, its always being pushed along exactly as it needs to be, no waste. I seen him do over 2 minute flights of fast sexy flying and land with over 50 percent remaining in his packs.

Consider also, that he did at least hundreds of flights of testing the black nitro and they still had a one way bearing issue when it got released to the public. He never had the issue (and I believe it ! ) Thats cause his machine is dialed and he flies so well.

Durability testing is best done by the goons like me, not the pros.

I was simply using him as an example because he undoubtedly has more flights on a 130 than probably any of us. Not because of the assumption that he's peaking higher amps than any of us. Although it would be cool to see his logs after his flight lol. I bet they're surprisingly low

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[higham83]

personally i think a 130 on a 700 is too small. I know Kyle Stacey does it, but his flights are short and at 200 MPH.

[DarkSyd3D]

Originally Posted by higham83

personally i think a 130 on a 700 is too small. I know Kyle Stacey does it, but his flights are short and at 200 MPH.

It all comes down to how you fly. A pure sport flyer could get away with a 100hv. A smack pilot with great collective management can get away with a 120. Remember, that's what came on the T-Rex 700V2 for the longest time and it did the job.


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[higham83]

Originally Posted by DarkSyd3D

It all comes down to how you fly. A pure sport flyer could get away with a 100hv. A smack pilot with great collective management can get away with a 120. Remember, that's what came on the T-Rex 700V2 for the longest time and it did the job.


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Yes Agreed, I flew my 600efl on the supplied 80 for years and no drama. You also need to factor climate. In summer where i am its 40+ with 95% humidity. i am currently running a 120 Jive pro with no heatsink in my 650 Black thunder and no dramas with heat.

[prokyon]

Gear ratio and motor kV have a lot to do with ESC load as well. High gear ratios give a mechanical advantage but are less efficient. When Synergy E7 first came out, most were running 120A ESCs and so to combat this the gear ratio is a whopping 10.08. So I'm hoping I can get away with 130A Align ESC with active freewheeling on my E7se, but I guess time will tell.

[Number]

Originally Posted by higham83

personally i think a 130 on a 700 is too small. I know Kyle Stacey does it, but his flights are short and at 200 MPH.

I flew a 130A on my Protos V2 which is rather heavy, and I don't fly nearly as "fast" as Kyle, and I got away with it just fine I do more than just sport flying, too. The 130 is awesome.

Also, Ben with the 130.

A Wild Ben Storick Appears! (3 min 23 sec)

[djtommyboy]

Just bought a 130HV and im gonna use it on my Black Thunder 700. Trying not to be worried now...

[delfin2003]

you can use jlog to monitor your esc temp

[prokyon]

I don't think any of this is caused by temperature - older Castle ESCs would get hot because they don't have active freewheeling - there's two threads on here which explain this concept. The heat mostly comes from diode-operated circuit, but these new ESCs have another FET instead of the diode which loops residual current around, and as a result produces no heat. So the heat only comes from the current which operates the motor under load + BEC.

Electronics can fail - I've seen a ton of problems with MacBook Pro laptops for instance, but they're supposed to be super reliable. If you consider how many components are connected together, the probability of any electronic device failing increases greatly - it's enough for just one component to fail. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a single laptop manufacturer not fail ever - something usually fails eventually.

My guess is that this is just a bad FET which caused the fire. Even with Castle ESCs burning, the failure rate is quite low - how many were released and how many combusted? I just don't want it to happen to me :-)

[Smk-A$$-3D™]

Good thing I ran into this post, I will read from the beginning. But here is my thoughts.
If Hw doesn't replace my 130v4 with a new one I too will be down in FLAMES ! ! !

The beginning of the video with AFW off it seams to run smooth.
With AFW "On" everything runs ridiculously HOT. And HS changes are like dime drops.
Not only is this a problem on the Neo, but the Brain. Beastx Skookum also. So it is the ESC.

https://youtu.be/vR4YgZ1DNiQ

[Number]

You've posted that in so many posts/threads...

[Smk-A$$-3D™]

Right on buddie, my 2 threads...
Good catch, ! !

[prokyon]

I'm running old 5.3 VBar with Align 130A V4 and I don't see this problem... but my TM1000 doesn't work with V4 RPM output - it's a known fact that TM1000 and TM1100 don't support new V4 RPM output.

[Number]

Try hooking an external RPM sensor like the HW one. That works with pretty much everything and I think Spektrum included.

[prokyon]

I don't care much for RPM in telemetry - haven't used it ever, just wired up for curiosity at first with older V3 ESCs. The guys who are having problems with V4 might try wiring up the HW external RPM sensor to test - can just jam the wires in the connector between motor and ESC - for bench test no need to solder anything. Obviously don't go flying like that.

[Number]

Why not go flying like that? It's all I've ever done. They carry virtually no current so they don't really need to be soldered. And it won't affect the motor-ESC connection much if at all either.