At face value, everything looks connected correctly. It was hard to tell if the esc wires were running to the right componant, i.e. battery vs motor. The escs came with two red and two black wires which could cause confusion as to which pair goes to the battery. Is there markings on the escs that say which wires are for the motors? I cannot get to ebay at work, but will take a look after work and see if there is any manual or anything for those escs. It is possible one of the motors or escs are bad. Although they may be new, sometimes bad quality can creep in. Some other concerns I saw in the video include using lamp wire for your motor wire. Although it will kinda work, expect the wire to corrode quickly when it gets wet. A quality R/C car wire would work much better. Also, it looks like many of the connections are simply twisted on or together versus soldered. Twisted connections can get pulled loose and short/ground against something we don't want it to touch. And finally, you might consider a single higher capacity battery pack for both escs to plug into to prevent one pack from running too low on power and damanging the cells in it. For now, try disconnecting everything and start plugging it in one part at a time. For instance, unplug everything except the servo. Then plug in one esc to the receiver and one battery to the esc. Turn everything on and see what happens. If no smoke, check to see if the servo moves. If the servo moves, turn everything off and attach a motor to the esc. Turn everything back on and make sure the servo moves, then see if the throttle will work. If the motor spins correctly, unplug everything except the servo and repeat the test with the other esc and motor. By plugging one part in at a time, it is possible to narrow down and find a bad componant.
I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!!!! I feel so stupid Thanks a million for your time and effort this week!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjXc9cYjYiI p>
And now, you are part of the club! Troubleshooting is an essential skill, and feeling stupid because you missed something that you think is obvious is also an essential skill. It means you're not a douchebag and in denial Well done! ps- most of us feel pretty stupid when we figure out something like that... 'Oh, sonofab... how could I have missed that!?'
Yes welcome to the club...let me tell you about the time I tried to run EIGHT servos (two of them sain winches) off the on-board BEC on a brand new ESC. There was flame, lots of smoke, and my garage smelled like fired ESC for two weeks... I tend to get nervous if I don't fry something during the build as it means I will probably fry something at the pond.
First time my boat was at an event it started smoking. only thing that stopped a fire was quick thinking of disconnecting the battery. scary thing. Best advice I was give was this: If something does not work then methodically go through EVERY connection, even if it seems like it wouldnt cause it. My issue was caused by a short in a wire I thought was brand new. It can be the weirdest thing. The great thing about this is for your next boat this wont be a problem, it will be something completely new thats part of the fun at least for me. Good luck!
Ya this ship doesn't have any guns or pumps so I'm not going to be taking it to any public events just having fun with it in the city lake. But I'm hoping to sometime build one with guns and everything and fight it at NTBG. that would be a dream come true. I wish it wasn't so expensive
First, the ship is looking good so far. Personally, I would put the ESCs and RX in the stern, unless you have something else that needs to go there, so all the wire runs are shorter, but that may be just me. Glad you found the problem. know how you feel, having done similar things (but, if you learn from your errors, then errors are a god thing - you learn what to look for next). A couple of things I meant to post yesterday, but computer locked up (yeah, on the Admiral's old XP mmachine I built for her about 5-10 years ago - may be slow, but usually rock solid, oh well). 1) If the ESCs are not waterproof models, you will want to waterproof them. Watertight boxes eventually leak, so I no longer use them, but YMMV. I have had a single drop of water instantly fry 1/2 or more of the power transistors in a non-waterproofed ESC that was factory installed in a ship. What were they thinking? 2) If you are using more than one ESC, remove or clip the red wire or put an extension on with the red wire removed. Backwards voltage from one ESC's BEC to the other can fry it. 3) The video was helpful. The dead short can also cause the issues you were seeeing in your servo. 4) Have you put capacitors on your motors? I didn't happen to notice on the video, but wasn't really looking. Remember, you can accidentally create a short with the capacitor leads too (been there, done that). 5) The batteries look a bit low-powered for your engines. Not sure what your ESCs are rated, or if they have overdraw protection, but be aware that 550s have a 80-90A stall draw. 6) If you haven't yet, you might want to peruse the article by Jeff Burns on the NTXBG.org knowledgebase entitled something like "ESCs - Sessons Learned." 7) Depending on the EXC, you may have to move your throttle to the center position (for a reversing ESC) or to the bottom (forwards only) to get the ESC to "arm." You mention wanting to battle in the NTBG - if you mean the NTXBG (North Texas Battle Group) are you located somewhere not far from the Dallas/Fort Worth area? We would love to help you get started, and you are certainly welcome to build sessions and battles if you are interested in Big Gun. Also, the national Big Gun event, NABGO, is held near the first week of July each year for a week of shipyard and battle time. A great place to get seasoned advice from captains that converge from both coasts. If you are more into Small/Fast Gun there are some local MWC groups nearby (not sure of any IRCWCC). To help with expense for new members, we do have some club ships, etc. Good luck with the Fletcher. By the way, a trivia point. According to a friend who worked on the restoration of the Queen Mary the main (forward?) Hold, after restoration, could contain an entire Fletcher, masts and all. Hard to imagine, but I have never tried to verify it. However, from his photos (time lapse due to the dimness from the size even though it had bright lighting), it is a vast empty space. And, he is an engineering type that I have never had reason to doubt. Cheers,
Welcome to the club. My first build i had problems as well, the scariest was my sip catching fire in a middle of a lake in the dead of winter... yes i swam and got it and put out the fire. just for future reference to avoid problems like these. 1. always be sure what your buying 2.check voltage of motor, esc (amps) , and battery! 3.if you have a battery that puts out more volts than the motors can take you will have exactly what happened to me. So good luck with all your builds i wish you the best and if you need any help what so ever the guys on here are a great source of knowledge.
