Hi there,

my ESC went up in smoke as I was connecting to the Spirit. Pleas help me find out what I did wrong.

First of all here is my components set up:
Align T Rex 500 DFC Pro
ESC Align 70A RCE-BL70G
Rx Frsky X8R
Tx Frsky Taranis

Channel Assigment on the Taranis:
Ch1 Ail
Ch2 Ele
Ch3 Thr
Ch4 Rud
Ch5 Gyro gain
Ch6 Pitch

all channels are set to -100/+100 no subtrims, linear Thr and Pitch curves

I connected the X8R to the spirit like this:
- set Rx as standard Receiver (PWM)
- Rudder servo to Ch4 on Spirit
- Pitch servo to Ch3 on Spirit
- Elevator servo to Ch2 on Spirit
- Aileron servo to Ch1 on Spirit
- Rud or Ch4 on Rx to RUD port on Spirit
- Ail/Ch1, Ele/Ch2 and Pitch/Ch6 on Rx connected with the provided harness to Ele/Pit/Ail port on spirit.
- I did not connect the Gyro Channel to the Spirit at this time
- ESC is connected to the Rx on Ch3

I powered the system up, connected to the PC, opened up the Spirit application and went through the setup wizzard without any problems. When I was finished, I decided to connect the Gyro Gain channel to the Spirit - so took the cable from the Gyro Gain Ch (Ch5 on Rx) and plugged it in to the AUX port on the spirit. As soon as I touched the pins on the Spirit, the ESC started sparking and went up in smoke!!! I quickly unplugged the Lipo. I triple checked the polarity of the Gyro cable and it is correct on both the Rx and the Spirit (orange wire closer to the labels, brown on the opposite side).

I then grabbed another ESC and re-powered the system. Everything is still working - Spirit unit, servos and Rx. Was able to enter the Spirit Software, connect and keep working on the setup. Needless to say, the Gyro Gain cable remained unplugged, and I don't dare to try to plug it in because I am afraid of burning up another ESC...

So, what could be the cause??? Please help.

Did the servo's move when you plugged the gyro cable in, and was anything specified for bailout?
The only things I can think of (& you have checked) is polarity, and bailout being triggered by the bailout (gyro channel)

Bailout is known to suddenly move the servo's, which draws more power from the BEC.
This normally causes brownouts.. but maybe it was too much for the magic smoke in the BEC.
Maybe the wrong servo type was also selected ?

Cheers,
Yak.

Hello,

sorry to hear about your problems.
Fortunately I am very sure Spirit and any settings of the unit can't be reason for burning your ESC.
Thats because Spirit and ESC does not "see" each other.
As you said you have connected ESC to RX, so it was controlled only by RX/TX and possibly happened even when the unit was not connected.
Spirit can't in any way communicate with RX so we can be sure, that it was not fault of the settings.

There could be only possibility that something was shorted - that means that ESC could be confused even by swapping polarity of the cable somewhere else. Also, internal BEC of your ESC is not protected for overheating so in case it was loaded for few seconds to its maximum capability, it could simply burn itself.

Hopefully it help you.

_________________
Spirit System developer

Thanks. I had only gone through the initial setup wizzard, so bail out wasn't even set up yet. I don't think I saw any servos twitching either when I plugged the gyro channel in. I am alsmost sure the polarity was right, but I am also starting to second guess myself, since it is the only thing I can think of, and everyone's brain plays tricks on them...

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure my connections were right - I mean, the way I plugged everything was actually correct, right?

Could it be because I plugged the Gyro channel while the whole system was powered up?

Thanks again for the help!

Update.

I connected everything including the Gyro channel, and used another ESC (actually a 30A one from one of my planes). Poweredit up and everything was fine.

Thinking about it, I'm not sure anymore if the plug in of the cable could have anything to do with it. If I had plugged the cable in backwards, then it should have been a problem for the Spirit - it was getting the right polarity from the rudder channel, and suddenly it would get reverse polarity through the gyro channel. Or at the most it should have affected the Rx, but the ESC? is that even possible?? I'm not the big EE engineer, so I am not sure if what I am saying is correct... Anyway both Spirit and ESC are all doing well. Could it be that the ESC already had a problem and it was just coincidence that it gave up its ghost at that precise moment?

It would be interesting to know, or at least to be able to eliminate some things for future peace of mind and to avoid stupid mistakes.

You can connect cables even when the unit is powered. This is surely not reason for burning your ESC.
Even it is connected in a wrong way and wrong channels it should not happen.
I guess it was some weird coincidence or shorted connection.

_________________
Spirit System developer