Sudden Power Lost in Mid Flight for Castle Creations's PHX

[Super-Hornet]

Hi all

I experience this before and yesterday nite I saw Sabestian's T-RexX experience this 2 times and lucky manage to recover. He suspect it is noise or the micro-dean antenna that cause it (Happen after he change it).

Well, I still think it is therma shutdown or current protection that cause it because if it is noise, u should experiencing all servo movement rather than just motor cut off.

Here is the information I got from Castle Creations's PDF file:

[Fit]

Sounds like the typical CC cutoff. The motor will experience brief cut outs usually less than a second and come back on again. Is that what you and Sebastian experienced, or is it a different type of cut out? Tried many things to solve it and so far a pcm rx, a berg or glitch reducer seems to work. I dumped that piece of crap CC and went for a MS. I am so much happier now

[HZM]

Seriously I think the frequency u using plays a part. Entire US market will boycott CC if they had this kind of glitch. I experience some glitch during my time w berg,hornet, CC10. Guess I place the esc too close to the motor. It had been doing well on the Trex now

Mike

[Frank]

I never had cutouts on my CCs

[Super-Hornet]

I used to have it in my Hornet II before when I use PHX-25. Then after I disabled or set insensitive on the current setting, i do not have such problem in PHX-25. This PHX-25 already long time already transfered to T-RexX and so far I have yet experience sudden cut-off.

Super-Hornet

[ammo]

I have been using standard current limiting without cutouts also.

[X34]

Can also be caused by voltage drop in the pack. Set LVC to 2.5v. If over current cut - takes about 1 to 3 sec to resume. LVC can resume in fraction of a sec. sometimes feels like a glitch.

[Super-Hornet]

Hi X34

I don't think it is LVC because I set to slow cut off. That means if the LV reaches, it will slow down the motor instead.


Super-Hornet

[MicroHeli-Nut]

Must use CC with good rx lah..... It's an inherent programming archilles heel they included to help the plankers....

Bad signal , signal loss-> motor cut out so u can get ur aircraft(plane) back on the planet surface with the aid of gravity..... The only reason i can think of them putting this parameter in is that the CC esc was designed to cater to planes as well..... recall that CC does not make aircraft specific esc, unlike, Jeti, Hacker, TMM, Schulze? .... etc.....

that said, i think still need good rx for CC stuff..... In my info gathering, Hornetians run at least an E-6 or Schulze.....

[X34]

Originally posted by Super-Hornet
Hi X34

I don't think it is LVC because I set to slow cut off. That means if the LV reaches, it will slow down the motor instead.


Super-Hornet

Hi SH,

Just exploring CC esc. If u set soft cutoff, that means LV and OC should be motor slow down. Then thermal cut what kind of effect you get?

IMO some esc doing slow down appear like cutoff if esc too hot. Anyone running heat sink on esc?

X34

[Super-Hornet]

Hi James

Based on what I know, slow cut-off means when the battery voltage reaches the LVC, it will slow down the motor but in slow decremental. That means it is like your battery is getting weaker.

If we follow the instruction from Castle Creations that if we set to current insensitive or disabled and it solve the problem then it is ok. If we set to current insensitive or disabled and still happen then it could be due to thermal shutdown.

There is 2 Voltage Regulator (Lets called it VR) for PHX-10 and 1 for PHX-25. Both of this Voltage regulator is in different model. The purpose of this voltage regulator is to step down the input voltage (like 12.6V) to 5V in order to supply the servos/rx/gyro. If it is one Voltage Regulator, then it also supply the ESC microprocessor/microcontroller.

When that VR suffers from high current draws, it become hot. When too hot, it will go to a stage called "Thermal Shutdown" where it actually cut off the o/p supply. Once the BEC suffers from Thermal Shutdown, the RX also lost its power supply and therefore, the ESC do not receive any signal from RX. With that, the ESC just cut off.

Super-Hornet

[FDC]

As per CC, the Ph10 has two BECs because of the small pcb footprint of the Ph10 will not be sufficient to dissipate the heat generated if there is only one BEC. So another BEC was used in the new Ph10s to load share the heat from one BEC so it won't go into thermal shutdown just to deliver the same amount of current as the BEC of the Ph25.

[Vifo]

Current Cut Off

Hi,
I have this problem, not on CC10, which is fine with me.
It happened on PiccoBoard Plus and on other configuration (which is a MS ESC).
On Piccoboard Plus it just freeze and then have to re-arm.
On MS speed controller unit, the cut-off happen in mid way.

I later found out that it is cause by the Lithium Battery which I had been using for some 15 flights.
When I replaced with a new GWS 10C pack, it work without problem.

My understanding is that the Lithium charging, though it showed full charge, it is not the true position.
If we are using 2 Cell type, that is always a possibility that one of the cell is not charged to max and in lay term, it is not Balance.

Some hobbyist are begining to Balance the Cell during charging or they do a circuit to charge the cell individually, one cell at a time. It is very time consuming.

Any thoughts on this?.