new to hobby....need advice re burned wiring

[gotti]

First, thank you to anyone who takes the time to give me a little advice.

I just assembled all the real working components of my first electric rc car. I attached all electric wiring properly in accordance with the diagrams and common sense(or so I believe).

No problem with servo operation, yet the car would not move forward or back. Servo properly attached to speed control, which would operate, and was itself properly attached to the motor and the battery -- yet no movement of the car.

After about a minute, one of the wires attaching the speed control to the resistor entirely fried.

Perhaps I am asking a question that has an obvious answer, but I need to understand possible causes of this burn out. I appreciate any help anyone can provide.

Thanks. gotti.

[TA03 Drive Hard]

Mmmmmmmmmm perhaps you improperly wired the esc... that could have been the cause... what kinda esc do you have? :confused: also chances are you fried your esc too :( lemme know what you got ;)

[gotti]

Thanks for your response.

Well, the speed control is the standard Tamiya mechanical 3 speed that comes with its 4WD offroad cars. That's about all I can tell you. I cannot find any other identifying information.

Regarding your comment, improper wiring certainly seems like a good hypothesis. Yet the wires appear to me to be properly hooked up. There's only so many wires here, but then again, who knows?

:confused:

[ 06-23-2001: Message edited by: gotti ]

[gotti]

Had another thought. I could get an esc. Then I ditch the speed control servo and the resistor (and obviously the mech speed control) and simply attach the esc to the receiver, battery and motor, right?

[TA03 Drive Hard]

My friend... an esc is your best friend :cool: lose the msc and get a novak or lrp esc :D

[ammoace]

Ditch the MSC, there are a lot of economy ESCs that skimp on price not quality.
As far as smoking the wires it could be from overload. Make sure nothing found it's way into the motor vents or endbell. Also make sure the tranny and the drive train turn smoothly as something may be binding enough to keep the vehicle from moving. Take the motor off and try to spin it by hand. If it spins freely then try to turn the drive wheels by hand with the motor off and the motor installed. If the motor will spin off the vehicle then try to spin it while it is mounted. If it doesn't spin on the vehicle but does spin off the vehicle then make sure you are using the correct mounting screws. If the motor mounting screws are too long then they will "jam" the motor causing a ton of stress and drain on the electric, MSC/ESC, battery, motor, and associated wires.
Just some thoughts (from experience) that I wanted to throw out on the table.
Hope this helps,
Jerry
Hint, when you have a problem could you include what type of vehicle it is that you are having trouble with? This particular problem isn't a vehicle specific one but some are. :)

[nsane]

As far as a low cost ESC is concerned, check out the LRP F1 Reverse (I'm assuming you intend to bash more than race and will want reverse) its a great ESC at $55 and will let you use down to a 16 turn modified motor.

Check out the F1 from Tower, click here (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?Q=1&I=LG3136&P=1)

[ammoace]

The Futaba MC330CR is about $4 more then the LRP that nsane listed above but can go down to 13 Turn motors and reverse is able to be turned off or on for racing and bashing. Although the LRP is a great ESC too.
Jerry