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Jammi3D

Carson Dragster

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Had a crash with my TT-02B (hit a post) and I've fixed the broken parts but the ESC seems to be having problems.

When powering on I get a single beep than nothing until I keep my finger on the accelerator which will than bleep again than a constant bleeping noise until I press the accelerator again than all silence except a constant flashing red light on the ESC. I've read the manual and followed the trouble shooting but no fix. (ESC is in chan2)

Not only is that the issue but seems to be down on power (full throttle is approx 40% of what it should be) ... if I keep powering off/on the ESC than eventually it will give full power but no steering (chan1)

I'm using the incl Absima CR4S & Carson Dragster.

Have I broken the ESC? ... it has probably had around 2 hours use.

Things tried:

Different Battery (both lipo & NI-MH)
Bind remote to receiver
Fresh Batteries in remote

cheers

 

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That's a very unusual set of symptoms.  Only getting 40% throttle after the ESC not wanting to power on could mean that it isn't detecting the neutral points properly when you turn it on.  I don't know what settings your radio has, but check that the trims are completely centred (especially the throttle channel) and that the endpoint adjustment (if available) is also set to the normal position on the throttle.  Also check if the reverse switch for the throttle channel hasn't been changed my mistake.  Then try turning it all on again (transmitter first, then ESC).  If the Carson Dragster has a calibration (usually some combination of pressing a small button on the ESC and then moving the throttle through its range) then try that - it may be self-calibrating (I expect the reason it doesn't start properly is because it can't self-calibrate).

Another possibility is that the ESC is in LiPo-safe mode, which is why you can only get half throttle.  If you're running with NiMH batteries then make sure the LiPo cutoff setting is disabled.  I think that is set by a jumper over some pins on the Dragster.  It's possible that the pins got bent in the crash and are touching.

When checking with your LiPo, make sure it's fully charged - and remember to re-enable the LiPo cutoff.

Let us know if that doesn't work or if the symptoms change after doing that :) 

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13 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

Carson Dragster has a calibration

The Carson is basically a 1060, no calibration, no button. 

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thank you for the reply.

Everything on the remote is set to 0, throttle & steering are set to max.

I set the jumper back to NiMH as I know the battery works ok, battery has had a full charge and made no difference. All the pins look ok.

I've got a video it will probably explain things better. As you can see in the video the 1st time I powered it on there was nothing until I pressed the throttle twice in which the car started in reverse until I pressed the throttle again. When pressing the throttle again the car is under powered compared to normal.

2nd time I powered on the car and held the throttle the ESC had a constant beep. As you can hear when I held the throttle there was only short bursts of power (not me releasing the throttle and repressing it) which I'm guessing the ESC is in limp mode?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wvZHlo1TvRjZYSr7UaN1Ug8OuCa7Ke8A/view?usp=sharing
 

remote.jpg

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Very odd.  What motor are you running?  Have you tried setting throttle to normal on the transmitter rather than reverse?

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OK, first thing I've definitely noticed is that your throttle channel is reversed according to the picture above.  I don't know if that's a problem for the Carson Dragster, but it might explain why you can't get full power - some ESCs only deliver half power when reversing.  Can you get full power if you drive in reverse?  If so - try turning everything off, setting the throttle channel to normal, then turning it all back on so it calibrates again.  In theory the neutral point will be the same regardless of if it's in normal or reverse mode, but I've known ESCs refuse to calibrate properly with the direction setting the wrong way round.  If the ESC works properly but the wheels turn the wrong way, you can reverse the cables from the ESC to the motor.

Depending on how the ESC works, this might also explain why it doesn't always work when you throttle on - if the Dragster has double-tap to reverse (the HW-1060 does), and if it thinks your "forward" input is actually reverse, then half the time it could be trying to apply the brakes, and not actually turning the wheels.

According to the Carson Dragster manual (which I eventually found after a bit of searching - I wanted to find a model-specific one in case it's different to the Hobbywing one, and that would seem to be the case as the HW-1060 has F/B/R, F/B and F/R modes, which is not quite the same as Car, Boat and Crawler which your Dragster has)  - if the red LEDs are flashing, that means it's receiving a part forward or part backward signal.  It seems to be doing that after it's calibrated and you've released the throttle, which suggests the ESC isn't reading a proper neutral signal (at least not when the throttle lever is released).

Is your steering working properly?  If the car got damaged, it's possible the servo is damaged also.  I've had a servo get jammed so bad that it drew enough current to cause the radio to constantly shut down and reset.  For ages I thought it was a fault ESC, because the bleeps and oddness were coming from the ESC, but that was just a symptom of the radio not having enough power to run.

Try unplugging the steering servo and see if you have the same problems.

Here's an odd thing for you to try:

  • turn everything off
  • set your steering trim to neutral and D/R to 100%
  • unplug the steering servo from the receiver
  • plug the ESC into the steering channel
  • plug the steering servo into the throttle channel
  • turn on the transmitter
  • turn on the ESC and make sure you don't touch the steering wheel yet
  • wait 3 seconds for it to calibrate - note if it does the flashing LED thing, or if it calibrates without any input, or if you have to turn the wheel in any direction to force it to calibrate
  • test the ESC / motor operation by moving the steering wheel
  • test the steering servo operation by moving the throttle trigger

If the ESC works properly on the steering channel then it's likely there's something wrong somewhere with the throttle channel, either in the Tx or the Rx.  If it still doesn't work properly then it seems like it's in the ESC (or the lead from the ESC to the Rx - check it for splits or shorts).

If the ESC works but your steering servo is jittery or unreliable or doesn't return properly to the centre when using the throttle trigger, then there's something wrong with your throttle channel.  I've had potentiometers fail inside transmitters which causes the radio to do odd stuff.

Let us know how you get on :) 

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I often have the Rew set as Forw and then you only get 50% throtle as Mad Ax suggest. In those cases i just reverse this on channel 2 on the controller. In your case set TH to Normal 

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Running a Tamiya BZ motor.

I've always had the throttle set to reverse as prefer to use the trigger this way. Anyway set the throttle to normal and the light stops but still down on power.

Putting throttle back to reverse and a couple of power ups results in full power.

Following your instructions Mad Ax, swapping channels seemed to work ok for a few seconds with no lights and full power (throttle also set to reverse)

Now the steering is stuck on full lock to the right and servo is buzzing (only when stuck otherwise no sound) . Swapping the channels back steering works but is sluggish returning to centre.

I've ordered a ESC just to test but I guess will order a servo too.

The servo worked last weekend when outside of the car, I guess because there was no load on it.

**Edit**

Just tried on my brothers Savox servo and on both channels instantly full locks to the right :/

 

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I had an ESC taken out by a RX before, so it is possible that the fault occured elsewhere. In my case, a non waterproof RX shorted out, taking down the ESC with it.

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New ESC installed today and made no difference.

Removed all the electrics and tested off the chassis and also used the Silver can motor with same results.

Disconnected the motor and connected my brother's servo, instant lock to the right like before. (same on both channels)

 

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There's definitely something strange going on there, I suspect the radio isn't happy about something.

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ok new Servo arrived today, problem looks to be fixed and seems to center itself when powered up. I'm waiting on the aluminum servo horn to arrive before installing.

I did notice I had to set the steering throttle trim to -1 as the wheels were turning (only happens with throttle set to neutral) which didn't do before.

The new servo also seems to be buzzing/twitching a little like some interference some where
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uwjqA7KCjmqxGp4dKJ2PM-D0lKFLXtyd/view?usp=sharing

Servo Saver arrived and now constantly making a noise, I've also tried my brothers servo again in his chassis and is ok

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17dg-2OVJ-qZstJwKac9UIlyq0xb-BLV2/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SGX2zyZaLEUtTkWP7EbO3xLkt44ydsaE/view?usp=sharing

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