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TB-LE 02-S esc Confused - Lipo or no lipo??????

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Hi Everyone

I am really confused..

I got a TBLE 02S esc with my dt-03. I figured as its called 02s and it support brushless motors that it would be 2s compatible but keep reading people say it cant be used with lipos but then see people posting pics of the same esc with lipos attached?

Can someone answer can this ESC be used with a 2S Lipo battery? Without modification?

 

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It needs voltage monitoring.  Because the TBLE is built for LiFe batteries, the voltage protection is wrong for LiPo.

"Each LiFe cell has a NOMINAL voltage of 3.3V. A fully charged LiFe cell is 3.6V, and a fully depleted LiFe cell is 2.5V."

LiPo batteries have a fully depleted value of 3.0-3.3v typically, so if you just use the TBLE the LiPo can dip below 3.0v which causes permanent damage to the battery, instability, and potentially fire.

If you wish to use the TBLE with a LiPo, get an audible voltage alarm or at least a voltage checker.  Either way when you see your LiPo is close to 3.0v, time to shut off and recharge it.

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Hi all. My very first post and appearance in this forum... :)

 

But lipo 2s has 7,4v.... Can I damage the TBLE2s ESC with 7,4 v ?

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Nope.

I have been running them on 2s LiPo for years. Just run a LiPo alarm and you'll be fine. 

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13 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

Nope.

I have been running them on 2s LiPo for years. Just run a LiPo alarm and you'll be fine. 

I'll 2nd that.

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I don't even bother with a lipo alarm, time is a good enough indicator for me.  My lipos are 4800mah to 5800mah so I can run them for at least half an hour which is usually plenty of time.  Buy a multimeter from banggood for $3 and check voltage every so often to work it out.

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The recommendation to not use LiPo with the TBLE-02 is meant to protect the BATTERY, not the ESC. The TBLE-02's cutoff is too low to prevent LiPos from being drained below their "safe" threshold. 

Having said that, common sense works almost as good as a LiPo alarm. Just don't run the car until the battery is completely empty. 

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How about LIPO 3S/11.1V? with the TBLE-02S? Would that work? I already have a couple of these.

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That significantly exceeds the specs of the ESC and is likely to make the magic smoke come out.

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30 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

That significantly exceeds the specs of the ESC and is likely to make the magic smoke come out.

I see now that the voltage specs are quite low. I'll just feed it NIMH batteries until I can find a replacement sensored ESC.

I find it a bit tricky to find an ESC that:

- Has a fan

- NIMH and LIPO voltage cutoff

- Does not require expensive accessories to program

- Is sensored

- Is waterproof

- Does not cost an arm and a leg 

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How much do you consider an arm and a leg?

Sensored and waterproof seldom go together as very few sensored motors are waterproof, and if the motor isn't waterproof, there isn't much point in the ESC being waterproof as the car would need to be kept dry anyway. 

 

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7 hours ago, Aviator said:

I see now that the voltage specs are quite low. I'll just feed it NIMH batteries until I can find a replacement sensored ESC.

I find it a bit tricky to find an ESC that:

- Has a fan

- NIMH and LIPO voltage cutoff

- Does not require expensive accessories to program

- Is sensored

- Is waterproof

- Does not cost an arm and a leg 

I bought a hobbyking x Car 120A esc, with a cheap usb kabel (5$) you can program it over the PC.

there are also 60 and 80A’s but the price difference btween the 60A and 120A is 10$

 

rebranded hobbywing they say.

not waterproof, but I dont think water drops will harm it.

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5 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

How much do you consider an arm and a leg?

Sensored and waterproof seldom go together as very few sensored motors are waterproof, and if the motor isn't waterproof, there isn't much point in the ESC being waterproof as the car would need to be kept dry anyway. 

 

Maybe not waterproof then. Anyway some of the better ESCs are about $450 here in Norway, which I consider to be too much to put in a $200 car. 

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On 1/30/2019 at 10:35 PM, Hec77 said:

But lipo 2s has 7,4v.... Can I damage the TBLE2s ESC with 7,4 v ?

A fully charged lipo is 8.4v, I think the 7.4v is meant to be an average, my low volt cut off is set for 7.4v and storage charge is 7.6v.

Seemingly a mod you can do to the tble02s, (soldering a different resistor in i think) to give it the required cut off, but a cheap low volt alarm,plugged into the balance lead, works well.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RC-Lipo-Battery-Low-Voltage-Alarm-1S-8S-Buzzer-Indicator-Checker-Tester-LED-UK/273520034759?epid=9008172208&hash=item3faf1083c7:g:FjwAAOSwA4dWKh-X:rk:3:pf:1

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2 hours ago, Aviator said:

Maybe not waterproof then. Anyway some of the better ESCs are about $450 here in Norway, which I consider to be too much to put in a $200 car. 

The hobbywing 120a is good or the cheaper but similar HobbyKING version as mentioned above. You can program it without extras although the USB interface is cheap and makes it waaay easier.

Or there's an even cheaper version, the Tsky 120A, seems to be a clone of the above 2, they ALWAYS die when you try to use them on 3s but apart from that, they seem to work just as well as the other two as long as you stick to 2s. I've flashed Hobbyking firmware onto them and they seem to work fine both in sensored and sensorless mode. They cost about £10 from China on ebay. I've never had one fail on me apart from when I tried one on 3s and it let the smoke out, everyone warned me not to but after having such great results on 2s I decided to try it and it lasted just minutes. Not sure what the issue is, it can handle way more current hungry setups on 2s than I tried on 3s. Seems like some of the components are just not rated for the slightly higher voltage. Not a case of the ESC being wimpy but just some QC flaw.

This is a short clip of the tsky in action in sensored mode:
 

I've used it extensively in sensorless mode too in my heavy dump truck with a 3900KV on 2s, hasn't missed a beat.

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I have had great experiences with the Hobbywing Quicrun 10BL60 and 10BL120 ESCs, not waterproof but fitting all your other criteria. They can be programmed via the built-in button or via a program card that costs under a tenner. 

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On 1/30/2019 at 5:35 PM, Hec77 said:

Hi all. My very first post and appearance in this forum... :)

 

But lipo 2s has 7,4v.... Can I damage the TBLE2s ESC with 7,4 v ?

Welcome to Tamiya Club!   

What they mean is 3.3v per cell for LiFe (Tamiya doesn't use LiPo, for safety concerns).  2S LiFe would be 6.6v.  

LiPo is 3.7v per cell, 2S would be 7.4v.  

If the TBLE02S cuts off at 5v (2.5v per cell), that's fine for LiFe.  But if the ESC cuts off at the same 5v, LiPo would be "permanently damaged."  LiPo doesn't like to go down below 3v per cell, which means 6v for 2S, not 5v.   

As mentioned, a voltage alarm is a cheap and accurate solution. (but bothersome -- I hate it when it beeps loudly when plugging)  Or like Jonathon does, just buy a large capacity and run little more than halfway.  It's a bit risky, but if you do know how it drains, anywhere from 50% down to 20% is large enough a window.  

 

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2S LiPo (7.4V nominal) is 8.4V fresh off the charger. 6S NiMH (7.2V nominal) is almost 9V fresh off the charger. So you shouldn't damage your TBLE02S from overvoltage from a LiPo since a freshly charged LiPo is actually lower voltage than NiMH.

The cutoff of the TBLE02S is 4.9V which is too low for LiPo, but if you're skilled with a soldering iron you can modify it to change the cutoff to 6.0-6.6V so the ESCs cutoff is LiPo friendly. http://laneboysrc.blogspot.com/2015/08/tamiya-tble-02s-mod-for-lipo-cut-off.html

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So I’m going to jump in on the back of this... as I understand it running a 2S 7.4V Lipo will be fine you just want to run low voltage alarm?

there is also no setting changes required to run the Lipo in the ESC?

i have a heap of the and want to run run one of them in my CR-01 with a Lipo 

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4 minutes ago, KalEl63 said:

So I’m going to jump in on the back of this... as I understand it running a 2S 7.4V Lipo will be fine you just want to run low voltage alarm?

there is also no setting changes required to run the Lipo in the ESC?

i have a heap of the and want to run run one of them in my CR-01 with a Lipo 

Yep thats right, no settings to change or anything, just use it as normal

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That's right, TBLE02S doesn't have "LiPo" setting.  You can use any source of 7.2V-ish electricity, granted that you provide an alarm to protect the battery.  

 

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Ok cool so even though my Lipo I got it’s 7.4v it’s not really going to cause an issue
thos type of alarm should be fine?

 

9207C2D5-FA6D-4F9E-898A-882F56C7B5D8.jpeg

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1 hour ago, KalEl63 said:

Ok cool so even though my Lipo I got it’s 7.4v it’s not really going to cause an issue
thos type of alarm should be fine?

 

9207C2D5-FA6D-4F9E-898A-882F56C7B5D8.jpeg

Yep, that’s the one 👍🏻
 

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Been using 2s lipo on tble-02s for as long as I can remember (probably 8+ years) never used a alarm, pretty much soon as the pack dumps you stop using it. You’ll only damage the pack if you keep driving once it slows down. This being said if your running a very light load (like a crawler motor) is suggest a alarm as you might not notice the pack dumps. I’ve run the cell checker over the pack several times after the dump and usually still see 3.4v+ it’s going under 3v per cell which you need to avoid. I’ll generally put it back on the charger soon as I get home bring it up to 3.8v min 4v max per cell then drop into storage box. All pretty straight forward simple stuff. 

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Lipo alarms could be annoying as mentioned - I was driving my stock neo scorcher yesterday with 2200mah 2S lipo with the alarm plugged and it started beeping about after 10mins of driving even when the voltage was 7.9 when standsill. The problem is that the alarm will trigger whenever one of the cells voltage drops below the set threshold (i believe 3.3 as default, could be altered) and wont stop, however this could and will occur momentarily on full throttle/on load. Anyway, I unplugged said alarm and drove the buggy for another 10-15mins (not so vigorously), got home, plugged to charger and the battery was spot on storage voltage. In the end I think it might be good to carry the alarm along and plug it in for time to time to check on the voltage if unsure

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