Help! - Truck randomly shutting off/losing power

[MiamiRC]

I just bought my Maxx about a month ago. It has developed an issue now where it just shuts off randomly and with increasing frequency. Today at the park I couldn't run for more than a few minutes with one Lipo without it turning completely off. Just dead. Then I'd restart it and it would do it again. After a few minutes of that I switched out the Lipo for another and it would run, but after a few minutes it would give me the red voltage light. But it was still running. Turn it off, wait a few minutes and try again and it would run again without the light for a few minutes and then go into the same low voltage limp mode. Both batteries had full charge and were purchased at the same time as the truck so they are still quite new. Is this a bad ESC? Any suggestions?

[CrazyXMAXX]

Test each cells voltage
Know your Lipos balanced voltage
If packs never go below 3.70v each cell,then charged to 3.85v
Kept balanced before and after every run
The packs will have they’re life prolonged
Never run until an rc completely stops,
then leave the lipo until next time to charge
This can degrade a lipo within minimal usage

Enjoy what you do

[MiamiRC]

Test each cells voltage
Know your Lipos balanced voltage
If packs never go below 3.70v each cell,then charged to 3.85v
Kept balanced before and after every run
The packs will have they’re life prolonged
Never run until an rc completely stops,
then leave the lipo until next time to charge
This can degrade a lipo within minimal usage

Enjoy what you do

Thanks, lipos have only ever been balance charged and are 4.2 per cell. I dont think its the lipos.

[grizzly03]

Sounds like your batteries are weak or bad. I would check the voltage of the LiPo battery cells. If you run your battery to LVC (low voltage protection), turn off, and then turn back on to keep using already low voltage batteries even more, is a quick way to ruin them.
My experience with Traxxas ESC's: When the LVC 1st stage turns on, my batteries are at 3.5v. So if you are turning off and back on you are running your voltage even lower.

Thanks, lipos have only ever been balance charged and are 4.2 per cell. It's not the lipos.

What are they at when the voltage light comes on?

Just because they say charged to 4.2v doesn't mean they are still good.

[MiamiRC]

Sounds like your batteries are weak or bad. I would check the voltage of the LiPo battery cells. If you run your battery to LVC (low voltage protection), turn off, and then turn back on to keep using already low voltage batteries even more, is a quick way to ruin them.
My experience with Traxxas ESC's: When the LVC 1st stage turns on, my batteries are at 3.5v. So if you are turning off and back on you are running your voltage even lower.





What are they at when the voltage light comes on?

Just because they say charged to 4.2v doesn't mean they are still good.

One was at 4.1x when put back on the charger and the other at 3.9x for all cells. I guess one could be bad but both at the same time? And they're only a month old. Seems unlikely. They were both fully charged and the first one failed to work right out of the gate so I mean it barely had lost any charge at all. The second is a 6000 mah and only was run for maybe 10-15 minutes. It shouldn't have been close to dying.

[grizzly03]

What batteries are you using? Are you using battery adapters?

[MiamiRC]

What batteries are you using? Are you using battery adapters?

Yes on adapters. Zeee 4s Lipos from Amazon. 5200mah and 6000mah. I am wondering about the adapters, but 1. I swapped one out for a different one and no change so unless both adapters are bad...., and 2. it ran fine on adapters for a month, so why would that suddenly become an issue? I know they fail sometimes if they overheat but it doesn't look melted or damaged. I mean it looks fine.

Also, I had assumed this was totally unrelated but maybe I should mention, I'm eating plastic driveshafts, three so far. I think that is just because they are a weak link in the drivetrain but they always break during self righting, with the back and forth, and since the ESC controls that, I'm wondering if that could be an ESC issue. I mean more likely they are just plastic driveshafts right?

[CrazyXMAXX]

Using self righting -not suggested
Adapters not worthy

[cjtamu-redux]

Put the batteries on to discharge and check the voltage under load. Won’t be as high an amp dar as your motor but might give you some useful info. Do you storage charge your batteries?

[MiamiRC]

Put the batteries on to discharge and check the voltage under load. Won’t be as high an amp dar as your motor but might give you some useful info. Do you storage charge your batteries?

Yes batteries are storage charged. Reading the same under discharge 3.9-4.0 per cell.

[MysterE]

If i had to guess I'd say its your adapters. I had the exact same thing happen to me when i was running a trx to deans adapter on a vxl3s. Thought for ages the esc was done so i was just put it on 50% power mode and stuck it in my kids 2wd stampede. Worked fine like that for about a year. Then recently i decided to cut the trx plig off and solder a deans one on and low and belohd the whole thing worked perfectly!

So maybe try sticking it in training mode and drive around and see if it cuts you off or not.

[cjtamu-redux]

Had problems with adapters in a friend’s UDR, but it was immediate, not after a month like yours. Would be worth borrowing a set with actual Traxxas connectors if you can. Just to test.