Sos Help Help Help Help Heeeelp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

The following nightmare is fact my very own cold, harsh, reality. Do not read this if you have to go to the bathroom, and please, by all means, if you have any insight into what may be causing my problems, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HEEEELP!!!

So as you all know, I dumped all my nitro to go BL. I even bought a new vehicle: the muggy. That was in mar-apr. I received my first MMM, and it died during calibration. It just stopped working. Then, I received my V2 on saturday. At 3:30AM Sunday, it too died in the very same manner - during calibration, I hear a faint pop (like the sound of a small fuse), and it was lights off. When i called CC on monday, the silence on the phone with tech support was scary - i struck fear into the man, and he was filled with disbelief. So, i actually had the pleasure of speaking to patrick on the phone yesterday (yes, he's a VERY nice guy, and his kindness made me feel awful), and he felt it was because I wired a resistor in series for no spark - you don't do this with MM or MMM. So Patrick, my hero, comes through like a CHAMP(!) and OVERNIGHTS me a new MMM!! WHOA!! So, this morning, the UPS man leaves, and just like saturday, I'm dancing through the house! YES!

So today, I called tech support so the guy could be on the phone with me, so we can be sure it's not me doing something wrong. Turns out, I was never able to calibrate because of an incorrect controller setting; though that wasn't what killed anything.

Now it gets good.

So, while on the phone with the guy, we figured out the problem (why i could never calibrate), and I have a calibrated MMM!!!! :yipi: YES!!!!!!!!!! So at this point, the guy is talking to me about something, and I'm looking to put wheels on my truck to tear up the street after all these long months, and TONS of money spent!!! YES! Then I notice the fan keeps going; hmmm.

Now it goes very, very bad.

Just as i am about to interupt the guy, and ask him "hey man, how come the fan is still on", out of nowhere, with no warning, and for no apparent reason, the MMM lets out a small puff of smoke, and lights out. :surprised::oh::gasp: Yes, you read that right. MMM #3 for me. Dead.

I don't know what to say. Neither did he. He heard every tone, knows my setup, and knows his product, both v1 and v2. Quite frankly, at this point, I point the finger at myself, though castle hasn't yet, but something here is WRONG! I'm the only one this happens too, and it happened THREE times!!! THREE TIMES!! THREE MFing times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm using eletric brakes, and there aren't many wires here, and being that the battery has deans, it can't be plugged in wrong. All the connections are good, and correct, and I just don't know what else to do.

Can somebody PLEASE help?????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????

Is it possible you have a short in the windings in the motor ie.too long motor screws. Just a thought.
Sucks man,I hope mine doesn't share the same fate.

Sounds like a haunted vehicle to me. Seriously, that just sucks. Are you by any chance even remotely close to Castle HQ? Maybe take the truck there for Patrick to look at - at least then you'd leave with a working setup. Maybe call Patrick again and see if you can send the whole vehicle to him. Maybe he will find something you aren't seeing.

Do you want to send me all of it, and I will set it up for you? I have never had any issues like this... I have setup about 20 MM, 10 quarks, and at least 40 other escs. Never had an issue. I have cooked a few escs, but that was during use, and was always a material defect.

I feel really bad for you, and wish that I could do something...

If he could send it to CC directly, they have a few spares there maybe. :wink:

How about some pictures of your setup? Some closeups would be nice.

My bet is the motor is faulty or damaged.

What radio do you have, every detail. If it's Futaba are you running in PPM or HRS mode.

I ask this because there must be a reason Novak sells a GTB specifically for "Spread Spectrum" radios. Yet I have yet to hear with solid confirmation that the MMM is spread spectrum ready. Or to hear if it should be ran in HRS or PPM mode if using a Futaba.

No matter what some of you guys say on here my gut tells me some of the issues with the MMM have to do with radio types, brands and settings.

I use mine with a Futaba 2.4 radio with no issues. I believe his is a spektrum. I really don't think that is the issue. I would bet on the motor being the culprit at this point like others have said. The battery connection isn't an issue b/c if polarity was reversed, it wouldn't arm. The motor wires shouldn't matter, unless they are touching creating a short.

Did the MMM feel hot at all? Like it had a reason to turn on the fan???

I'm going to just answer questions without names:

I'm very far from kansas; I'm in nj. I really don't want to send it anywhere, not really wanting anyone to touch my truck (maybe I'm being a blockhead here), and I sure don't want to ship this beast!

I don't know if I have a bad motor, but, it does spin, in both directions, and I don't think the screws are too long - doesn't sound like anything is touching, and I was very concerned with this very issue when I mounted it, so I was EXTRA careful to make sure that it would never be a problem. Maybe it is a bad motor, but how often do Neu's fail? I dunno?

My setup:
Muggy with some tasteful mods ;)
Spektrum DX3
Spektrum pro Rx
Futaba S9351 digital steering servo
MMM v2
Tekno Neu 1515 1Y (2200kv)
Hyperion 6S 4800mah 20-30C
Hyperion charger w/ built in balancer
deans plugs
18T pinion + RCM motor mount + battery tray

all radio settings on 0.

the motor connections have heat shrink tubing on them, so nothing can touch to short. all connections were made this way, for this reason. I have ZERO intention of blowing anything up!! I'll admit I'm not the best with the soldering iron, but my connections are good enough for sure.

I don't know if the MMM was hot; by the time the shock had worn off me and the tech and he asked me to check it, it seemed only a few degrees higher than ambient.

pics are attached............

Try this- plug in a receiver pack and see if the servo works or not. If not, then you may have been plugging in your RX-to-ESC wire upside-down. I've done it before and it resulted in a fried MM.

Was the steering servo plugged in when you were trying to initialize the MMM?

Have you setup the servo by iteslf? Is it mechanically centered and hooked up to the servo arm correctly. Can you use a rec pack to power the receiver and set the servo up? Or have you done that already?

I was thinking that if the servo is at full travel one way, and the linkage is holding it there you might be overdrawing the MMM bec and cooking it...

Just a thought. Do you have access to any other servo or cheap brushed esc? Maybe hook that to the throttle channel and visually test that the throttle channel is operating properly. I would fully test the radio before you do anything else, and take the servo arm off the steering servo, just in case. I would also test the servo too. Something is causing problems.

Maybe even have someone else test the motor...

A pic of the rec with the wires in it would be good too. Sinal wire is usually toward the center of the case, ground wire goes to the outside of the case.

I know, I know, I've checked this connection a million times too, and it is correct. The servo and rx were both pulled from my fully functional nitro buggy. The servo is futaba, so you can't hook that up wrong, as it is a directional plug. The MMM plug could go in either way, but I've checked a million times. The radio works perfect too, I still use it with my micro t. (yep, I converted that to BL, DSM, and a GIANT lipo!). Also, EVERY time any of the MMM's have been hooked up, the steering servo horn has been disconnected. It was only connected once for a pic, which was actually taken only to show you guys my conversion.

The servo was connected during every calibration attempt, and worked every time. Also, the throttle channel works too, or at least it did in the buggy. Should I test it again? But if it was bad, why did it work for me today before the death of MMM V2 #3??

I don't have access to anything else at all, but for the few seconds that it all worked, well, it all worked. Anybody got more ideas, or a bottle of something maybe?

Out of curiosity, put a multimeter across the battery and check it's voltage. I know it's a long shot......

That could very well be true, but I am not quite sure if this phenomenon is restricted to a particular vehicle or to a particular user.
Not to go too O/T here, but I have been troubleshooting a losi mini-t for awhile now.
Swapped out every component individually and it still does this weird thing(steering servo doesn't return to center and instead, continues another MM or 2). I mean, I went to an HTU, they had another working mini-T and we swapped every single component out individually and whenever I touch the controller, the mini-T develops this steering fault.
I dunno if it's some kinda sign, but I'm so getting rid of that thing.

Very sorry to read about your third one dying on you and especially considering the conditions under which it happened.
I would see if you could at least ship castle your electronics if they'd be willing to troubleshoot it for you.

I am not certain about this, but if the screws were touching the coils, I don't think it would necessarily be detectable by feeling an actual bind because the coils are stationary relative to the housing...it is the rotor that spins and that is usually inside of the diameter of the mounting hole pattern.

Hey man, I am sorry to hear the pain in your voice, this sort of thing happens to me all too often (except no one overnights anything back to me:mdr:).

The only thing I can think of to check right now is, if you have a meter of course, is to check the resistance between a screw/casing and a bullet connector.

Obviously this is only useful if you haven't touched or removed the screws yet to inspect your motor. You want to see no contact between the screws and any motor phase. Either way the windings are setup they should be elec. continuous with each other but nothing else like screws or casing (and the screws would conduct to the casing anyway).

Thats probably not it but worth checking none the less.

That's the only think I can think of as well. If the motor screws are shorting to the windings it could cause this sort of issue.

At this point you need to take all the electronics out and overnight it to Castle. I'd send in the motor, servo, and ESC. If it is a bad motor, they now distribute Neu motors, and can handle the repairs. It could very well be the servo having some sort of internal short too. I'd almost bet Castle will want to see all your hardware anyway since this is #3.

I'd send the motor off to castle at the bare minimum to have them check it. If you have a reasonably accurate voltmeter, you can check the resistances of the coils of the motor, they should all be equal. A better way to check the motor (if you have access to a lab-grade power supply) is to hook up each coil set to the power supply and run 8A through it, the voltage should all match within 10% or so, if not, you've got a problem. I'd say tho the motor would be the logical thing to look at next.

It sounds far-fetched but true. I once worked for a company repairing Lottery machines. Out of a base of around 2500 units, there were two or three that were plagued by this type of thing. No sooner would they be repaired and sent out into the field and they would come back. On slow days, one of us techs would sigh and go get one of these "machines of death" to work on. Usually it turned out to be something totally off the wall, and sometimes the problem didn't appear to have anything to do with the symptoms.

Yep time to let go of the grip and send it in to get looked at. I realize it is more down time for you but at this point it is the best option. Something is shorting somewhere and castle can find it weather they fry another MMM doing it or not at least you wont have to fry another and you will get a working setup back.

Revenge of the nitro conversion; the Muggy is resentfull at being stripped of its nitro-hood, so will kill any esc that is mounted onto its chassis....

Where exactly in NJ are you? There are tons of guys in the area and maybe someone can help/look in person.

Lutach is in NJ, I am sure he would be glad to help.

you havent shortened the motor wires at all have you ?

this is a naughty thing , just thought id rule out that theory too

Stay away from any open areas during lightning storms is my suggestion. I hate to say but its possible you got a 3rd bad controller. That means the rest of ours should work. Seriously though, sorry to hear about your loss. Troubleshooting sucks sometimes. I hope you can figure out what it is. If you get a new controller, I would try with a different radio just to be safe.

I would send in the motor for them to check... Otherwise you might be at no 4.

the servo and other stuff is easy to check...

I run mine with a Futaba 3PM 2.4GHz in HRS mode. I tried it in PPM mode to and no problems whatsoever.

hey im in jersy. lodi.... you anyware close?

Sounds like my revo was. I think it has finally come to terms with it.

i'm in old bridge; pretty far from lodi. I do know a guy in edison though, who's also on this board. I may reach out to him if the next attempt fails.

Would not be a bad idea to have someone else look at the truck given all the issue you are having. a second set of eyes tends to be helpful when you get stuck, can clear the tunnel vision...

You are only 30 miles away from me - Swing on by...