CC BEC Failures
 

Well, I fried 3 (yes 3) analog servos last night :oops:
I guess the 3rd times a charm...
So, to get to the point, I found that my CC BEC was no longer regulating the voltage from my 4S battery so I was powering my JR Micro receiver at 15+ volts. My digital steering servo survived and so did my speed control but my analog brake servo went bezerk each time I powered the system. What confused the issue was that I had been running the system for quite a while before this happened so I was unsure what had changed.

So, if you power up your system and your analog servo goes nuts, check the voltage from your BEC first :intello:

Anyway, I figured I post this in case anyone else runs into this issue. Maybe my experience can help save someone else from frying more servo's than neccessary :whistle:

I allways recommend going with a better bec like the dimension engineering or the hercules from western robotics. The dimension sport bec is an extra 5 bucks and will save your servo's. The lives of so many innocent servo's could have been saved.

Is this the one you're talking about?

http://www.rc-monster.com/proddetail...rod=DEsportbec

Well when my 2 CCBEC's went they took,3 digital and 3 analog servos,before I figured it all out.

The CC BEC has claimed (2) $100+each servos, $90 Rx, and a $100 transponder for me as well. I have remove all CC BECs from service in my stuff. The first time I thought it was a fluke that it faild and sent 18.5v though the system. After the 2nd time, I just stopped using them all together. Not an uncommon story unfortunatly. I have had other brands of BEC fail, but none that have taken the rest of the electrical system with it like the CC. The storys of the CCBEC wipeout are all over the place.

I just ordered that dimension engineering sport BEC. We'll see. I just don't like using BECs for fear of frying my servo and rx.

Yea thats the one you want george16. I have only had one bec fail and it was the coolflight ubec.

Call me "Cave Man", but why isn't most of you just running a Rx pack? I have never had an issue with mine and I'll be running them until something that really works all the time perfect like a nicely charged Rx pack is available.

I actually like running a rx pack myself but I'm still waiting for a response from CC on modding my V2. Once they say go ahead, I'll do Brian's mod and use one of my rx from my nitro trucks and see what happens.

I ordered that one to try it out too when it arrives.

Has anyone ever heard of any other brand of bec failing and sending full voltage through? Patrick once said that all bec's are susceptible to this kind of failure, and I can't help but think that the only reason we hear about it happening to ccbec more is because more people are running ccbec's. It seems strange that its ONLY castle's product capable of such carnage.

I personally own 4, and my brother 3. Between us we have had 2 dead ones, DOA, 0V through the bec, no full voltage thing, and all the others work flawlessly - not exactly a great track record, but you guys that have every MMM and every ccBEC and every other castle product fail on you consistently sure must be unlucky...

There have been the occasional report of other brand UBECs sending full battery voltage, but it appears that the CCBEC is far more likely to do so, judging solely by the frequency of reports. Most UBECs use an integrated switcher IC that contains pretty much everything on the chip. The CCBEC is more discrete. Patrick has said ANY switching BEC is capable of going bad this way, but like I said, it seems that the CCBEC does so more often.

do you think the frequency of reports could just be because of its popularity compared to the other bec's? I guess none of us really have the stats to determine such a thing, but it seems to be quite a popular the choice, with the rest of the non-ccbec users divided amongst a plethora of other brands.

Yeah, it's hard to say without statistical data.

How about we open a poll...they sure seem successful :sarcastic: :lol:

lol, they would be if they were accurate! Besides, many people have more than one, and the poll lets you vote only once, so there goes accuracy right off the bat. And then, if you have a failure at a later date, you can't go back and adjust the vote.

lol if they were accurate. A pretty big 'if' right there. I just had about 10 lines of crap written, but really wasn't worth posting haha. Meh, I hope it doesnt happen to mine :lol:

My cc bec fail last week...luckily it didn't short anything out.:whistle:

I don't run an rx pack because you still need a regulator to drop the voltage to 6v not to mention I've run 2 coolflight UBEC's for years now and they've never gone bad. I also have the western robotics and it works like a champ. I've only used the cc bec for maybe 20 5min runs. The only significant change I made was setting the cc bec to 6v via the castle link. I'd be curious how many fail while using 5v as apposed 6v etc.

I know there are many reports of of this problem but I didn't see a specific thread for it. My intention for the thread was to hopefully save others from the carnage. :eyes:

I love Castle products but I won't be running the cc bec anymore.

can someone link me to a nice lipo rx pack...I did search and its all so confusing when you dont know much about electronics....I can build a house from the ground up but i'm lost on electrics

also do I really need a regulator with a rx pack

please linc me to exactly what I need for my MMM or mm for that matter

Yes otherwise you will be dumping a full 7.4v (or 8.6 fully charged) (( When using a lipo RX pack, nimh rx pack charge to 6v max)) into your rx and most will poof at that. Must be some hardcore rxs out there that run that voltage for those 7.2v 5955tg servos but ive never seen them, My airtronics poofs at over 6v


Losi regulator LINK


rx batterys LINK


page of regulators LINK

If all you need is a regulator that will bring ~7.4v down to 6v, a linear one would work fine. An LM317T with an NPN pass transistor, a couple resistors, and a couple small caps are all that's needed. And all this can be gotten at RadioShack if you don't mind a little soldering...

All of the Spektrum Rx are good to 9.6v

huh no kidding, might have been a factor when buying a 2.4 system...well then I have seen them and never knew it lol

That's true to Futaba 2.4 systems too. I have them on all my trucks and no problems at all.

Yes I'll bet for every one hercules bec that is sold 50 castle bec's are sold...I dont believe thats why we only hearing about the cc failures and I would definitely not use that to justify buying the cc bec just to save 5 bucks...I would however use that excuse to justify owning several (pride). You get what you pay for.