Two digital servos and a CC BEC have gone into thin air.....

[TexasSP]

I have run with RX packs and BEC's and much prefer the BEC. RX packs are just a pain to use in my opinion. My koolflight bex works like a charm as BrianG stated and would have no reason to use anything else.

At the risk of pissing everyone off...let me just say that I have heard that the castle BEC is a micky mouse unit and I would not run my 100.00 dollar servos with it. Nor would I use the UBEC ( I have one right here that is fried). I run a 50.00 dollar unit called the HERCULES BEC you can get them from brian at tanicpacks (worth a look) he claims that the hercules bec is the best currently made. Sorry if I come off as abrasive I just never got the hang of suger coating.

Originally Posted by captain harlock

The bec is no longer alive.

I smelled it.....mmmmm...full of bar bq.

I meant to say check the new set up and see what your current draw is.

[lxmuff]

Originally Posted by coolrunnings

At the risk of pissing everyone off...let me just say that I have heard that the castle BEC is a micky mouse unit and I would not run my 100.00 dollar servos with it. Nor would I use the UBEC ( I have one right here that is fried). I run a 50.00 dollar unit called the HERCULES BEC you can get them from brian at tanicpacks (worth a look) he claims that the hercules bec is the best currently made. Sorry if I come off as abrasive I just never got the hang of suger coating.

Thanks for the info.

I had a friend that had the same failure on the cc bec two weeks ago. It put out 16V, no smell and it could still show on the castlelink to be at 6V.

[BrianG]

Any BEC has the potential for failure. However, the CC one is the only one I know where it will pass full battery voltage on failure. Most others simply stop working.

[pipeous]

The Hercules was designed and produced by a buddy of mine. He was my heli trainer actually. We worked together on a few things. I test and help with a few of their products. Jimmy likes to blow stuff up. He ragged me hard for having a castle bec in my buggy. He was telling me how easy it was to make them fail, but I only run a 94359 and it has been good.

The Hercules is a killer bec http://www.western-robotics.com/RCproducts.html
I was going to do all the soldering for them at one point (anything that doesn't go in the oven). I still remember when we started selling bec's and failsafes and the boards were hand cut and drilled LOL. man it's come a long way since then. He has about the same setup in his 2 car garage as does castle in their shop pics they showed a while back..... and he does stuff for Honda, Toyota and Sherline mills as well now.... all this from a guy that used to program robotics stuff and I talked him into making rc gear because he's a bloody genius

[jhautz]

Ive had 2 CC BECs fail on me now. One went up in smoke, but did no other damage. The other took out a $100 servo and $90 Rx.

I was running a few of these cheap ones for a long time (years) prior to getting the CC BEC and have yet to have one fail. When the CC units died, these trusty fellows went back into service and I havent looked back. For $15 you can beat them.

http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...oducts_id=1158

I hate to link to outside stores, If Mike carried them I'd buy them from him.

Originally Posted by jhautz

Ive had 2 CC BECs fail on me now. One went up in smoke, but did no other damage. The other took out a $100 servo and $90 Rx.

I was running a few of these cheap ones for a long time (years) prior to getting the CC BEC and have yet to have one fail. When the CC units died, these trusty fellows went back into service and I havent looked back. For $15 you can beat them.

http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...oducts_id=1158

I hate to link to outside stores, If Mike carried them I'd buy them from him.

I went on that same site this morning looking at the Hercules High voltage model...I was wondering if they are reliable

http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...oducts_id=4667

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by pipeous

The Hercules was designed and produced by a buddy of mine. He was my heli trainer actually. We worked together on a few things. I test and help with a few of their products. Jimmy likes to blow stuff up. He ragged me hard for having a castle bec in my buggy. He was telling me how easy it was to make them fail, but I only run a 94359 and it has been good.

The Hercules is a killer bec http://www.western-robotics.com/RCproducts.html
I was going to do all the soldering for them at one point (anything that doesn't go in the oven). I still remember when we started selling bec's and failsafes and the boards were hand cut and drilled LOL. man it's come a long way since then. He has about the same setup in his 2 car garage as does castle in their shop pics they showed a while back..... and he does stuff for Honda, Toyota and Sherline mills as well now.... all this from a guy that used to program robotics stuff and I talked him into making rc gear because he's a bloody genius

Don't get me wrong, I really like their products too. I have their ultra high V BEC and it tested very well. And it doesn't look chintzy either. It's just that the CC BEC is a really good BEC for the money (high output, efficient, and programmable)... if it doesn't fail. That's the only "gotcha" really; if it fails, it takes out your servos and receiver. At least you know what the problem is if the CC BEC fails -It's hard to miss smoking receiver and servos!

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by jhautz

Ive had 2 CC BECs fail on me now. One went up in smoke, but did no other damage. The other took out a $100 servo and $90 Rx.

I was running a few of these cheap ones for a long time (years) prior to getting the CC BEC and have yet to have one fail. When the CC units died, these trusty fellows went back into service and I havent looked back. For $15 you can beat them.

http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...oducts_id=1158

I hate to link to outside stores, If Mike carried them I'd buy them from him.

The trouble I've noticed with some of the cheaper UBECs out there is build quality, or rather component selection. Ever notice how the "good" BECs use fairly large inductors? If they are too small, they saturate too quickly with higher currents. Most of the switching BECs out there (aside from CC) use a switching regulator IC (sometimes the same one), so the selection of support components makes a big difference. Howewer, if running the cheaper BECs at lower currents, they aren't so bad.

[Arct1k]

Well I confess to accidently getting my series and parrallel leads mixed up (don't ask) - I put 10s a123 into my MM and cc ubec - no smoke no fire... Swapped back to 5s and all ok. Thank you RC-Monster!

[jhautz]

Originally Posted by BrianG

The trouble I've noticed with some of the cheaper UBECs out there is build quality, or rather component selection. Ever notice how the "good" BECs use fairly large inductors? If they are too small, they saturate too quickly with higher currents. Most of the switching BECs out there (aside from CC) use a switching regulator IC (sometimes the same one), so the selection of support components makes a big difference. Howewer, if running the cheaper BECs at lower currents, they aren't so bad.

Cant speak intelegently about any of that... but I can tell you I know they just work and have given me no problems at all even running high power digital steering and brake servos in my Savage.

[captain harlock]

Well, I think I'll go with either a hercules bec or a " Jhautz" one or even get both of them.

Man! You guys chimed in really cool. I couldn't ask for more.

Problem = A bec failure

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, dudes!!!

[redshift]

BrianG, I wonder if you could answer something, how many volts will a receiver/servo take before they cook? I have CC BEC that I have not run yet, partly because I am in debug mode still, and partly because of some of the failures I've read about.

I run 2S+2S, and I was thinking I'd run the CCBEC off one pack, my reasoning is that if the BEC did fail, that the radio gear might survive 8V. Thoughts?

I can run my leds and fans (eek!) off the other pack, for a somewhat balanced accessory load.

[jhautz]

I think the answer to how many volts is to much is going to be different for different servos and recievers. I know that the Spektrum Rx will run up to 9.6V I believe and servos are rated for anywhere from 5v to 9v.

I have personally run my nitro buggy on a 2s li-ion pack (8.2v peaked) with no regulator and have had no issues at all. The servo is blazing fast at that voltage, but its still going with no problems. There may other servos and Rx that wont take that voltage. You will have to do some research on your specific equipment.

All that being said... I think you will have a much better chance of everything surviving a BEC failure running on 2s lipo vs 4s though so I dont se how it could be a bad thing with the exception of the pack that caries the BEC load will wear down quicker than the other pack so you will ahve to be carefull not to over discharge that pack.