Very odd Alien ESC Problem - BEC

[farrerzack]

So I am on my second Alien ESC, this one has been bulletproof reliable for me for quite some time until recently. I took my board out for this first time a few days ago (in case you didn't hear, Boston had quite the winter) and the board ran perfectly for the 6 or so miles. I came back, switched batteries and flipped the power switch. Nothing, no magic smoke no beeping to show it powered on or any light on the rx. After fooling around for a bit, I found that there was no voltage in the 5v lines of the esc. So I figured I'd try to hack it to work, connected an external phone battery to the pc sync dongle and low and behold it works just like it did before. My only question is, is there a chance I could blow anything up by doing this? It was just such an odd problem to begin with, especially given the fact that there was no pop or smoke or even heat.
-Zack

 

[torqueboards]

I hate to see it but these escs are garbage and horribly engineered. I have a ton broken as well. Read the reviews on the other high voltage high amp RC forums.

I would stay far away from these escs if everyone wants to save money.

Your bec unit is broken similar to my own broken escs like aps escs 15-20.

You can salvage it by using a ubec and no longer using the built in bec. If your positive it's giving 0v.

Eventually the esc will crap out and you'll have to replace it yet again.

 

[farrerzack]

Yeah that was pretty much my plan, I had noticed that you have started moving away from the APS setups lately which is definitely good. Between this and the fact that the first one I got from you literally cooked itself they're clearly not well built. Do you know if the VESC is available to buy yet (or will be soon)? That seems to be my goto for my next esc, I like the idea of it being purpose built for the application its being used in.

 

[torqueboards]

You can try Silviasol or onloop/jacob for the VESC. Its not a simple esc and is configured to your own motor. You'llneed to dual boot Linux or virtual box to configure the esc.

I've been testing the new 12s esc on my site and it has been working real well. Maybe 200 miles on it and the quality control is much better. They test the cont. Amp rating for each esc before shipping.

 

[okp]

hey folks, what's wrong with the APS ESC? I have been riding a 150A esc, works fine and no issues whatsoever with my GT2B. I got a new 8/12S ESC setup and (I still need to get the BEC) lately. I also know few people and they are quite happy with the electronics. In the past I had a big fall, from 30 to zero mph... difficult to incriminate any component (I was in Paris downtown so maybe lots of interferences) and as soon as I changed the nunchuck for the GT2B everything is smooth, or at least I didn't have this kind of issues (yet !).

maybe there was some faulty ESC or a batch of them but this could be already corrected? just asking as we are on an open forum that promotes quality first!

 

[torqueboards]

It's a hit or miss to be honest. Not to open up a flame war or anything. Glad your ESC is working fine for you. However, if you do research on the APS ESC's you can see the research and reviews yourself. That is my opinion

Many of my own customers have also had issues with their ESCs. My previous ESC's were from the same manufacturer.

I have nothing but bad news from the ESC's I got.. Some worked great and some died as soon as you turn them on. For quality control, you don't want to be selling any junk like that which is why I completely discontinued their products.

There are a ton others also if you look around. Sure, some work great. Sure, some don't work great at all. The 150A bigger ESC's seem to be a little more bulletproof but IMO they're garbage and not designed well. But this is my opinion. This is probably the reason why they sell the 150A for most of their kits. Also the motors tend to run hot.

Just FYI - Do what you want with it.

http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/showthread.php?46786-Alien-Power-systems-ESC-s

Dont expect much from these esc,s. ive tried two different models and niether lasted more than a handfull of runs.The 300a 16s version was never pushed near its limits and still smoked.They are a pain to arm and I dont think i ever really managed to get full throttle from it. At first glance they look well made but they areall show and no go.Mine were directly from flier and they are still using FC branded boards and jackets. The bottom side water jacket is basically dead weight. The board itself is way too thick to pass heat through and they use way too much thermal paste making it even less effective.Many places have tried selling these at on time or another and most of them eventually stopped selling them.There is also a thread on endless sphere where an alien unit was tested and it went up in smoke waaayy below its rated amps.

Well I bought one and what a F***ing mistake. I am so pissed off with this Alien ESC you have no idea. Not only could I not get the programming to work off the computer including downloading files right from brunos account direct, I bought the program box and it still will not work. No link from the transmitter, no programming from the box and with 2 hours in I am done. This was the last hope for a ESC that would work in my Phil Thomas boat that I have had for years and now I am done!! Have been into cars, heli's and boats and have come across some difficult times with ESC's but this is a total joke. All for sale on Ebay if anyone wants to give it a try that knows more than me!!

 

[BShady]

Wow I'm in total shock!:/ I honestly thought the alien were good that was the reason I bought one. I actually bought the flier which is where alien gets there's from (that's the rumors at least) and I had tons of issues with mines well.

1)it gets hot really fast!!!! Like I mean you can't hold your fingers for more then 5 seconds on the heatsink before it burns you!!
2)it sometimes acts as if the LVC or HVC is active which randonlmly doesn't let me go beyond 12mph! It goes fast and slow and reapets it self as if it's confused.
3)Arming could be annoying but you have to pull the throttle right after the first beep.

Besides for that it works Preety fine but was kinda a headache. If I can fix the heating issue that would be the best. I guess Ill try adding a bigger heatsink and maybe and fan or something.

 

[elkick]

You can salvage it by using a ubec and no longer using the built in bec. If your positive it's giving 0v.

Hate to say this, but I ran into the same problem as well, BEC isn't working anymore on the esc (sorry torque, my other comment seemed to be premature!).

Two questions:
- when using an external BEC, which connector do I have to use at the wiiceiver - is it the ESC2 connector or the one on top (and if it's the one on top which are the right pins to use)?
- how to make sure that the flier ESC is not delivering any V to the wiiceiver at all (avoiding damage to it), is there one of those tiny cables coming from the ESC I can cut to avoid that?

 

[torqueboards]

You can salvage it by using a ubec and no longer using the built in bec. If your positive it's giving 0v.

Hate to say this, but I ran into the same problem as well, BEC isn't working anymore on the esc (sorry torque, my other comment seemed to be premature!).

Two questions:
- when using an external BEC, which connector do I have to use at the wiiceiver - is it the ESC2 connector or the one on top (and if it's the one on top which are the right pins to use)?
- how to make sure that the flier ESC is not delivering any V to the wiiceiver at all (avoiding damage to it), is there one of those tiny cables coming from the ESC I can cut to avoid that?

Using an external BEC just plug in the 2 pin adapter into any of the Wiiceiver 3 pins - black wire on the left when facing it. The other 3 pin you can plug in your esc signal wire from the ESC. Take out and tape the positive lead (red) from the original BEC unit and you should be fine.

 

[Tartopom]

If you try the wiiceiver, please ride safe with motorcycle gears
I had a bad fall last week due to signal lost/interruptions.
The signal cutted while I was accelerating and due to the exponential curve, he board continued to accelerate during 2 sec (before the failsafe).
This has been enough on my dual 170kv setup to throw me on the ground and I saw my board crossing the street and finishing in a field of grass.
Hopefully I was wearing good protections, but definitely, the signal quality between the nunchuk and the wiiceiver is poor and subject to a lot of problem if you live in an environment prone to radio emissions.
Even your smartphone bluetooth and wifi can disturb the link between the wiiceiver and the nunchuck...
So, good idea on the bench, but not for me in real life :/

 

[elkick]

Using an external BEC just plug in the 2 pin adapter into any of the Wiiceiver 3 pins - black wire on the left when facing it. The other 3 pin you can plug in your esc signal wire from the ESC. Take out and tape the positive lead (red) from the original BEC unit and you should be fine.

Thanks, your help is really appreciated - I'll give it a try!

If you try the wiiceiver, please ride safe with motorcycle gears
I had a bad fall last week due to signal lost/interruptions.
The signal cutted while I was accelerating and due to the exponential curve, the board continued to accelerate during 2 sec (before the failsafe).

I noticed the same failure when I was using the original Kama receiver (dongle) and that gave me some headaches too, but replaced the Kama receiver with the dongle coming with a Logic3-Nunchuk. No failures anymore and I am driving quite a lot. Kept the Kama-handheld device though (works fine together with the Logic3-dongle), since it's binding process is superior.

 

[torqueboards]

Yeah issue seems to be with the Nyko Kama Receiver. Nice find on the Logic3 option.

 

[psychotiller]

I am still using 3 of the kamas and haven't had any significant issues with signal loss. I did have my dongle fall off mid ride in the riverbed one day though. I had to chase my board for about a mile. If it hadn't hit some drift wood and flipped over it would have been gone. Needless to say I have secured the dongle permanently.

 

[highfiving]

I've had a great experience with my APS Dual ESC 150A and Turnigy 6374 192kv on my mountain board. I did change my controller from the GT2S to a sweet Spectrum DX2E. Power and braking is much smoother all around with a potentiometer that doesnt go from 0-30mph like the GT2. I'd say your ESC is only as good as your controller because all my funky problems were solved with the DX2E. My APS ESC gets about half as warm as my motors but not warm enough to even soften the moldable plastic i used as an ESC mount. I'm 225 pounds and my board is about 25 pounds and I can run 20+ all day, I've even pulled my neighbor (200 extra) around on a lawnchair bungeed to a skateboard...uphill. I hope to keep having good luck since I just voided my warranty towing 450 pounds around! Lol


Turnigy 6374 kv192
Turnigy 5000 20C 10s (6+4s)
11x47 #25chain
UBEC 2-12s Alien Power System
Twin 150amp 2-12s HV ESC Alien Power System
"Instamorph" moldable plastic for ESC mount
10 gauge 1050 Strand ESC motor leads
10 gauge battery leads
100 amp battery disconnect switch
Momentary switch (for anti-spark)
Spectrum DX2E controller/receiver

 

[simonjook]

I have 3 boards, one with dual HK150s, one with a single EZRUN 150 and one with an APS dual 8S including APS motors.

The only one that gives any kind of trouble is the APS. It's never been smooth, Bruno always promises a fixes then can't remember what firmware the fix is in so I have to be the tester. In fact he seems to have no idea what features are in what firmwares and he simply has so many optional FWs presented in the programming software it would take a lifetime to work out what each has as features and bugs ... which is really annoying especially on a skateboard where a firmware bug can mean a faceplant. The APS has a horrible delay in throttle response apparently as a result of looking for sensors which aren't there in sensors mode... though the HKs manage to not have such a problem.

In fact the 8S isn't even an 8S because if you fill an 8S Lipo to 33.6V the ESC sees it as over voltage so 8S is a straight misleading name.

The HK150 ESCs have been reliable, fuss free and great brakes. The only issue I ever had was not advancing the timing enough when I first tried them resulting a loss of sync and a stack. The EZRUN is a little better again and I'll probably use these exclusively on the dual setup to replace this stupid APS 8S.

 

[torqueboards]

Yup... time and time again.. I do admit the 12S 150A option is a bit more reliable but the 8S options are horrible.