ESC Repairs

[Rapidrory]

Hi guys,

This is something I've been considering for a while, and have done a fair bit of for people in the past, but thought I'd open it up as a general service.

A lot of the time when electronics die, as long as ALL the magic smoke hasn't come out, it's often possible to repair to fully working condition again.

If anyone has dead ESCs, then I'm offering to have a look at it free of charge and see if I can fix it.

If it's beyond economical repair then you can either have it back or I'll keep it and use the working parts to help repair others.
If I can fix it, I'll charge for replacement components, shipping, and a small fee for my time, and you get a working ESC back at a much lower cost than buying a new one. Pricing will have to be on a case by case basis given the range of ESCs and possible failures.

Happy to look at anything from antweight to heavyweight ESCs, brushless or brushed.

I'll be at Burgess this weekend, so if you've got anything you want looking at, bring it along and I'll take it on to have a look at.

[blazerbotics]

I've got a Roboteq AX2550 your welcome to have a look at

[Rapidrory]

I can give it a look, but bear in mind the more fancy and intelligent the ESC, the less likely it is to be repairable :L

[adz600]

when mine died I repaired it once then sent it to America the second time, they are a pain to strip due to lots of small fets but it was just a disconnected capacitor they are not very well supported

[adz600]

good luck

[adz600]

fyi

[Rapidrory]

Yeah, I've had a look at Roboteqs breifly before... A lot of fancy bits to break :L

[maddox10]

PM send

[blazerbotics]

I also have a 4QD300, nothing fancy in those!

[Rapidrory]

Ok, so now have around 15 ESCs to repair after this weekend. Since that'll keep me busy for a while, I'm going to stop accepting new repairs until I've gone through this batch, else I'll never keep up! :P

Those of you who gave me an ESC to look at, I'll give you a diagnostic and whether it's economically repairable or not (I'm not replacing every component ). If it's a small repair and I've already got the parts in stock then I'll just repair it and give you a final quote.

If I need to buy replacement parts, I'll give you a quote for the parts, and you'll need to pay up front for components. As a warning, although I'll try my best to ensure this isn't the case, it may be possible that if you buy replacement parts, the ESC may turn out to still not be repairable. In most cases component costs are unlikely to be more than £20 however. Once an ESC is repaired, I'll give a final quote for my time and any components from stock. If I can't fix it then I won't charge for time or stock components.

[Rapidrory]

Ok, steadily working through the pile atm. Was thinking of writing up a technical review of each type of controller so people can compare different ESCs more accurately and get a better idea of how they work. I wouldn't name and shame who the controller belonged to (unless people want to be credited for supplying their controllers?)

[typhoon_driver]

Go for it.

Found an old victor the other day I'll need to get you to look at. Fets touched and shorted the poor bugger out. Haven't looked at it since but seems a shame to let it go un used.

[Rapidrory]

Noo, I've already got a pile of old Victors with dead FETs that I can't do anything with; the type of solder they use doesn't seem to melt unless you blast it at 400 degrees for ages, by which point half the other components are fried . Also, both Victors I have have dead FET drivers, but they have no usable part number on so can't find the part to buy more. I may one day work out how to fix them, but they are nasty things to work on.

First review is up; a tare down of the TZ85 http://crcontrollerreviews.blogspot....tear-down.html

Hopefully get around to doing more at some point, but there's a fair chance it'll all fade into obscurity rather quickly :L

[overkill]

Those Victor controllers have massive heat-sucking ground planes and possibly high temperature lead-free solder. I cut off all the FETs so each pin can be attacked separately with an iron from the top and a desoldering tool from below. I think I had to go up to about 400 Deg. but the pins get sucked out quickly with two heat sources.

[Yatcatcher]

Thank you Rapid, really enjoyed your article....