ESC CC ICE2 HV 120 - Gets really hot and auto shutdown/restart

[Erfan]

Hi guys

I got a ICE2 HV 120 on my Trex700e DFC, it's mounted in side the canopy. I don't use the governor and instead use a 85..78..85 throttle curve.
I have read that this esc needs at least 65% throttle in order to work properly, else it would get over heated. First time I found that out the hard way but managed to land safely.

But it still gets over heated and restarts when doing mild 3D after some heavy pitch/aileron/elevator stick movements (hard stops and turns).
I suspect it gets to little power and it restarts when it gets to hot. Could that be the reason?

Unfortunately I updated the esc software and forgot to reset the logs so after the last restart and crash I could not download any logs to see any temps or odd behavior.
But is my guess right? Does it need more juice, perhaps a higher curve (95..90..95) or (100..95..100)?

Perhaps it's just better to run it in governor mode instead with fixed rpm's?

The reason I have that low throttle curve is because I want to have more flight time and that works good on my t450, but I have heard that the same logic cannot be applied on 700 size heli because of the power/force needed when have pitch/aileron/elevator stick movements are applied, is that correct?

I guess moving it outside the canopy is a good idea (have done that already) and to use the governor instead with a low rpm for normal flight and some higher ones for any 3D flight?

Also just to make sure I have understood it all correctly, using the governor and having low rpm would not over heat the esc since it will always get enough juice to to what it needs to do even though the actual rpm is low, is that a correct assumption?

Best regards
/Erfan

 

[Erfan]

Btw, my esc settings.

 

[Lee]

First thing is the current limiting should be set to "Insensitive "
ESC in the airflow is good as you said you have done.
Whether its Fixed end points or Gov, Low head speed will be straining the ESC.
If you want lower head speed for more flight time, drop down a tooth or two on the pinion.

 

[Erfan]

Hi Lee

I will change to "insensitive" and about the head speed I almost guessed that is most likely the problem, I will set correct ones recommended by Castle/Align. It's nice to get that confirmed here as well...
Hopefully that should do it!

Thx!

 

[Erfan]

I'm pretty sure it should not matter but I will ask anyway, do you need different governor settings if you switch between 690 and 700 blades?
The diff is so small that it should not matter but it would be nice to know for sure.

From what I understood changing governor settings is only needed when changing main gear or motor pinion, right?

 

[Lee]

Very minimal change. The motor/ESC would have to work slightly harder to keep the same head speed for the 700s.
But I would say (guesstimate) negligible.

 

[pvolcko]

You may want to try "Low" setting for the motor timing parameter. The higher that setting the more current the motor will potentially be drawing. Maybe also dial the PWM rate to 8khz instead of 12khz. The higher this setting the more heat the ESC will build up.

Your throttle curve shouldn't be too bad. You may want to make sure you aren't running a lot of collective pitch. If you're running a standard 12 degrees or so, but only going up to 85% on the throttle curve, you may be bogging which will cause a high load on the motor and due to the 85% throttle will result in heating in the ESC. Maybe dial back to 11 or 10 degrees of collective pitch, maybe even less (no less than 8 degrees I'd say). Alternatively, increase your throttle curve at the ends, so run something like 100-80-70-80-100. This will keep you in the low throttle for hovering and most sport flying, but give you full power on hard collective and should result in lower heat dumping in the ESC due to power chopping during those high load situations.

Only try one thing at a time. Do a test flight and see if it improves. Check logs after each change. Try to fly the same in each test flight. Make sure to do one flight with no changes first to get a baseline for comparison.

 

[Erfan]

Update on this issue:

It turns out that the esc was most likely a bad example, it completely died yesterday on the third flight of the day. And it could not have been a heating issue since it was now mounted outside in the back on top of the frame were it gets a lot of air. I even checked with a heat gun and I could easily put my fingers on it without getting burned.

I also noticed something got loose inside of it, you could hear something rumbling around inside if you shook it a little, hopefully CastleCreations will send me a new one since this one was only used exactly 31 times, just couple of months old.

But it has cost me too much money on repairs, at least yesterday I could do a more controlled crash and broke the skids only, the first time it happened I could not save it and cost me a lot in repairs...