General Whoops! old age strikes

[treff]

Is it possible to short out a brushless motor? Old age struck today when I was changing out a plug on the esc. For the life of me I do not know
how I solder it the wrong way. red to negative, black to posotive. Old age? Anyway plugged it in and of course things got hot very, very quickly.
I disconnected in a couple of seconds but by this time the battery was red hot. I dropped it into a bowl of water. The esc also went into melt
down but would this have damaged the motor windings? I think the receiver survived so was lucky there LOL. If I had a brain I would be positively
dangerous LOL. And they trust me to fly helicopters. Cheers

 

[stokke]

If your soldering caused the ground to connect to power and vice verca, I guess that's why it fried

 

[treff]

I know why it fried. That's not the question. The question is can you short out a brushless motor?

 

[stokke]

You shouldn't take my word on it, but I don't think so. As when you plug around wires on a motor, the only thing that happens is that it rotates the other way...? But, maybe the ESC is able to kill off a motor when it's connected the wrong way.

What ESC do you have? I know some ESCs have polarity protection.

 

[coolgabsi]

you can test the brushless motor. It shouldnt be dead. I dont think the ESC will pass through any current to it til lyou tell it to, and then too only if it was woring. An ESC with opposite polarities probably didnt know what to do but just melt haha

sorry to hear about this though . Check the Resistance across the three windings. Make sure all are still connected. correctly. What I do is sometimes, just hold two of the wires of the motor together in my hand and spin it, and then try again without them touching each other. You will feel a dofference in the smoothness.

try this on all combinations. That will atleast tell you if the windings are still there.

usually a burnt winding is visible they start to burn at the point they exit the motor. So if that ok.. I think it SHOULD be ok

check the windings (three wirs) continuity wit hthe outer shell. They should not have any continuity.. thats a short so check all that

It happens

 

[EyeStation]

Is it possible to short out a brushless motor? If I had a brain I would be positively
dangerous LOL.

Make sure your Positively Dangerous mind is connected to the Red terminal.
I cannot see the windings of the motor shorting out. Most likely what you have fried is the BEC and some of the first stage FETs from excess reverse bias voltages. I don't think you would have had current going out to your motor, unless you did feel the motor as hot as the battery or ESC. If the motor was hot, smell for a "Magic Marker" scent from the motor case. That would be a sure sign that your varnish insulation has burned from the windings. That would be bad. A quick low resistance check can be done between the three leads to look for imbalances or even an open winding.

- - - Updated - - -

"Gaba beat me that time!!"

 

[treff]

Thanks guys for the info. I'm having my brain clean and replaced tomorrow LOL. I resoldered the plug the right way around and tried again. The bec works okay every thing lighting up Rx, Gyro but when I plugged the motor in and
tried again the ESC went into melt down, things got very hot. So I guess that's for the bin. It's a Turnigy Trust 55amp so no real loss. I was thinking of getting the YEP ESC or an Align, not to sure both about the same price. I
Just did not want to plug it into the motor and have a dead short again. My! those batteries can get hot very quickly on dead short. Strangely after dropping the battery in a bucket of water to cool it down I put it on my charger and there
seems to be no damage, Lucky!. Thanks again.

 

[Slobberdog]

I done the same thing on the first battery I soldered, had to buy a new esc and I had not turned the heli on at that point.

 

[john2012]

Man if you did the wires the wrong way like i did to a 400 class yes you will burn all up that is what every thing is toast that's what happens

 

[Tony]

Somewhere on this forum I have a writeup about how to completely test a brushless motor. I can't find that thing to save my life lol. But, as stated above, you shouldn't have any issue with your motor. The FET's should have blew thus saving your motor. Sucks though, we have all done this before though.