I’m trying to figure out how this happened. One month ago I purchased a Mini FOC Plus because of the form factor (very small), and that it claims to handle up to 80 amps continuously. I’ve put maybe 35-40 miles on it and run it using a 10S8P lithium ion set at 50/-20 amps battery. It is mounted under the board without an enclosure using Velcro so it gets plenty of cooling.
Yesterday, in the middle of a ride it suddenly stopped working. I saw it sparking up a bit. I took the cover off and it’s totally burned up inside. Upon close inspection I noticed that the wire insulation near the large cylindrical component (sorry don’t know its name) had come apart. Could that have possibly caused this?
Thanks for your reply Zach! I mounted it that way because it came encased as shown in this photo. I am very careful not to ride over water but I can understand how metal particles could work their way in there since it’s not inside an enclosure. You don’t think the rip on the insulation near the connector could be a cause? So I should keep an ESC like this in an enclosure?
A rip would indicate it’s come in contact with material and that could damage the ESC or short parts out. You ALWAYS want your electronics completely shielded, the highest IP rating you can get
I’m about to put this into a build, what can I do to prevent this from happening? Should I seal all the tiny holes with hot glue and put more heat shrink on the power cable? …any other suggestions?
The rip looks intentional from the factory to connect the capacitor (the cylindrical thing on the wires) and is on the opposite side from where it would be if it was caused by abrasion.
If the capacitor became disconnected it could definitely cause that.
The thing about conformal coating is it’s expressly designed for PCBs which means you can solder through it later if you need to repair or rework something. Epoxy is forever.
Considering two of these in my next street build. Glad to hear that you were able to get such good customer support and it sounds like a replacement unit?
Yes, they were very cool and sent me a replacement free of charge. However, porch pirates stole it when it was delivered. I had such a positive experience that I went ahead and ordered their 75/100 unit.
