Problem with ESC/remote on an old board

[dividead]

If this is not the best place for this post please help me by moving it.

I got an old dual motor, dual esc longboard with the batteries on the board and remote dead, probably for a while.

The board’s battery was a 10S5P. I got a new one which was at 42V fully charged. I also connected a new battery to the remote.

I’m not getting any input from the remote to the board. I’m hoping someone who is familiar with the ESC / remote models in the pictures can help me out.

What I tried:

1. When I start the remote the left LED blinks once, stops and the buzzer beeps once, pauses, beeps 4 times, pause, 4 times again and so on. This happens regardless if the board is on or not.

If I press the pair button on the remote the beeping stops for a second, it beeps 3 times and then starts beeping 4 times again. If I start it with the pair button pressed it beeps continuously until I stop it. The remote also had a wire soldered between the ends of what I assume is the antenna. It seemed DIYed so I removed it to see if anything changed, it didn’t and I can put it back if it’s necessary. The old battery was also soldered poorly to the back of the board, it didn’t look good, which is why I thought it might be broken. The remote is still open so that I can hold a finger on the buzzer while I try the remote because it’s absurdly loud.

2.I found an identical looking remote on ali, it was out of stock but the same post had another remote for about 14$ so I though I might as well try it. When I press the pairing button on this one the power LED just keeps staying green. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to change only if it connects and the board is just not in pairing mode or if it’s just somehow incompatible or if something is wrong with it.

3. When I power on the board I get some a very light click from both motors, LED1 on the ESC stays on for about a second and then it starts blinking about once a second. There’s also an LED2 next to a button, this one never lights up.
   The LED1 on the second ESC also seem to be blinking every second though one of them is ever so slightly faster than the other if that is relevant.

Long pressing the power button for 4-5s, after turning it on, seems to make LED1 light up 2 times extremely quickly after which it keeps blinking every second like before though it looks more like a reset and I’m not able to pair after this. If the power button had any integrated LEDs, they’re not working.

I also tried pushing the button on the ESC, it didn’t seem to change anything. I did not manage to connect with either remote.

There’s also a weird voltmeter on the battery cover which seems to work fine when the board is on but when it’s off, the voltmeter buzzes, the screen stays on and the V value jumps around though I can measure battery V just fine on its connection even when the board is off. I’m not sure what that’s about so I disconnected it for now.

4.I’d rather not have to buy a new a new ESC if I didn’t have to and I know nothing about the ESC or the motor specs.

[Pecos]

I think those old small remotes have a way to pair them up but i can’t remember the exact process. Doesn’t help that the internals on the one i have doesn’t match up with what you pictured - green pcb and a paperclip hole to a pairing button. I have since retired mine because of twitchy pots and better options.

Seems like the original remote may not be the original? I’ve never had to re-pair them except when changing the board even when replacing the batt, but again it has been a while and im sure im just remembering incorrectly or incompletely.

Some of the old escs could go into a pairing mof by multiple pressing the power button, like five times and it does pairing, 6 times does motor detection, 7 times etc. Have you tried turning it on with. Might be a good time to take notes about the different methods of activating the esc.

I do recommend putting the voltage meter back on as it may be used to provide some feedback for the state of the esc - though probably an outside chance of that it but i can hope

[Skidmark]

I have a bit of experience with remotes. I’ve designed my own shells and used the guts from off-the-shelf remotes.

@pecos is right too, most ESCs use the power button for pairing.
Usually click and hold the power button till some LEDs starts blinking.
Remember to turn the board on first, and have both remotes off.
Power the board, then hold the board power button till the LEDs do something (rapid flashing usually), then turn on the remote you want to pair and put it in Paring mode. From what I can find, the new remote you got should be LingYi, so it should be able to pair.

From your pics it looks like 2 single ESCs stacked (master and slave maybe).
Instead of a Dual ESC. So it’s possible that the bottom one is the Master and that is the one you need to pair with.
Also, is there an external antenna? I cant tell from the pics. I see a PCB antenna on top there, but I would imagine there is an external one too, maybe coming off the bottom ESC.
It’s 2 of these ESCs stacked:

Anyway, there is really only 1 important thing in choosing a replacement remote, and that’s the RC Protocol it uses. In E-skate there are a few, but the 2 most used by manufacturers are; LingYi Remotes, and HobbyWing Remotes.
It’s hard to find that info when buying a remote tho, so you kinda have a 50/50 chance of getting one that works.
It looks like your ESC might be an older LingYi. The white PCB is indicative of those ESCs. You can buy these pretty cheap all day long.

I’ve found that this LingYi remote works with my Propel Endeavor right out of the box. It uses the LingYi protocol (this same remote goes by other name and brands too)
https://a.co/d/15r2sqq

Also. avoid FlipSky remotes, they have their own receiver and RC protocol, so none of those remotes will work without mods.

Hopefully some of this info will help…

[dividead]

I don’t know if it’s original or not. The pairing button on the old remote is just above and to the left of the on/off switch which is the one at the bottom and it’s slightly recessed when the remote is one piece. The new one has a smaller pairing hole on the back.

Multiple presses on the board power button don’t seem to do anything but I’m also starting to question if the cabling for the power button is ok as it looks like someone might have worked on it. It also seems to be two stage, there seems to be a click in the middle and one at the bottom. No that it seems does anything to do anythign diffrently depending on how much you press it and the board starts as soon as it’s lightly pressed.

From the video provided for the new remote, the ESC goes into pairing mode by pressing the power button for 4s after it’s already ON. I’ve also found this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWkZInF4JHg with seemingly the same remote being paired with a different board by pressing a button on the ESC which I’ve tried doing on my ESC but I did not get a pair.

The multiple presses didn’t seem to do anythig. How could I tell it’s doing motor detection, would it rotate them or just beep?
I’ve tried a few times with the voltage meter connected, I will try with some of the ideas new ideas with it connected as well.

[dividead]

The ESC that is at the bottom seems to have a lot of components missing so I think that’s the slave.

I can’t find anything that looks like an antenna on the ESC. I would try connecting one but I don’t see any obvious place for it where one would have been previously connected and disconnected for whatever reason. Does it usually just get soldered to the end of the snake like antenna on the board?

I’ve seen similar ESCs, to the ones on my board, for cheap but they’re rated for 430W and I think these motors are quite a bit more powerful than that, though I can’t say that I know they are.

This is a cheaper one I’ve found, that is rated for 1650W. Though it could just be that the motors available there are 1650W as the ESC looks exactly like this one in the 2nd link which is rated for 430W.

https://shorturl.at/lRpkC

https://shorturl.at/zycdu

From the way it looks alone, is there a chance that the ESCs that are on my board can deliver a lot more power than these and if they do what would happen if I use the new weaker one? Would it just keep delivering the most power it can or would it cut off, how does that work?

[Pecos]

If there is a button on the board that is going to be what you want to press to get it to pair. Are you certain that the new remote is the correct rc protocol? If it’s not it won’t work. If the old remote isn’t working and the new one doesn’t like the configuration youll be stuck trying the correct method without any results or indication. Do you know the brand of esc or have you been able to find the original seller or listing for it? Long shot but if you can it might narrow down your search.

Might have to buy three remotes for all three protocols and just return the ones that don’t work. Starting to get into the “just get a dv4s” price and frustration range as it’s a known working solution.

You may be able to find something cheaper but i don’t know how to navigate all the budget or no name adds to get something right the first go round.

If you do get an esc/remote combo to swap out it will just bottle neck at whatever rating it is so 1400w will likely work and ride fine - your battery will do the best it can but i don’t know the output rating of the pack you have - if it’s marked you should take a pic of the specs. You want to get an esc that is only going to take what the battery can actually provide. Whatever wattage the esc is, divide that by the battery voltage (nominal so 3.6v a cell) and that gives you the amperage target roughly.

[SternWake]

I’m pretty sure both my unpotted lingyi’s , single and double, had a little white button on the ESC itself that i assumed was for pairing. I cant find them, or pics of them though.

If esc replacing, there are hub motor and belt driven versions.

[dividead]

I just saw the new remote selling along with my old remote in the same listing, the old model was out of stock so I thought I might as well try the new one. Based on that and what Skidmark said I’d guess they are compatible and since it’s unlikely both remotes are bad I’m either not getting the ESC into pairing mode or it has a problem but I don’t know, maybe I’m competently wrong. I also find the beeping of the old remote particularly confusing.

Since I’ve never had to deal with a VESC, not that I had to deal with an ESC beyond using a board with one, I’m not sure I’d find that less frustrating or at least less time consuming but I think I’d buy a complete solution with and included remote before I’d buy two more remotes.

The battery is definitely better than what the board had as new so it would be a non issue with this ESC but I’ll have to ask to find out how many W it can handle. I’m also wondering if it’s possible for the old ESCs to be more powerful than the newer extremely similar looking ones I’ve seen that seem to all be rated for 430W. The biggest difference I can find between them is that the old ESCs from my board seem to have a thicker aluminium plate attached to the bottom board of each ESC.

@SternWake The only button I could find is the goldish one in the square metal, to the left of the red cables connector in the first ESC photo. Did your have to do some weird sequence to enter pairing mode or would you just press it when the board was ON?
I’m not sure what’s different but I saw that most sellers have versions for hub and belt motors.

[SternWake]

I did not any issues with my lingyi where I had to even try and pair it.

My lingyi was the dual hub motor one in your second ali link It was referred to as the ebaY Lingyi in the old builders forum. One could bridge/unbridge somesolder joints and choose 6,7, or 10s.

I installed this ESC, after a 10s Puaida ESC(made by lingyi) started randomly disconnecring from the remote.

Well I installed it after a lot of frustration by failing to get a donated VESC to work properly.

The ebay lingyi had about 15% less torque with same motors and battery than the Puaida ESC, but slightly stronger brakes. Overall pretty reliable. I put ~2k miles on it.
It got submerged. I believe one listing said 12 amps per motor but did not specify if this was phase or battery amps.
12 amps at 36v =432 watts.
Never had to try and pair it. Just worked.

I did have 4 7S escs from super low $$ prebuilt junk. JKing boards, and one anzo.

The anzo remote was pure lingyi, single drive. It failed, seemed to lose 1/3 of its power. Had a 7s single drive from a JKing. Clear potted esc said aladdin, probably made by lingyi. It replaced the failed Lingyi and the weak singledrive 7s board was fully functional again.

Had a different dual hub motor jking. 7 ESC. Remote got wet and failed months later.
Tried to pair other JKing remote, and other lingyis too. Button holding and pressing and hold and all combinations, all methods, and it failed to pair.
Retired 7s everything.

After submersion of ebay lingyi, I tried to get Vesc to work again and failed again.

I busted out old 10 Puaida ESC, which had been suffering random remote disconnects when I retired it. It required I coast to a stop, and cycle the power button to continue. Once, it disconnected at full throttle when i was doing 25mph, and stayed full throttle for 2 seconds, as a stop sign quickly approached.

But i needed to roll again, and returned it to service, but without a power button. I use roll to start, and rely on auto off. It Has not suffered a single disconnect in about 650miles. Sometimes roll to start does not work, and i have to remove and return the loopkey.

This Puaida esc says 12 battery amps per motor and use no less than a 30 amp battery.

motor Wattage ratings are a bit misleading, as i believe they are just some weirdly chosen number as to how much power it can handle for x amount of time in x ambient temps, before overheating.
It is not saying how powerful the motor is, to the best of my knowledge.

My Puaida ESC definitely had more torque than the ebay lingyi on the same baTtery, same motors.
A better battery with less voltage drop returned much of that torque, but that got submerged.

Am building a 10s2p battery with BAK45d tabless cells, and my 83mm hub motors are down to 77mm and have gotten torque ier, the smaller they get.