losi cap popped and caught fire,

[james v]

Just wondering if anyone has any idea why this happened, I brought the esc 2nd hand wired it up as you do, (correctly)

I've run it 2 or 3 times in the park with my 6 year old with no problems, running 6.5 losi motor and gm 5000mah in a associated T4 ,
I did notice the wires would feel very hot, hotter than I've noticed before,

I have another losi combo 6.5 in my cat and I have not noticed the heat.

[Cardnim]

Your capacitor has blown up.
Prime suspect for this happening is a voltage drop - as the voltage drops (or even a big 'ripple' drop would do it) then the capacitor tries to fill the gap and cant as it doesnt have enough in it, then they go pop.

How long did you run the thing for before this happened?

[james v]

No more than 20 seconds,

[Cardnim]

And the wires got noticably hot just after 20 seconds?!

[james v]

It had not been used over night, and with in seconds it went up,

All The wires were very hot after every run. But near untouchable when it caught fire, the flames went out in seconds and melted the chassis slightly,

[Cardnim]

20 seconds is too short a time for that amount of heat to have built up in the wires just from resistance or normal running.
However, its about right for a short circuit explosion.

So Im wondering did the extreme temps in your earlier runs melt the solder, and then on the final 20 sec run, the wires were already shorting out across the capacitor -- give it one blip of amps on the throttle and bang. Just a thought.

As for what is causing the heat in your wires in the first place... not sure.
Bad soldered joints, bad/broken wires (this increases resistance and therefore heat).
Using a capacitor that wasnt rated for the battery voltage/amps draw you were putting through it?

Not sure m8. Sorry.

[mark christopher]

Motor fault......

[james v]

Never considered the motor bring at fault, but i have since run the motor in my cat. With no issues,