Under what circumstances does the ESC burn? ——Hot topics and hardware failure analysis in the past 10 days
Recently, there has been a significant increase in discussions about "burned out ESCs" in the community of drone and model aircraft enthusiasts. This article combines the hot topics on the Internet in the past 10 days to analyze the common causes of ESC burnout and provides structured data for reference.
1. Top 5 hot topics in the past 10 days
| Ranking | topic | amount of discussion | Main platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drone high temperature operation failure | 12,800+ | Zhihu/Bilibili |
| 2 | Analysis of causes of smoke from ESCs | 9,500+ | RCGroups/Tieba |
| 3 | Motor matching calculation tool | 7,200+ | GitHub/YouTube |
| 4 | Low-cost ESC burnout case | 6,800+ | Taobao comment area |
| 5 | Waterproof ESC actual test rollover | 5,300+ | Douyin/Kuaishou |
2. 7 main reasons for ESC burnout
According to the measured data from the engineer community EEVBlog and FPV professional forum:
| Reason | Proportion | Typical symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| Overload operation | 34% | ESC smokes after getting hot |
| Power supply reverse connection | 22% | Instantly explode the capacitor |
| Motor short circuit | 18% | Accompanied by abnormal noise from the motor |
| Poor heat dissipation | 12% | High temperature protection failure |
| Firmware error | 8% | Failure at startup |
| Water corrosion | 5% | Signs of rust are obvious |
| Component aging | 1% | Corrupted after repeated reboots |
3. Practical suggestions to prevent ESC burnout
1.Current matching principle: The continuous current of the ESC should be greater than 20% of the maximum current of the motor. For example:
| Motor model | Maximum current(A) | Minimum ESC configuration |
|---|---|---|
| T-Motor F40 | 35A | 45A ESC |
| EMAX ECO 2306 | 28A | 35A ESC |
2.Thermal management: When the ambient temperature exceeds 35℃, the power needs to be derated by 15% for every 10℃ increase.
3.Wire selection: The longest wire for 16AWG should not exceed 15cm, and for 14AWG should not exceed 20cm to avoid excessive voltage drop.
4. Analysis of the latest burning cases
The popular YouTube video "Why My ESC Exploded" on June 15 revealed a new failure mode:
| test items | normal value | fault value |
|---|---|---|
| PWM signal frequency | 50Hz | 120Hz(abnormal) |
| MOS tube temperature | <80℃ | Instantly reaches 147℃ |
This case shows that some flight control software may accidentally increase the PWM frequency after updating, causing the ESC switching loss to increase significantly.
5. Emergency treatment after the ESC burns out
1. Disconnect the power supply immediately to prevent the lithium battery from catching fire.
2. Check whether the faulty ESC is short-circuited
3. Use a thermal imager to locate hot spots (if any)
4. Record the throttle percentage and flight mode at the time of failure
5. Keep burned components for after-sales testing
Reminder of recent hot events: Many manufacturers have recalled specific batches of ESCs. Users are advised to log in.Official websiteCheck the serial number.
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