SkyRC Toro 120A incorrectly going to voltage cut off
 

Hi,

I bought a SkyRC Toro 120A a few weeks back and am hitting an occasional problem with it. I'm running it with a 2S LiPo and 7.5T motor.

On a few occasions, on a freshly charged battery, the car will stop after just a couple of corners - no power to the motor. The ESC emits a "beep beep" and the power light flashes red. My receiver still has power and the steering works. If I turn it off and back on again, the problem is cured and I can run my race without the problem recurring.

It looks to me like it's gone into voltage cut off. I'm wondering if with a freshly charged pack in it, at peak voltage, it's incorrectly identifying it as a 3S lipo. Then as I move off, and the voltage drops a bit, it's thinking the battery is flat so it goes into voltage cut off.

Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a fix? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi,

Do you have the setting box for the speedo?

If you do see what the voltage cut off is set to.

With the box / software you can manually set the voltage cut off.

MiCk B. :-)

Thanks Mick B. I use the WiFi link and iOS app. At the moment the voltage cut off is set to "Auto" so the ESC should figure out what is the appropriate voltage for the pack. I guess I can try setting this manually, say to 6.4V for my 2S pack and see how that goes.

Good stuff.

Always the issue with auto settings, don't know what they are.

MiCk B. :-)

did this cure your problem as I am having the same problem. have tried changing voltage cutoff to 6.4v but still occurs,

cheers

Paddy

Standard setting is 3.2v/cell. I always switch to 3.0v or off and make sure I don't run it flat

No fix, but a bit more information
 

Hi Paddy,

Hmm, this is an interesting one!

At one point this issue was cropping up quite frequently - perhaps every third time I turned the ESC on. As it was getting on my nerves, I took a video of the problem and then raised the issue with SkyRC. I have shared the video via OneDrive here -> https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ag6zQoOC_SD6goh5UDVcB9nmEO9ddA

When the problem occurs, I can overcome it by pushing the throttle stick forward, then back to neutral. Then "normal service" is resumed. Why, I don't know. This is what I did at the end of the video I've shared. Another way of overcoming it is to turn my transmitter off and back on.

SkyRC said that the "beep, beep, beep, pause, beep, beep, beep ..." I was getting, together with the red flashing LED means a motor overheat (NOT the battery being below voltage as I had originally thought). But the motor was always cold (ESC just turned on and car not used for a while) so this explanation didn't really make sense. SkyRC then said it could be a fault with the motor (most probably the sensor) or the ESC itself. They said I could identify whether it was a problem with the ESC or with the motor by pulling out the motor sensor lead the next time it happens. If the beeping continues, it's a fault with the ESC. If not, it's a fault with the motor. I suppose it could also be a fault with the sensor lead or connections.

Oddly, I've only had it happen once since then, and I was on my way to the start line of a race, so I didn't have time to mess around and follow SkyRC's suggested diagnosis steps.

It happened a lot back in September, but I think only once since. Interestingly, the last time it happened, I was using a different motor and sensor lead from the previous times. That kind of suggests it's an issue with the ESC.

Anyway, it happens so infrequently, and can be overcome by a quick blip of the throttle, so I've just "let it be".

I found the support at SkyRC particularly poor. It was difficult to get through to anyone that knew anything and could communicate in clear English. And also their support chat line doesn't overlap very well with daylight hours in the UK. They go off line at 11am, regardless of whether you are in the middle of a chat or not. They seem to service your chat about once every 20 minutes, so a conversation runs for hours. Very frustrating! Eventually I managed to convince them to email me instead. If you pm me your email address I can forward to you what they said on this.

Personally I think there's probably a bug in the ESC's firmware somewhere, but it requires very specific conditions to be present to show itself.

How often are you seeing this issue and does it behave as I have described above? If you have it happening a lot, it will be much easier to diagnose. I would try their suggestion of pulling the sensor lead. I would also try a firmware upgrade if you can. I'm not sure how to do that as I have the WiFi adaptor for mine, not the SkyRC programme card or ESCLink cable.

Sorry for the long and detailed!

Thanks,
James

Sounds familiar. Will look into it more and see if it reoccurs. I will pull the sensor cable next time and see what happens.
The fault cleared itself on its own once but usually requires a power down to sort it.
It was first time out with it last night so will have to see if it happens again next meeting now my settings have been adjusted. Will let you know cheers

This is my problem, https://youtu.be/Djg6L74rdmY
same as yours but blipping throttle doesn't solve it.

ok, new problem arisen,

Tried to power up the esc today and it wouldnt work, just had a green flashing light on it and the fan spinning.
had to recalibrate to get it to work, after that it worked fine until I powered down and back up again, lo and behold green flashing light again and had to recalibrate again.
It seems I have to recalibrate the esc everytime I power it up.

also noticed that the throttle dead band adjusts itself from the default 80us to 60us everytime I recalibrate which is weird.

here is a video link of the problem https://youtu.be/FGu22VtYa5g

any ideas people?

I think I may have solved the problem,

Program box wouldn't connect to the ESC via PC, skylink software requested a program box software update and all seems to be working again now.

ESC is keeping calibration, settings are staying stable, hopefully as is well now.

it all points to my program box having an older firmware version than my new ESC.

hope this is of help to anyone else out there having problems, will report back if I get any other issues.

Cheers

Yay!! I've been interested in this thread. Glad you fixed it.

Refresh the firmware on both the speedo and the program box, and you should be good. Then re-calibrate.

Have run two batterys on the street outside and melted a pair of tyres and all seems well. Hopefully thats it sorted now.
Cheers

Normal service has resumed, esc randomly going into lockout with red flashing light and beeping, sometimes requires power off and on, other times after 20 or seconds if starts working again and will do a whole heat or race without failing.

in for repair so watch this space

Any updates on this issue? It's happening to me as well now..:mad:
I will try getting in touch with Skyrc customer support chat..
I'd say it should be pretty easy understanding what the beep - beep - beep means; the error messages coding should be unmistakable.

Are these ESC's from the UK or abroad.

I bought mine from a uk store.

I'm watching this thread with interest.

I too have a toro 120 speedo, it also loses the transmitter calibration each time it's powered down, meaning I have to go through the initial setup every time when connecting a new lipo. PITA.

Have a chat with the customer care guys at Schumacher, they are paper helpful.

Right, ok, I had a few attempts with SkyRC customer support chat and can confirm it's pretty awful.. exactly as described in one of the previous posts.

I actually asked them a very simple question: what does the triple beep error message mean?

I know that the battery cutoff is a double beep, but no idea about the triple. To be fair they should include this info in the manual..

Anyway I re-updated the firmware and set the cutoff to manual (6.4V).
Let's see it happens again....

has anyone tried turning the lipo cut off off, i know there were issues like this with the speed passion ESC's. If your racing for 5 mins a time and not bashing there isnt really any chance of it dropping to a dangerous level

I thought about it, and could give it a go.
Still I can't help but noticing that the triple beep is not the lipo cut off warning....

isn't that no control signals from receiver? I'll have to check.

Try re-flashing the firmware if is does strange things. I've had this on a friends, re-flashed it (and their program box), and it worked fine afterwards.

Yes I've done it.. first real check next club race on friday...
Will let you know!

Well after 30 minutes of pissing about on the web and the SkyRC website (which is crap) trying to find the skylink software, I eventually found a thread on RCTech that mentioned 'g force link' software for the SkyRc ESC.

I had to dust off my last and only windows laptop that had sat unused for 7 years to install the software, but it worked like a charm - instantly recognising my ESC was plugged in (I already had the USB link module) and recognising that new firmware was available.

After the install I tried several power on-off cycles & it would appear that the calibration was retained. I'll be trying it in anger on Sunday, so fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I've ordered the wifi module so I can do this from my phone. I also found the program box which can do quite a lot of stuff I had no idea about!

Interesting..
Could you please post a link?
What software is this? If I remember correctly the latest skyrc software is 2.07 for the speedo and 2.06 for the programming box.
Cheers

http://www.gforce-hobby.jp/download-...are/index.html

It remains to be seen if it's the correct software, but it looked like it was communicating with my ESC & recognised that it was plugged in straight away - going straight to the FW update.

And the supporting documentation mentions the TS120 / TS120 aluminium & TS160 explicitly

They are the same unit as skyrc TS120. rc concept and corrally also.

2.07 is what I have on the ESC according to the software :thumbsup:

Yep, same esc, same software..:thumbsup:

I thought I'd provide an update since I started this thread.

Since I initially raised the issue, it seems to have happened very few times. It's a real freak occurrence, but very annoying when it does happen. The Sky RC helpdesk had said the bleep code indicates a problem with the motor sensor reading. Therefore either a problem with the motor, the sensor lead or the ESC. But I think the fact that there's a few of us out there experiencing this probably points more to a problem with the ESC. I would guess a firmware bug which is exposed by a combination of factors (if only we knew what).

I have to say I haven't tried updating the firmware as I only have the WiFi module (not the program card or SkyLink cable) and don't think you can use it to update the firmware. I think I am on 2.02, so definitely quite an old version. I'd be interested to know whether this works for anyone else.

Incidentally, I have a friend with the Corally 160A who has seen the same intermittent issue. But I actually have the same model of ESC in one of my other cars and it's faultless.

I'm sorry to say that none of this really helps. But I do think if we keep getting the problem we should all apply some pressure to Sky RC to look into it in more depth.

Been having the same issues with my skyrc esc, just reflashed it so see if it stops playing up.

Re-flashed and raced on friday: no issues whatsoever.
...but we know it's an intermittent thing...
In the meantime I didn't get any email replies from skyrc, after giving up with the chat service..

Mine was doing exactly the same thing mate, twice it's happened, ok for 4 mins then die, turned on then died or just not working full stop,
Did the bury meeting last time out with it and the thing set on fire.......

I raced my YZ-2 yesterday indoors on high grip carpet. Ended up going to a 6.5 as I was losing out on the straights (started with a 7.5).

20 minutes of practice, 4 heats and a final. The speedo didn't miss a beat.

My only slight criticism is a lack of progressive feel, but I think that's down to the aggressive timing / turbo settings I was running without really knowing what I was doing. I could have also done with more brakes, but again, that's a setup thing. Overall I'm pretty impressed. Let's see how long it lasts!

I've finally re-flashed my ESC to firmware version 2.07, which I guess is the latest. I had to get the SkyLink device to do it as I've only ever had the WiFi connector and I don't think that lets you do anything with the firmware.

I'm hoping that does the job or it's going in the bin! The last meeting it played up just about every race. Always about half a lap after starting the race. Turning off and back on again always fixed it and then it was fine for the rest of the race. So odd!

I'll let you know how I get on with the new firmware.

been running 2.07 for ages no probs with 6.5 in 4wd and 13.5 in tc. hope it fixes it.

I had the exact same problem (half a lap into race esc cutting out). Updated it with GForce software and the problem has never returned. Esc still works with the original program box (actually a RC Concept one) and all of the same settings modes are present.

Having updated the firmware to V2.07, I thought I'd cracked the problem. I had one race meeting without issues. But then at the next race meeting the problem returned. I have one more thing to try which is to disable thermal protection. When I contacted SkyRC last year, they said the bleep code I get means the ESC has gone into thermal protection (obviously incorrectly as it's always cold when the problem occurs). So I'm thinking if I disable thermal protection, perhaps the issue won't reoccur. We'll see!