I just ran my first race wth the Novak SS+ and have a couple of questions. When I got the ESC the motor was backordered so I ran a stock motor in a T4, I geared about where the guys were gearing for our offroad track. When I would simulate a race the truck would shut off at the first turn. No laps just a 60 foot sprint to the first turn. after it came back on I could run the rest of the battery and it seemed to work fine. The motor came in this week so I wired it up thinking my problem might have been with the brush motor. I wtill had shutdowns today but they werent as long. My electronics M8 radio, Novak receiver, 4300 motor, good GP 3300 battery, gearing 17x87. After each run I was disapointed to see how much runtime I had left, about 40 sec until I geared about 3 teeth lower than Novak's recomendation, then had about 200 sec. i woud guess by battery usage I was overgeared but when I geared down to 14 it was slow. It was cold today about 55 so it was hard to tell if it was getting hot.
John Schoenauer

I have seen at least 3 Novak 5800SS system with stop and go issues. I don't think it is a thermalling issue.

1. You are going to have a ton of run time left, brushless is very effecient. And if your brushed motor is shutting down all the time you aren't using much battery capacity.
2. The shutting off problem is gearing. Once it hits a certain amp load - it shuts down (lets say after about 60 feet of overload) so try gearing as low as possible and working your way up.
Don't give into complaints some people have about brushless - There aren't any problems - drivers aren't used to the motor shutting down to save itself rather than burning the comm clear off the thing.

Brad, where did you get the information that there is some sort of 'amp limit' on the Novak SS+? This is the first I've heard of that...

Brad, where did you get the information that there is some sort of 'amp limit' on the Novak SS+? This is the first I've heard of that...

I think he is referring to the "locked rotor detection" that is built into the ESC. It isn't really an amp limit. It uses the position sensors to tell when the rotor isn't moving. (Because it uses the brushless motor's sensors, it won't help in brushed mode.) According to the instructions, if the blue and green LEDs are on solid, it is a locked rotor shutdown. Blinking blue is a thermal shutdown. (I'm assuming the SS+ LEDs mean the same thing as the standard controller.)

As for gearing, I haven't run one in a truck, but in Touring Car I found that the Novak gearing recommendations were actually a bit conservative. Compared to brushed motors in a TC3, a stock would typically be geared around 35-37:100, and I run the 4300 at 41:100. It sounds to me like you've either got a defective ESC, or some other type of electrical problem in the radio equipment.

I have run the 5800 in a truck and a buggy and never had any shutdown problems whatsoever. Racing on a carpet oval.
gearing is usually 28/78 (48 pitch) 2.56:1 tranny.
I have noticed the ESC to be pretty hot. But it didn't shutdown.
I just bought a point-n-shoot temp gun for this purpose. Have not had a chance to test yet.
I don't have a discharger that will give me remaining runtime. But, I have full power for way more than 4 or 5 minutes.
I have been considering the SS+ as a second brushless speed controller and have the obvious option of a brushed motor. So, I am interested in your findings John.

Scott

in the pan cars we found that we could get ridiclous with the gearing without any shutdown we rann anywhere from a 2.40 to a 2.75 without a problem these are gearings that we wouldn't even try on a brushed motor normal rollout on a brushed motor would be under the 2.40 range

Thanks for the input guys. I emailed Novak and their answer was to send it in so they could check to see if there is a bad phase or bad motor. I have been thinking and re-read the manual and I think the ESC will shutdown if it loses signal. So, I decided to clean the receiver and found some dust. I will run it again tomorrow to see if my problem is solved, if not it goes back to Novak Monday.

John Schoenauer

Well I got good news and bad news! I tested some more today and after cleaning the receiver it got better, I didn’t have a shutdown until about 6 minutes into the run. I decided to change from the 4300 to a 5800 to see if the motor was the problem. After 4 to 5 minutes it started shutting down and got so bad I finally stopped. Then I decided to change the receiver. I ran about 15 minutes without a problem, the motor temp was about 130 and the ESC was about 135. I think that when the battery current starts dropping off is when my problem started.

I guess maybe the BEC circuit might be bad or weak in the receiver I have heard of problems with low power to the servo and transponder.

I guess the receiver being bad is better that returning a new ESC to Novak. I will have to try the receiver in my buggy to see if it will work there.

Thanks John Schoenauer

Has anyone found an easier way to swap out the brushed to brushless motors? I race stock and run the bl in mod. Soldering the the wires to those little solder tabs on the motor isn't fun. I would like to find some kind of three pin connector. Astroflight has one but there $10 apiece and i would need two sets.

trashedmaxx you can get some power pole connectors and they have tabs so you can stack them together. Usually they come in red and black but other colora are available. You could also make a harness for the negitave on the brushed motor and make the switch pretty simple. I have only switched a couple of times and still have trouble knowing which mode it is in. Am I missing something or do both modes give you the same signal after you switch.
Thanks John Schoenauer