Triton Repair - Large FET Blown

[Richard Ingram]

I have seen the threads on replacing the two small fets in the Triton. I did this but when I connected it to the battery and pressed the button to charge the two fets BLEW like a fuse ! So I did some more checking on the larger TO220 FETs on the back of the board. Doing some testing with my DVM it appears that FET4 IRFZ44V is bad. I have one on order but wondering if others have had the larger FETs go bad.

Richard

[Richard Ingram]

Yep, I replaced FET4 and re re-placed the two irf7424 fets and all is well now. it would be a good idea, should you replace the irf7424s, to put a small fuse ( 1 amp maybe, not sure of the inrush current ??) in series with the 12 volt positive to the Triton before you power up the device. This could prevent what happened to me and save the irf7424s should there be another shorted device down stream.

Richard

[Marion]

Thannks for the info. It could save all of us some trouble....

[Shogun]

Richard, I am looking for a couple of the irf7424 and irf7821. Would you have some to spare? I can pay you for them. Please let me know. I want to fix my ESC. Please see this thread for more info:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=624786
I very much appreciate it.

[Richard Ingram]

I need to hold on to the spares I have, sorry. I would suggest Digikey or Allied for the parts you need. Not expensive at all.

Richard

[rc404]

Yep, I replaced FET4 and re re-placed the two irf7424 fets and all is well now. it would be a good idea, should you replace the irf7424s, to put a small fuse ( 1 amp maybe, not sure of the inrush current ??) in series with the 12 volt positive to the Triton before you power up the device. This could prevent what happened to me and save the irf7424s should there be another shorted device down stream.

Richard

Sorry if I missed this. What did you do to your Triton that blew the FET's and I'm not clear how you would use the 1 amp fuse to protect it? The Triton would blow the fuse unless the charging current is low.

Ed

[Richard Ingram]

My friend shorted the output leads somehow and blew the FETs. The one amp fuse would be temporary to be sure once the small irfz7424 fets are replaced that there is not another shorted device downstream. As noted in first post when I powered up the charger after replacing to two small fets and hit the go button I blew the small FETs I had just replaced because there was another shorted FET downstream. If I had a fuse in series with the 12 supply to the charger the fuse would have blown and protected the small FETs. I'm not sure of the inrush current to the charger so a one amp fuse might not be large enough. The small FETs are rated at 8 amps (if I remember correctly) and are in parallel, so the can carry ~16 amps. So even a 5 amp fuse should protect them.

Richard