Repairing a broken Castle Creations 25 ESC

[bearcreek]

I was working on a model and a power wire broke and hit a servo connection. Sending ~14.4 volts into the BEC circuit of my Castle Creations Pheonix 25 brushless ESC. Now when I start the motor it thumps a few times and just stops. The BEC reads 5v no load, 4.9 volts under 150ma load and 4.8v under 200ma load. This seems like the regulator may be weak or overloading and could be damaged, but it could be other components too. Should I try replacing the regulator with a generic IC or is there any way to further test the circuits?

[Norman Adlam]

I was working on a model and a power wire broke and hit a servo connection. Sending ~14.4 volts into the BEC circuit of my Castle Creations Pheonix 25 brushless ESC. Now when I start the motor it thumps a few times and just stops. The BEC reads 5v no load, 4.9 volts under 150ma load and 4.8v under 200ma load. This seems like the regulator may be weak or overloading and could be damaged, but it could be other components too. Should I try replacing the regulator with a generic IC or is there any way to further test the circuits?

Hmmm... it probably better to send it to Castle, who'll fix it for a nominal charge! :)
Their service use to be pretty good!

Cheers,

[tungym]

looks like the on board CPU cooked, rather than the BEC itself.

[Tomapowa]

I toasted my PH-80 several few months ago (toasted the BEC, not allowing me to program it via PH-Link cable, even though everything else still worked amazingly). They charged a flat fixing fee of $50 (recently increased to $55 it looks... possibly to cover S/H back to you). I received a brand new one 3-4 weeks later. Looks like there's currently a 2 week turn-around for repairs.

For that PH-25, there would be a $25 flat fixing fee.
http://www.castlecreations.com/support.html

[bearcreek]

Thanks for all the responses. I am not sure about repairing it, because I may be able to buy another used for a few dollars more than the repair fee. My model may get better performance from a different esc anyways. I think I may set it on the shelf and tinker with it sometime or salvage it for parts like mosfets for use in another electronic project.