Swordfish Pro+ 220 Running Hot

[M3Man03]

Did you keep the original cooling tubes too or did you remove them or not use them?
Hard to tell from pictures.

Kept the original. The alumn angle is thermal epoxied to the brass cooling tubes.

[M3Man03]

Hi Ray. I took some pics before I left for the conference. I don't have the adhesive yet, but this is how it will look.

I used Plasti-Dip to insulate the exposed battery and motor wire solder joints. Then I did a slight grind on the cooling tubes to get a flat spot. The tubes are shaped like a hex on the outside and a corner was where the angle would attached to.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]116374[/ATTACH]


The angles go on first then the original plate on top of those.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]116375[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]116376[/ATTACH]

Yep this is exactly what mine looked like.

I've since attached a heatsink along the top of it as well to provide extra cooling when the water isn't flowing.

[M3Man03]

Where di you buy the thermal epoxy from? Canada or USA?

I posted a link to some on Amazon above.

Look for stuff that they use to secure CPU's that is epoxy, not just thermal paste.

[rickwess]

Ran the hydro this morning. I flipped it in a corner at the 50sec mark, paddled out to flip it over a ran it a bit longer. It looks like the ESC cooling mod is working wonders. Temps look to be plateauing at just over 50C at the FETs.

That's 15C cooler than before the mod despite my erratic throttle. Being at the end of a bay, it gets crowded with swim rafts and trampolines during the summer months. Need to find a dock further down the lake.


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[ray schrauwen]

Sounds good Rick! I ran the SF200 Pro 8S esc in my Whip 40 for 4 test runs until I almost melted it down. After that I switched to the 240 and got a 3rd place in Michigan.

I now have the esc apart and have all the goodies to modify it. Got the thermal epoxy, thanks for the link... I've got an abundance of water cooled heatsink material thank to Doby.

I cut a piece the right size, cut out a center section for the center motor wire and then I'll epoxy it down today and heat shrink.

Any idea of how long this epoxy needs to cure??

I'm surprised it survived the 4 runs and on the last run one motor lead desoldered, finished the heat though!!

I have to scrape DP270 off the top of the 8 FETs though so the epoxy has better contact area.

After it's done I'll brutalize it again but, in the 40" mono on 6S2P as it has dual cooling and the Whip 40 doesn't yet.

I actually thermalled the 200 8S after 4.5 laps on my first run with a 55mm prop... second run esc came back at at least 150Degrees F. so these ain't crappy esc's if I can beat the snot out of it that bad.

Next up to try in a smaller boat is the SF220 pro.... I think I'll modify it first....

Thanks for the cool thread, literally!!

[rickwess]

Glad I could be of help. Being an Engineer I can't leave enough alone and since I had the ESC apart anyway to dry it out, I figured why not try to improve the cooling.

I'm also impressed with the robustness of these ESCs. I've submerged one while powered up and this one in the hydro has been wet many times. It's taken me a while to figure out how to tape up the IB FE30 to stop the water from coming in.

The thermal epoxy is very much like JB Quick. You get less than 5 mins of working time and it looks to fully cure after couple of hours. I'd wait overnight before you run it, but you can start prepping it after 30mins.

Before I used heat shrink, I wrapped the ESC tight with electrical tape. That way the wires are bound nicely. If you have the ESC side of your water lines connected at the capacitor end, you'll be able to tape all the up can get the receiver wire as well as the caps nice and tight. In my case, if I have to remove the ESC, I'll just disconnect them from the motor. Oh ya, my cooling lines run a little different than most. I found it allowed me to use less water line and make them easier to hide.

Rudder----ESC----Motor----ESC----Outlet

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[rickwess]

If you thermaled it at 150F, then for sure the FETs were quite a bit hotter. When my data logger showed max temp at 65C (150F), my thermal gun was only reading about 120F a the ESC body and caps. Thermal shutdown on these ESCs are 100C so there is still lots of headroom.

[ray schrauwen]

The thing is it thermalled like it was supposed to unlike a few other esc's I've run that just detonate.

The FE30 is odd, my buddy has two and both always end up wet inside. My boats run dry except my PTSS which recently developed a small 1 ounce leak per 7 laps of running. I know where it's coming from.

Glad the epoxy is fast cure... Thanks again buddy.

[rickwess]

I've run my FE30 dry 3 times in a row now. I think I have the taping mastered. The water comes in at the front where the two inside radii of the hatch are. I find that if I first tape parallel to that inside radius and have the tape long enough that it wraps under the sponson, it stays dry.

While I was experimenting with tape, i found that if I stuff 2 shop towels (paper towel kind) just under the front of the hatch opening, they absorb the water before it has a chance to slosh around.

Back to the ESC, I'm glad more people are liking it. It means Steve will keep stocking them. When I find time to work on the 54" Scarab, I'll definitely get a SF.

[rickwess]

Here's the run on IB Mono - much heavier than the FE30. I was running a conservative m445. You can see that I brought it in twice to check for temps. Looks to be peaking at 68C at the FETs. That's only 7C cooler than the runs before the cooling mod.

I'm still not comfortable with how fast the temp drops as I'm bringing it in to check for temps. It's like I'm getting better water flow when it's going slower. Can prop wash cause that at higher RPMs? The drive dog is lined up with the leading edge of the rudder.

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[ray schrauwen]

Do you use a cap bank? I just received a couple so I'll add that. I was able to add a water cooled plate on top. I'll up load pics later. That Arctic silver is slick, loving it! Most of my heat from the last race in MI came from a crushed stuffing tube from previous race. Right now I can't even put the flex cable in there!! I almost wore through the brass! Lots of repairs today and maybe test tomorrow...

[rickwess]

I use a cap bank on the mono but not the hydro. See post #61 for the one I made.

[Engelkefarm]

Im having same issues i think the swordfish are just crap

[rickwess]

Im having same issues i think the swordfish are just crap

That's not my conclusion at all. I'm a boat NOOB and think I've abused them pretty well. So far they have held up.

[crashland]

my rigger was running hot on auto timing, super hot at zero, but ran great at meduim timing neu 1415 4100kv 3 cells