I smoked the Franken-Zap

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon May 12, 2003 12:50 am

I was having problems with the battery coming loose evry time I thunked a wall. I shove a piece a paper behind the battery contact, and it was all good. Then I start driving, and it wouldn't turn left. I assume it's a broken steering wire, and pull the body off.

It was smokin!

Yep, sucker burnt. I yanked the PCB out in an attempt to save something, but I was too late. You can see in the picture that the battery got melted, the tape that held it down got melted by the large capacitor, and it blew a transistor. Not sure what happened, a wire must have come loose when I took it apart, and shorted out. I'm going to put a clone PCB in it for now, but I'm going to replace the transistor, and see if I can save it.

payaso · Post by **payaso** » Mon May 12, 2003 12:52 am

That sucks homie... I guess it's back to the drawing boards huh?

silla

Buzzbait · Post by **Buzzbait** » Mon May 12, 2003 6:22 am

That royally blows. The FrankenZap was indeed an awesome car. There's no finer ride than a multi-cell boosted hybrid Bit/Zap.

I had the same battery problem this weekend, with the batteries not working when you looked at the car cross-eyed. I finally ended up rebuilding my multicell battery pack in the car. The pressure of the pcb against the battery pack was causing the homemade battery contacts to come loose in the pack. I could get my new Camaro body to work, but the Challenger body would cause the car to short out, just from the pressure of the body against the pcb cover. Very frustrating stuff. Partial contact did some crazy stuff when the car was put on my peak charger. The voltage output would go to like 10V and the car would start running without any remote control. Yep; the wheels were spinning!!!! Nasty!!!

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Mon May 12, 2003 6:37 am

damn, yea, solder in that new resistor and see what happens..

keep us up to date.

-nox

Post by **CaboWabo** » Mon May 12, 2003 8:07 am

too, touching metal on pcb with the metal on the battery causes a short. I had this problem when I tried to stuff in my first dual cell and the pcb wouldn't sit all the way down... so I forced it. the car would sputter and stop. I immediately fixed the short, but I'm convinced if I woulda kept messing with it while the short was happening, it woulda fried itself.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon May 12, 2003 8:45 am

Good point Cabo Wabo.

While the battery does have shrink wrap around it, I may have worn a hole through by jamming the PCB down. It would probably be a good precaution to cover the PCB with a piece of tape, for extra protection when flipping the board.

I'm also thinking since the left steering was not working, and the transistor for the left steering blew, that maybe I did break a steering wire, and maybe it made contact with the battery.

The steering wire is broken now, but as you can see, I literally ripped that board out, so who know's when I broke that wire..

I was heart broken last night, but today is ripe with possibilities, and I love a good project. So I just think it's kinda funny now. Unfortunately I'm watching the 2(almost 3)y.o. today, and I hate leaving a project on the back burner.

Maybe I can get the kid involved, "Here Joe, hold the soldering iron for 'ol Dad...No no, get that thing out of your eye, soldering irons don't go in your eye."

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Mon May 12, 2003 10:02 am

i had similar issues where hitting a door or large object finally poked one of the solder joints through the battery's insulation. it didnt cause heat but it caused the motor to run(at half speed) even when i wasnt hittin any buttons.

i also had an unmodified hobbico 49mhz turbo blaster controller start to melt in my pocket for no reason one day.

Post by **CaboWabo** » Mon May 12, 2003 1:07 pm

lol@ crazydave - "you'll solder your eye out!"

hog, you got hot pants on? lol

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Mon May 12, 2003 1:35 pm

hogjowlz can do the funky chicken all night long.

uhh smokin.

payaso · Post by **payaso** » Mon May 12, 2003 1:41 pm

hogjowlz wrote:hogjowlz can do the funky chicken all night long.

uhh smokin.

[picturing hog being escorted out of the wedding reception by rent-a-cops for refusing to stop the funkyness]

LMFAO..

silla

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon May 12, 2003 2:49 pm

payaso wrote:
hogjowlz wrote:hogjowlz can do the funky chicken all night long.

uhh smokin.
[picturing hog being escorted out of the wedding reception by rent-a-cops for refusing to stop the funkyness]

LMFAO..

silla

You forgot to include the smokin' hotpants in that picture.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon May 12, 2003 11:54 pm

Well I killed my clone PCB too, but isolated my problem.

When I was putting it all together the dot of solder where I mended the steering wire touched the battery, and once again started things a smokin'. Nothing blew up this time, but now the steering is dead.

So now I'm bummin' again, but I'm wiser.

I'm going to get some liquid tape, and cover all my solder joints so I don't have this issue again. I think putting a dot of liquid tape on a mended steering wire would not only insulated it, but stregthen the joint.

Post by **CaboWabo** » Tue May 13, 2003 12:24 am

you're probably right.
you could get ugly with it and just slap a piece of electricians tape over it.

Buzzbait · Post by **Buzzbait** » Tue May 13, 2003 6:28 am

I'm betting that some clear nail polish (or colored) would also do the trick.

noxorc · Post by **noxorc** » Tue May 13, 2003 7:16 am

crazydave wrote:
payaso wrote:
hogjowlz wrote:hogjowlz can do the funky chicken all night long.

uhh smokin.
[picturing hog being escorted out of the wedding reception by rent-a-cops for refusing to stop the funkyness]

LMFAO..

silla
You forgot to include the smokin' hotpants in that picture.

I think I'm gonna puke.

As Hog is being dragged out....I can see him yelling.... "Disco Lives!"
"Bee Gee's Rule!"