Astro 3220 and HV 160 heat and other issues

My Astro 3220 has goo inside and was measured at 230 degrees Fahrenheit Anyone experience this kind of temperature with a 3220?
The HV 160 was measured at 205 degrees Fahrenheit

My temp measuring device is a cheap small hold in your hand type. But both the motor and controller are far too hot to touch.

Matt said: "when the laminations were epoxied in place, some epoxy chips remained at the bottom of the motor and eventually worked their way between the rotor and stator. Just clean (sand?) the epoxy off the stator and clean it out of the can and put it back together."

I took the 3220 apart once already and sanded as directed. Now it's happened again. The motor stator epoxied to the rotor. Anyone else have this problem and if so what did you do to fix it?

Is this a common issue with 3220's? Considering I am getting it ready for Willow Springs in a few days this is troubling for me.

I had some heat shrink that covered the connection shrunk to wire and loose at connector, kink of like a jacket that protected the joint that was loose and slipped over the joint. This heat shrink got so hot it closed over the joint so I have to cut it off.

Also my HV160 was measured at 205 degrees Fahrenheit and shuts down, at least I think when the HV160 gets too hot it automatically turns itself off - is this correct? What is the shut down temp for the HV160? Anything I should know about here? I was thinking of putting two 60mm 12v computer cooling fans blowin directly at the HV160 - do you think this will help?

I am wondering if the epoxy drag in the motor is causing the motor and thus the controller to run hot?

It's now geared to run at about 40 mph with a 24" rear wheel - so I don't think it's geared too high.

Any suggestions or observations are greatly appreciated.

At what powerlevels are you running the system?

Wow, I pull 9,000 watts through my 4 turn 3220 and 160 setup. They run at 150 degrees all the time. My controller only gets hot if I run at partial throttle under load too long.

What are your controller settings? Your motor timing should be set at low.

I know guys running 50 mph with this setup and have no problems.

What wind is the motor and what power level are you pulling?

recumpence said:

What are your controller settings? Your motor timing should be set at low. I know guys running 50 mph with this setup and have no problems. What wind is the motor and what power level are you pulling?

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Motor timing is set to low. It's a 5t @48v. When I ran it a few days ago the CA said about 4500watts.

You can not possibly run 4500watts continious at 40mph. Then there is something majorly wrong in the driveline.
Maybe you see 4500watts during acceleration, and that is approx 6 horsepower so should not take long to reach 40mph.

For reference, I am running my hybridbike (mtb frame, road wheels) a tad over 30mph at 1000-1100w continious. That is with a pocketbike slipperclutch + 5:1 gearbox and final stage chain.
It is not the most efficient setup either, so you get the idea.
My motor is a hyperion z5045 which surely is inferior to any astro 32xx.

Wheazel said:

You can not possibly run 4500watts continious at 40mph. Then there is something majorly wrong in the driveline. Maybe you see 4500watts during acceleration, and that is approx 6 horsepower so should not take long to reach 40mph.

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You are correct it was a reading under acceleration. Running at a steady 25mph it's about 1,200 watts.
The drive line is relatively simple and seems quite free to rotate.

I think, but am not sure, the goo in the motor is causing lots of friction and heat.

Something is defenitely eating up the efficiency. 1200w at 25mph is on the high side. What is the power at 40mph?
Is the goo a result of overheating or something else? Bottom line it should defenitly not be there.

First thing i would check is the no load current for the motor alone, and compare against what is was when new.

adrian_sm said:

First thing i would check is the no load current for the motor alone, and compare against what is was when new.

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It's a brand new motor...I have been playing around with it for the last several weeks but for all intents and purposes it's new - not having been used before.

How would I check the no load current? Would my new Cycle Analyst do this for me? What rpm would I do this test at?
I am pretty green when it comes to the electrical part of things.
So I really appreciate all the help I can get.

The motor is full of marbles at this point and I will be spending the next several hours cleaning it up...for the second time. It's really bad inside. Trying to get it cleaned out without damaging the windings is the trick.

It no longer looks new to me.

Yes ince you are done cleaning it up (again) and are happy that the goo is no longer between rotor and stator, then connect up you CA, disconnect the motor driving anything else, go full throttle and take note of the voltage and current reading on the CA. Post the results here, then someone else should be able to tell you want normal current readings are for your motor at similar voltages.

If the drive train is all free running, then it looks like you either ran the motor too hard, causing too much waste heat leading to it's demise. Or there was something wrong with the motor to start with.

The windings don't look cooked, so maybe the epoxy they used was no good. Just guessing now.

Good luck.

It looks like they've used blobs of epoxy to dynamically balance the rotor and that this has come off on one end........?

I think the motor is defective.

Sorry to hear these problems man, you were the one I was gunning to beat, and Luke if he makes it. You might be doing the Thud in the pits with a complete engine overhaul between heats! :wink:

I wonder what would happen if you put a thin layer of CA glue over everything just to seal things up? I know Jeremy Harris did this with his Turnigy motors before running them. He would spin the can in his lathe to get even coverage prolly at like 300 rpm. Is there a sealed bearing that might have rubbed off the seal?

From the build up of epoxy around the inside edge of the coils, it looks as if they've used a temporary internal form when encapsulating them?

Hi!

Drunk of me arse at the moment so can't read straight but willing to type! 8)

That goo looks to me like epoxy that hasn't cured. Your motor may be a manufacturing defect where the epoxy guy was drunk off his arse and didn't mix the proper ratio of A & B.

The motor may have gotten hot due to drag caused by uncured epoxy.

Shoot me if I'm wrong :lol:

That is a 5 turn Delta. That motor is far too high a KV for the gearing you have there (or so it looks from the pictures).

Have you run the Wye motor you have?

My yellow trike had a 4 turn Wye (far lower KV) and the ratio looks very similar to your setup with the higher KV. That would explain this.

Matt

I would suggest just scraping out all visible epoxy in there and running it.

However, if its friendly towards being scrapped out, its not cured correctly, and may not perform the function it serves in the motor.

I would RMA it.

liveforphysics said:

I would RMA it.

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I will explore this with Astroflight next week.
My second 3220 Astro motor fried at Willow Springs today...this one was wye terminated. I am really disappointed. Tim was smoking most everything on the track and in the unlimited main was third when the motor gave out.

Roy, your motor seems to use a different 'encapsulation' technique for the windings.

In theory, it should be an improvement but...

Some photos of the wye wound 3220 after the Willow Springs race.

Did you lose the rotor balance epoxy on either motor? Or is all the powder, fried encapsulation resin?

Any degradation to the rotor itself?

Miles said:

Did you lose the rotor balance epoxy on either motor? Or is all the powder, fried encapsulation resin? Any degradation to the rotor itself?

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The rotor balance epoxy did not come off either motor. Not sure what the powder is... Both rotors look OK, with the exception that I did not clean off the rotor of the last one because I thought Astro might want to see it with as much undisturbed detail as possible.

I ground off the balance epoxy from the first rotor thinking it was something caused by the failure...my bad.

Looks like the new owners at Astro are making some unproven improvements on Bob's time tested designs. When did you get your motor? Where did you meassure 110C(230F)?

Potting the windings only makes sense if you use thermally conductive epoxy from a quality supplier. The low grade stuff if rated to 125C, 220C for top grade. Kinda pointless to use low grade epoxy with SmCo magnets...

how much current /power was that motor taking ?
some thing pretty unusual has happened in there to force the epoxy and windings down into the rotor !!

This motor was bought when Bob was still building them.

I have seen motors burn up (a couple of them), but I have never seen this.

Matt