ok so I have had 3 of these, two from robot shop and one dirst from dimension engineering, the one direct from dimension engineering works like a charm, the two from robotshop have both burst into flames, the one I bought and the replacement they just sent me, I spoke with the people at dimension engineering, and they said they hadn’t had one burst into flames in 2 years, since they updated them, does this mean robotship is selling two year old fire prone deathtrap stock? both times they burst into flames they were under zero load, in RC mode. simply hooked up and turned on. The only variable between the ones that burst into flames and the one that works perfectly was my supplier. has anyone else had this issue? what can actually cause these to shoot out flame?
the first flame thrower was hooked to 24v, and two 24v motors, not the dimension engineering one is hooked to them. the second one that burst into flames was hooked to 24v and a single motor, that the dimension engineering one had been hooked to until the first one burst into flames.
the two drive motors are wheelchair motors, from a lancer 2000 wheelchair, the 3rd motor is from a black and decker cordless mower.
there is nothing wrong with the wiring or the charge, as the sabertooth dual 25a that I have from the manufactuer is hooked in and running just fine, the only variable is the supplier, I sent 2 photos viia email one of the good unit hooked in, and one of the two that started shooting out flamed, and when I say shooting out flames I mean a good 4 inched of flame shooing like an after burner. I do not want another replacement as you mentioned in your email, I was a full refund of price and shipping and I will buy direct from Dimension Engineering, as I stated in my email,
" I don’t care if you find it strange, and i don’t believe you when you tell me they are new, I guess it is possible that the people at dimension engineering lied to me about only old units bursting into flames, but then again their claim is backed up with their unit working properly, and your claim is backed up with both units shooting out fire."
All Dimension Engineering’s motor drivers are date coded on the box. The first two numbers are the week of the year and the second two after the slash are the year. So, for example, 05/11 would be week 5 of 2011. Robotshop is one of our largest dealers and places orders several times per month. It would be virtually impossible for them to have old stock.
I talked to Alex in support and all he meant by the “I haven’t seen one of those actually catch fire in over two years” is that that’s not a very common failure mode for the 2x25. Alex proceses all the RMAs, and ones that fail dramatically get passed around the office and commented on. Usually if they fail they just throw a red error light and refuse to drive one channel.
If you would prefer to get a refund from Robotshop and deal directly with us, we’re happy to arrange that, but please direct the blame where it belongs. If the Sabertooths failed due to a defect, that’s on us over here at Dimension, not anyone else. We’ll get you squared away either way.
Hope that helps,
John Bellinger
Owner
Dimension Engineering LLC
(also designer of the 2x25)
I also have purchased this same controller. I used 2 SLA 12ah 12v in series to controller and 2 24v motors with brakes removed to keep motors from high load situations and unlocked wheels to allow any spin during initial setup.
between batteries and motor controller i placed a e-stop switch and set it to off. after everything was setup i twisted e-stop and was greeted by a burst of flame. Not sure what is going on here. i studied and followed every resource i could find before setup was completed. right before the controller blew i could hear the motors kick on and buzz from the applied voltage.
We’d need to see the actual setup (don’t actually connect eh battery again) - can be one of many things, but most likely the battery voltage was reversed somewhere. Did you set the DIP switches correctly?
If it was a recent purchase from RobotShop, send an e-mail to [email protected] with details.
Welcome to the RobotShop Forum. All Dimension Engineering products we sell are “new stock” and none should be more than about 2 months old. Can you use a multimeter to check the voltage of the fully charged battery pack? As this matter pertains more to warranty, please contact us via the Support Center and we will try to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Please include as much information as possible, including the DIP switch configuration and a sketch of the hookup at the time it was destroyed.
We are sorry to see you do not believe the controller is new.
In the meantime, we have contacted Dimension Engineering to sort this issue. Since either a refund or an exchange is involved, we will continue this discussion privately.
since 2013 I had used a sabertooth 2x25 version 2.0 controller on my lawn mower to control it through transmitter. It worked without a single ISSUE whatsoever until last week. I hooked my batteries and connected the sabertooth to my batteries. I heard two clicks and next instance it bursts into a FLAME THROWER. The flame came from bottom of one of the capacitors. Then, after few tries… sabertooth died on me… So, I ended up ordering a new one last week.
