Comments on: Harpy – Sumo Bots 2009

By: Xo Wang

Xo Wang — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:41:35 +0000

I don’t have that Sabertooth any more. The problem was that some of the FETs’ leads touched the heatsink directly, which damaged the PCB around the short and incinerated my battery power leads.

By: ichaelm

ichaelm — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:42:18 +0000

I’m not sure if you still have that 2×25 sabertooth, but I had extremely similar problems to yours. Depending on accelerations and vibrations, the controller would randomly stop working or short out. I called DE and they told me it was the heatsink. They told me to put something like thin packing tape or nonconductive thermal paste over the parts of the heatsink that touch the board. I did that, and now it works perfectly fine. If the board isn’t completely fried, maybe the insulation could fix your problem! If you even still have it.

By: GHF

GHF — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:54:31 +0000

Actually, I agree completely. I adored my Sabertooth 2×10A when I first got it. What I liked most was just how incredibly sturdy its construction was, and how much thought they had put into making it usable and reliable (DIP switches, terminal blocks for PWM, huge heatsink, etc.).

It was enough for me to get a second unit, the 2×25A. I’m not sure if it was a design flaw or I got a bad unit, but it simply never worked. As we tried to experiment with it to get it to work, suddenly the battery leads going into it started smoking and then caught fire. As it turned out, one of the FETs’ leads were in contact with an indentation in the heatsink and shorted out the battery.

So from there on, I used the 2×10A with far oversized motors, which would trigger overcurrent protection on the Sabertooth whenever I accelerated. So there, you’re absolutely right, the Sabertooth really is excellent, and there was no intrinsic fault with it; I was just using it for more than it was designed for. That’s why the next iteration was supposed to use Victors, even if that would be too much.

By: BSO Builder

BSO Builder — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:24:47 +0000

Actually, on rewatching those videos, it seems like someone just had driving issues– turning the wrong way, etc.

By: BSO Builder

BSO Builder — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:55:17 +0000

“The motor controller is unacceptably unresponsive and underpowered,” you say. Our team from Upstate New York used the same ESC, the Sabertooth, and found it to be extremely impressive in immediate power delivery, regenerative braking, incredible agility, and the added bonuses of exponential and channel mixing. We won 3rd place at States 2009 due to other issues– the Sabertooth is an excellent ESC. Don't go ragging it.