Lesson CHEAP CHINESE MONSTER MOTO CLONES AND PROBLEMS

Okay so after a year of lots of smoking cheap MM clones I would like to post some pictures just to let you see how bad these things have got.

This is how many bad MM's I have had which have faults in one way or another. I have not pictured the six which I have blown up myself by accident



The first batch I bought way back when I first started my 6DOF project were these MM clones, not seen any of these around for a long while they even had the sparkfun logo on them.



With these the main problem were the chips shorting internally or low voltage output when connecting a motor. I did make a few good ones by swapping the chips on boards and they did last but in the end most of them did die which meant I had to buy some fresh meat.


Enter the worst clones that I have used these QIFEI boards are damn right dangerous fire hazard

Along with these orange ones with the number 1620 above the writing



These are terrible just terrible they work fine just perfect under testing with a little RC motor but put them on the rig with proper motors and within seconds they overheat and can and will BURST INTO A FIREBALL !!!

Luckily you do get a warning by lots of smoke first so you shouldn't really see the fire unless you carry on using them like I did just to see what happens





Now I have tried to see if there is anyway of telling what chips are crap and which are not but it just seems like a gamble.

I have 7 of my orginal MM's still in my rig and working perfectly.

I have blown 3 of my older good MM's by connecting some of these up as a Dual H-Bridge which in turn has blown my good MM's.

Here are some example of the bad chips that I have had. Look at how different the text is and obviously the ST logo.

These 2 are the worst performing chips from the 1620 boards and QIFEI boards "MYS 99 523" instant heat and smoke and fire in these little boys.




These are all from the Sparkfun clones different chips but all had issues with internal shorting overheating from the moment you test them easy to find a problem.




This is a picture below of one of the early ones I had which seem to be the best out of a very bad bunch.




I think they could all work well on a small rig with limited amps but when your pushing 20-30 amps constantly with 50-60 peaks through they burn up, even with all the cooling in the world you will not stop the fire.

Maybe we could start a record of all the chip numbers to compare and see if everyone has the same problems ?

I don't know, just thought I would share with you all

Great post ,,,,Damn thats a lot of dud's,,, i've just added a couple more MM's for 60/120A peak but just waiting on some wire for my pot's that should be coming tomorrow before i can test things ,,, you got me shitting bricks now ,,,lol ,,,,,

i'll post them up if they're dud's ,, Got my fingers crossed though.

Many hours of work and headache by buying low.
You have a lot of patience friend!

Yeah I hope they are okay, please post here if you have any issues

I have read a few of posts lately with people with overheating MM's and getting blamed for bad wiring or whatever and it just isn't, its garbage chips.

Yes I have but I would be a lot more stressed if I didn't have those 7 still working strong and moving my rig

The 1620 boards I actually bought off Amazon for a change but they are all coming from china same old shit

thats bad luck. i have 6 junk out of 26 total that i can recall. i think there where a couple more i threw away. i fried a couple with the 6 dof but never with the 2dof. the ones i fried i had rigged as dual half bridge with bad wiring(one was loose negative12v the other was pwm pin off on the mm). You have over 40 dead ones... wow you are very focused I would have quit for the bad luck. The 1620 batch was good to me I have four of them running.

the bad ones have the chip numbers

MYS 99 113
MYS 99 114
MYS 99 121
although i have others with the same numbers that work.

sry bout ur luck craig hope it gets better

@bruce stephen I have blown a few by wires coming off while in dual bridge.

I wonder what an actual real proper ST VNH2SP30 chip looks like compared to the clones.

This picture comes from Radiospare http://fr.rs-online.com/web/p/products/7147746/


no picture on ST website:
http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en...og-power-ics/motor-driver-ics/vnh2sp30-e.html

nor in the specs
http://www.st.com/content/ccc/resou...df/jcr:content/translations/en.CD00043711.pdf

Don't forget that the cheap knockoffs are so cheap because they buy chips that fail quality checks
or chips that have not been checked at all. This would be true for most of the components you see on the board.
Luckily I haven't had one die on me that wasn't my fault. With the amperage these sims use, it doesn't take a large error to fry one.

Thanks @RacingMat although the picture above is the wrong chip, although it does have the logo

Ahhh I didn't think that is what they were using I just though it was a porly manufactured chip clone, never thought they would be pulling them out of the garbage and using them. Interesting

@SilentChill I think you may have a bigger collection than @Pit. I know they are blown but I must say very impressive. So much time involved in your collection.

Edit Yes I recommend direct wire and soldered. I have used a few different kinds of terminals and no real luck. Now I go with 14awg stranded wire soldered directly on the Motos.

A chip that has failed a quality checking process isn't neccessarily a dead chip, it could be as simple as cosmetic issues.
My money would be on purchasing a batch of chips that do not get quality checked at all or re manufactured knokoff chips.

Wow! If you could get all of your money back for those blown MM's I bet you could purchase one or two Sabertooths! I know they're not cheep but just saying. I suppose you would have missed out on all the fun with the MM's though.

Your totally correct at an average of £6 each I have spent probably the best part of around £250 - £300 on these things. Still no where near what it would cost to buy 12 of the Sparkfun ones though.

Has anyone ever had a failed sparkfun MonsterMoto ? or does no one buy those these days ,,lol

I don't know anyone who has bought a real one lol

You would think Sparkfun would at least half their price on their MM's ,, i bet their sales have plummeted to near zero since the Chinese have flooded the internet with clones.

Probably the best alternative but still expensive at £45 but it is Pololu

http://skpang.co.uk/catalog/dual-vnh2sp30-motor-driver-carrier-md03a-p-1089.html



Only place in europe on Sparkfuns distributors list that sell the MM is

http://www.robotshop.com/uk/monster-motor-controller-shield-arduino.html at £63 !!!!!

Ill say! You could purchase 3 Sabertooth 2x60's for $270 less than Sparkfun wants for 12 of their MM's.

Ha the mm's are fine... Next you'll tell me to stop using my Samsung note 7..........