A customer purchased a new 2S (two cell) LiPo from me at a local race. When attempting to use in a Traxxas Slash during an oval race, the ESC did not work. The customer showed me his old packs worked fine. I was confused as the new TPP pack tested well in another car!
After some thought, and more testing, we found when turning the ESC on, a red light would flash three times and then the ESC turns off. Now we are on the path to resolution!
As this new pack was rated as 'HV', the customer charged it to its rated voltage of 8.7v. The Traxxas ESC will work with both 2S (two cell) and 3S (three cell), but in this case the ESC expected to see a max of 8.4v (standard 2S LiPo voltage) or 11.1v (standard 3S voltage). As the ESC saw 8.7v, (higher than 8.4v) BUT less than 11.1v, the ESC thought that a discharged 3S pack was installed and turned itself off because it assumed this was an error.
We discharged the new pack to a maximum of 8.4v, and the car worked as expected. Just a note to remember in the future!