Esc overhead

[HTV Boats]

For my Castle "air" controllers I use a PISTIX https://www.offshoreelectrics.com/proddetail.php?prod=msw-pistix and it makes a wheel radio work perfect.

Mic

 

[BradClaypool]

I have used both types of controllers in the past, but probably prefer the wheel. Since my radio is 20+ years old just like the boat....I should probably invest in a new one. I will try to do some more investigating on the difference between the esc's, but sounds like the Mamba will be a better choice, for me at least.

Thanks Again for all your help....you have saved me a ton of grief!!

Brad

 

[BradClaypool]

For my Castle "air" controllers I use a PISTIX https://www.offshoreelectrics.com/proddetail.php?prod=msw-pistix and it makes a wheel radio work perfect.

Mic

I have seen PISTIX mentioned, but didn't know what it was. Thanks for letting me know. Do you know if there is an advantage of using the Mamba over the Edge or vise versa

 

[KyleHirano]

Try one of these....waterproof and good price! I have two of these in 1/8 scale hydroplanes running 8S never had a problem

 

[KyleHirano]

Hobbywing 130HV on 8S.

 

[BradClaypool]

Try one of these....waterproof and good price! I have two of these in 1/8 scale hydroplanes running 8S never had a problem

Wow, that's pretty amazing.... that must be one robust controller! What motor, batteries and prop are you running?

 

[KyleHirano]

Motor: Turnigy 3994 EDF 

Batteries: 4S 5000mah 60C Turnigy Graphene X 2

Prop: Octura 457/3 blade

 

[longballlumber]

Kyle,

what is your boat weight RTR, and what is your runtime?  Actually how many laps are you guys running?

 

[KyleHirano]

I’m not sure on weight? Although I would say it’s around 15 pounds or heavier running weight. Runtime is is around 5 minutes and we run 5 laps in a race. In FE 1/8 scale hydroplane your limited to a 57mm prop diameter...that helps guys from over propping there boat and burning up Speed Controls

 

[KyleHirano]

BradClaypool I think the 200X esc will be fine as long you don’t over prop. If I’m not mistaken that speedo will cutoff off if the amp surge is to high....in which case you will know it’s not capable. If it has BEC I definitely would not use it and go to a external battery source.

 

[BradClaypool]

BradClaypool I think the 200X esc will be fine as long you don’t over prop. If I’m not mistaken that speedo will cutoff off if the amp surge is to high....in which case you will know it’s not capable. If it has BEC I definitely would not use it and go to a external battery source.

 Kyle, 

I am new to this electric thing, so I am trying to absorb all the info people are offering up. The motor I am using can handle quite a bit of power, so I will probably go with a castle 200A controller....Still invsetigating which model to use. My run time is probably going to be short...just have to live with it for now. 

Thanks

Brad

 

[LohringMiller]

For reference below is the voltage, current, and rpm graph from the 1/8 scale two lap record.  It comes from the castle data logger.  Despite the heading, I believe we ran a 3 blade prop.  Below also is a picture of the aluminum water coolers I use on Castle controllers.  The picture is a 100 amp controller, but the 200 amp controllers are similar with longer pieces.

Lohring Miller

 

[BradClaypool]

For reference below is the voltage, current, and rpm graph from the 1/8 scale two lap record.  It comes from the castle data logger.  Despite the heading, I believe we ran a 3 blade prop.  Below also is a picture of the aluminum water coolers I use on Castle controllers.  The picture is a 100 amp controller, but the 200 amp controllers are similar with longer pieces.

Lohring Miller

View attachment 100025

View attachment 100026

The data logging capability is going to be very helpful. Hopefully it will prevent me from burning up parts!! Thanks for the pics on the cooling manifolds.  I was doing some more reading on the Mamba XLX and it sounds like when they were first introduced, people were not pleased with the performance. They compared it to the XL and said it seemed like the XLX was much slower on acceleration and top end. They blamed it on Castles firmware...saying they were limiting the controller output so it would not overheat and be damaged. I haven't been able to find out it that has been rectified with later versions.

 

[LohringMiller]

Water cooling really helps the Castle controllers.  I've seen over 300 amps on the data logger.  However, I just fried one with a motor failure.  I'm hoping it is only the capacitors since two test bad and the control board works fine.  There is no sign of overload on the FET board either.  We'll see

Lohring Miller

 

[RaceMechaniX]

There are two known weak links in the Castle controllers,  the cooling and DC bulk capacitance.

The Castles have a very densely populated board and it's hard pull sufficient heat out to keep the FET's working at optimal temps.  The best technique I have found is direct soldering brass cooling tubes to the DC bus bars on either side.  I prefer direct soldering over thermal paste due to the much higher heat transfer rate of solder compared to even the best silver bearing thermal compound.  Soldering is much trickier and requires a lot of prep and a HD chisel tip iron with 200W.  Some care needs to be taken to avoid shorting the shunts which measure the current.  

Once we increase the cooling, the controller can now push a fair of current.  As Lohring stated 300A is not unreasonable.  This drives up the ripple voltage which can have damaging effects particularly if operated near the voltage limits.  For example 8S using 35V caps.  I end up adding 3400-8000uF of total capacitance on the board directly and another 3.4uF externally with a short lead.  

So far these controllers have proven decent with these mods and some conformal coating.  

 

[RaceMechaniX]

Here is the short lead external cap banks I add.

 

[John Borden]

I run a 850 kv and i us the Max 200 amp buggy ESC.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Kris Flynn]

My castle logged 380 amps when my magnets let go...all it did was pop the caps

a couple of others with many over 300 amps logs (4s)...not for a long period of time, but still a good test!

 

[BradClaypool]

There are two known weak links in the Castle controllers,  the cooling and DC bulk capacitance.

The Castles have a very densely populated board and it's hard pull sufficient heat out to keep the FET's working at optimal temps.  The best technique I have found is direct soldering brass cooling tubes to the DC bus bars on either side.  I prefer direct soldering over thermal paste due to the much higher heat transfer rate of solder compared to even the best silver bearing thermal compound.  Soldering is much trickier and requires a lot of prep and a HD chisel tip iron with 200W.  Some care needs to be taken to avoid shorting the shunts which measure the current.  

Once we increase the cooling, the controller can now push a fair of current.  As Lohring stated 300A is not unreasonable.  This drives up the ripple voltage which can have damaging effects particularly if operated near the voltage limits.  For example 8S using 35V caps.  I end up adding 3400-8000uF of total capacitance on the board directly and another 3.4uF externally with a short lead.  

So far these controllers have proven decent with these mods and some conformal coating.  

View attachment 100082

View attachment 100083

Which castle controller are you modifying? Have you tried the Mamba XLX, supposedly it has more capacitance from the factory(not sure how much). Your external cap bank is 3.4uF? I haven't viewed a FET board other than online pictures. Where are the shunts located?

 

[RaceMechaniX]

No I have not tried the Castle XLX.  I modify the ICE and EDGE 200 Lite ESC's.  The XLX does have more than a standard, looking at pictures its around 2000uF to 2400uF.

My cap bank pictured there is 4x-1000uF Rubycon ZL caps for a total or 4000uF or 4mF.  The shunts are always on the negative side of the board close to where the black wire is soldered onto the bus bars.  There are two on the top and two on the bottom, they look like black dominos with silver ends.  They usually have a marking of "0M50", that stands for a 0.5milliohm shunt.