Castle Creations Marine ESC's.....

[LiPo Power]

Can I please get your feedback on this subject please?
I love Castle Creations marine ESC’s.
Here on OSE forums you can find many times people are complaining about Castle ESS’s .
My question is why? What is the reason? Is it because we sometimes trying to get out of them way more juice than we should, overloading the manufacturer specifications?
I can see pictures of burn ESC boards and negative feedback on Castle ESC and so on...
Will someone point me please to the thread showing some kind of bench testing as proof Castle ESCs’ are not keeping up to the manufacturer specs please? Did anybody ever did for real testing proving they will fail?
I have full 100% confidence in Castle marine ESC’s and that is why I think it is not the ESC that is giving up. I think we are always trying to: Let’s see what will happened, it is only 3 volts more than it should be or whatever......
Please put your few words here and say what you think.
I have burned one Castle LV-120 once but it was pilot error.
Thanks in advance
Robert

[Rumdog]

my only complaint is the price. I've never burned one. I also never use the bec on ANY esc.

[Rumdog]

A lot of people run to max voltage specs, ie: 6s on a 240 lv. That is where i've heard of problems as well as I've heard of hv240's smoking on plug in.

[Eodman]

I have been using Castle ESC's almost exclusively and have 2 Etti's --- I have smoked 2 120's & 2 240's and am sure the 120 's were my fault! The 240's smoked on plug in but Castle stood behind all four ESC's and repaired/replaced all four!

Now I 'm still a novice but as long as their support is strong I'll use them! Joe Ford has been extremely helpful! And the things they do for our Troops and Veterans is just first rate!

I like the Etti 150's but only used them for a few months so far!

[LiPo Power]

So fare so good, please go on.....

[wakeboardfusion]

One thought i have is that i have also seen a lot of complaining about castle and etti. Maybe it is because people pay a higher price for them and expect more quality and for them not to blow. On the cheaper esc's maybe people dont complain because they think that they get what they pay for so if it blew just buy another and not waste the time complaining on the forums because its not a high dollar good. So in fact, maybe there is more complaints about the cheepo ones but people just dont express their thoughts.

[hide]

My HV120 smoked after 10 seconds on the water. However Castle replaced it for no charge and sent it back asap.

[LiPo Power]

My HV120 smoked after 10 seconds on the water. However Castle replaced it for no charge and sent it back asap.

Fair enough.... What was the situation? Did you do all the way it should be done?
Please tell us more....
Robert

[Jeepers]

I like Castle products they are reliable I had 1 Hydra 120 burn,but that was pushed hard for 3 years. Though the other day I had one just stop working no throttle no led doesn,t respond to castle link etc not sure what happend other then that no problems.

[BakedMopar]

The one problem I don't like about the Hydra is theres no auto calculate for cut-off rates. Unless I'm missing something I need to manually change when going from one cell count to another.

[T.S.Davis]

None of them are immune to failure. More often than not I can't identify the true cause of a crispy critter ESC.

I think it's the complaints are a cost thing. Makes people more vocal when they fail. I complained about a Schulze because of the initial cost coupled with a repair that resulted in me still not being able to use it. Is that indicative that the Schulze stuff is "bad"? No way. There are more success stories than failures. It's just that when everything goes just right nobody talks about that. The same is true for the others.

I personally love my Castles. I had one of the first 240's to be released. Ran it 2 seasons on 6s before I damaged it in a crash. I had to pay for a replacement that time. You hear people say you can't run the LV on 6s all the time but if your setup is sensible they work fine.

[tth]

A bad reputation gets around alot faster than a good one..........

[domwilson]

On some ESC's I've found is that the higher current ratings are for 4s. When running higher voltages, the current rating drops. Don't know if that applies to many. But it could be a safe guideline.

For instance...

http://lightflightrc.com/

This ESC is a great match for large motors that draw up to 200 amps.

170 amp Max 5S-6S
140 amp Max on 7S

Programmable features include:
- Brake on, off, soft, medium, hard
- LiPo cutoff 2S-7S
- Auto NiMh (0.8V per cell)
- Throttle setting: auto or 1.1ms to 1.8ms
- Soft or hard start
- Reversible
- Soft or hard cutoff
- Timing 1/7/15/30
- PWM 8KHz or 16KHz

[LiPo Power]

...ummmm, little off the topic I think....
What is your expierience with Castle Creations Marine ESC's?





On some ESC's I've found is that the higher current ratings are for 4s. When running higher voltages, the current rating drops. Don't know if that applies to many. But it could be a safe guideline.

For instance...

http://lightflightrc.com/

This ESC is a great match for large motors that draw up to 200 amps.

170 amp Max 5S-6S
140 amp Max on 7S

Programmable features include:
- Brake on, off, soft, medium, hard
- LiPo cutoff 2S-7S
- Auto NiMh (0.8V per cell)
- Throttle setting: auto or 1.1ms to 1.8ms
- Soft or hard start
- Reversible
- Soft or hard cutoff
- Timing 1/7/15/30
- PWM 8KHz or 16KHz

[Rumdog]

I'm sure that he means this could be leading to the failure of some castle esc's. Couldn't make the connection?

[domwilson]

I have (2) Hydra 120's. No problems to report, yet.
Maybe the 240's are rated at 240 amps on 4s. Amp rating may drop with the higher voltages. Joe Ford should chime in on this.

[Rumdog]

my 240 has been good so far on 5s2p. No 6s runs yet. Not sure if I wanna risk it!

[LiPo Power]

I'm sure that he means this could be leading to the failure of some castle esc's. Couldn't make the connection?

I see your point... hmmmm
In simple words it is better to be safe than sorry...
I agree:
ESC should have little margin in its performance to what the motor draw is....
I hope I got this right....

[tiletony]

i have always had issues with the hydra240 on 6s...it is rated for that and castle says they rate their stuff low so it should handle 6s no problem.....but i would hate to add the $$ i have spent on hydras...for me the etti are great!

[hide]

Fair enough.... What was the situation? Did you do all the way it should be done?
Please tell us more....
Robert

Light 34" Mono, Neu 1521 1Y, 4S 30C 5000mah packs in parallel. Just a quick test run and it went after a few metres. All the wiring was correct and Castle confirmed it to be a manufacturing error.

However all my Castle ESC's and motors in my cars are working perfectly.

[LiPo Power]

Light 34" Mono, Neu 1521 1Y, 4S 30C 5000mah packs in parallel. Just a quick test run and it went after a few metres. All the wiring was correct and Castle confirmed it to be a manufacturing error.

However all my Castle ESC's and motors in my cars are working perfectly.

Did they say what the error was with your controller?
Thanks
Robert

[DISAR]

My HV240 worked well but got wet with sea water and it was sorted-burned. Castle replaced it without any cost-excellent service.

[Eodman]

I recently read about the Scorpion ESC's and that they were a pretty decent product -- Don't know much about them! And no experience with them!

Supposed to be a snap to program - each one comes with a remote(????) Anybody else hear anything?

[tharmer]

My scorpion ESC lasted 10 seconds. Word is that Scorpion is completely redesigning their ESCs and won't have them available for (I'm guessing here) 6 more months.
-

[NativePaul]

Castle marine ESCs have a very bad reputation over here, not for burning up or plug in death but, everyone tells me theirs died when it got wet which they wern't expecting as they alledgedly come conformal coated from the factory, maybe they need a second dip/squirt whatever the process is after the first coat has dried. I mainly use CC ESCs but I do seal them up in heat shrink with silicone plugging the ends to stop water from testing the factory conformal coating, and have only had 1 failure which was my fault, I was programming it via the TX and when I finished I accidentally switched of the TX first instead of unplugging the ESC power, I was rather peeved that such a simple error killed it despite there being a warning against it in the manual.

[LiPo Power]

I recently read about the Scorpion ESC's and that they were a pretty decent product -- Don't know much about them! And no experience with them!

Supposed to be a snap to program - each one comes with a remote(????) Anybody else hear anything?

Are they made by Castle Creations?

[Steven Vaccaro]

Just a word, which ever companies esc you buy, make sure that they will stand behind it. Castle and Etti have stood behind almost all the returns I've sent them.

[hide]

Did they say what the error was with your controller?
Thanks
Robert

No they didn't, sorry.

[tharmer]

My CC HV 240 failed to arm. I sent it back and they replaced it, citing that the "High Frequency Board" had shorted out.
-t

[T.S.Davis]

I like CC so much that a fresh pair of 240's just showed up at the house today. Shhaweet!

I had so much trouble with them when they first came out with the Barracuda that I stopped using them entirely. At CAFE years ago we lost 3 in one day with no apparent cause. Those were pre-hydra days though. I've had good luck with both the 120's and the 240's but it's like I said, nobody posts "things went perfectly today". I think I crossed my fingers every time I plugged them in for a whole season.

Maybe I'm subconsciously bias. Some of the parts are from here and there but they're put together right here in the good ole' USA. So little is these days. I know it's silly. I can't help it though. If I could find a guy to buy them from in my little home town I'd be doing that.:hug1:

[LiPo Power]

Just a word, which ever companies esc you buy, make sure that they will stand behind it. Castle and Etti have stood behind almost all the returns I've sent them.

Yeah... For the amount of ESC's they have out in peoples hands they are still doing funtastic service. I had a chance to deal with them and it was great. Straight exchange. There is not many companies out there doing great job like them. This thread so fare did not lower my confidence in Castle Creations marine ESC'c, they are great and with USB card are even more fun to have it....
Robert