Castle Hydra HV (not ICE hydra) Controllers beware

[cybercrxt]

I will be contacting Castle to when I have time to let them know its time for the Hydra HV series to be discontinued. While attempting to make the final connection with a one day old Hydra 180HV on 10s, the terminals arc welded in my hands, burning the skin and finger nails on my finger and thumb of my left hand, leaving them in a black carbon dust. Most everyone at the SAW event heard the bang it made, and came over. I thought I was done for at first. Checked myself over, and immediately checked to see what had happened. Postive wire to positive, negative to negative, jumper between the two packs to make a series setup, all the connector was gone into fire and dust. Quickly pulled the packs out for fear of meltdown. Doug Smock and Chris Harris come running over, we start looking over things. No popped caps-check, No reverse polarity-check, batterys voltage all checks out correct, and then Doug checked the setup using another technique on 2s to see if the controller was the issue. Sure enough, the 2s pack and controller made another welding scene on a smaller scale and in a more contolled way. We pulled the controller, and there it was, a hot spot on the control board. We confirmed this was a controller issue that created a dead loop inside itself.

I am very lucky, and honestly, Castle should feel lucky too that nothing worse happened. I hate to say it, but the HV hydra line as a joke, it has been, and apparently always will be. They have replaced it with the HV Ice series, so its time for these death traps to go. I am very disappointed and quite honestly contemplated walking away from FE yesterday because of this. After regaining my thoughts, talking to people like Doug Smock, we just decided we need to be safer. Fire retardant gloves and eye protection will need to be the norm from now one.

If this was a one time indecent, I would not point fingers, but I think Castle knows these are not good designs, and until yesterday I figured hey, if you get a bad one, they just go bad upon plug in, never in a million years would I guess a controller could dead short creating a very dangerous condition for the user.

Guys be careful out there, no matter what the brand. Never did I think a controller even had the ability to create a dead loop. Well, they do, so please take caution.

Mike

[Diegoboy]

I'm glad you're okay Mike. I'm also glad I never got into the hydra series too. I loved the CC Barracuda's and also the turnigys!

[Chilli]

I had one of my son's hard pack lipos internally short out in my hand two months ago. It took about a second before it was so hot I couldnt hold it to get it out of the house. The thought also passed my mind that I should start playing with something safer. Like highly flamible liquids.:olleyes:

I think I'm going to get a pair of welding gloves to keep in the tool box.

Glad you didnt get hurt Mikey!!!

[LarrysDrifter]

Im sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience. My eyes have been opened again to the safety factor with FE. Maybe I wont buy that Hydra 120 Ive been thinking about. Thank you,and Im glad youre okay.

[m4a1usr]

Hey Mike, thanks for the heads up. Ironically I was thinking about pulling the trigger on one of these sometime soon. They see to be popping up regularly used and for not a bad price. After hearing your terror story I'm going to rethink my logic. Glad to hear you are not hurt badly. I bet your adrenalin was running rampant for a few minutes!

John

[bigwaveohs]

Yikes!
That can't be good for the LiPos either!

[cybercrxt]

It was pretty scary. The lipos suffered a lot of splatter damage on the shrink wrap, but nothing deeper. Never again will I trust anything FE related. Took that to much for granted I guess! Mike

[line6]

Mike, Chris told me about this yesterday im just glad to here you walked away very scary stuff.

Jason Sims

[jingalls007]

wow, that really sucks, thank goodness you're ok. I've ran all castle controller's (LV) and never had an incident. I haven't heard good things about the HV line of Hydra's but still I think the LV series are great controllers. Glad to hear you're alright.

[Doug Smock]

We need to give this some serious thought every time we make that final connection fellas.
This could have been life altering.
I will at the very least be wearing safty glasses from now on when I make the battery connection regardless of the control. Never forget how dangerous these toys are.

Mike have you contacted tech support?
Doug

[Jeepers]

Glad your ok Mike.

I have been rethinking Castle Hydra's myself, at the Winter Warmups I plugged in a brand new Hydra 120, in my spec hydro and it went up in flames with my hands right next to it.

[Doby]

Glad you're OK...Castles controllers have a mixed history with a lot of people on here....

For the price, I would expect a lot more consistency in their reliability....afterall, they are not from Hobby King.

[jingalls007]

The more I think about this the more I feel how truly lucky you are not to have lost an eye, a finger, a hand, burns etc. You hate to hear about a "popped" controller in someone's model, it happens on occasion as we all know, but I've yet to read about the "popped" controller in the hands of the modeler him/herself. Very happy to know you weren't severely injured, race on brother!!

[MarkF]

I have been using Castle controllers for over 15 years now. I have burnt my share up and have even plugged the batteries together on 10 and 12s packs and experianced all the fireworks and a few burn marks. But I have never heard of a controller shorting out on plug in. I'm sure its happened before and not with just Castle controllers but to say they need to be discountinued I think is a little harsh to say the least. What you experienced was no different than accidentally plugging in 2 packs together and getting the crap scared out of you, which I'm sure most people on this board have done at least once if not more. Should we bad mouth all bullet plugs and lipos while were at it too and have them banned. How about propellers? Maybe we should have them discontinued because we all know how dangerous they can be. Im sorry you got hurt Mike but your rant I think was a little over the top.

Mark

[Doug Smock]

There ya have it Mike.
Just practice shorting out your batteries and reversing the polarity on your ESCs and you'll get used to it. LOL

Mark, just like you the man is intitled to his opinion.
His is a word of caution...........................
I run Castle LV controls in all of my boats except SAWs and Limited and they have been good controls. The Baracuda controls were famous for smoking on plug in until the firmware change. The HV controls have a sorted history , this is NOT new news.
Would your opinion be the same if he had lost an eye or two?? THIS WAS BAD NEWS!!
Doug

Be careful fellas!!

[Steven Vaccaro]

Mike glad you didn't have serious injury's!

The moral of this story is that this is very dangerous stuff we are dealing with. Proceed with the highest caution!

Nothing is without its problems. I had a rx fire on my bench two weeks ago. I simply plugged in a esc with a bec that was defective and supplied 15 volts to the rx and poof. Literal fire. If it was a bit closer to some plastic bags on the wall, it may be a diff story.

Again, glad your ok Mike!

[cybercrxt]

Thanks Steven and Doug, and all the others. This message was mainly just to caution people about how dangerous this stuff is. The castle HV series, as a lot of people know, has a very mixed history of burning up on plug in. My story pushs that level of defect a little further, and I want people to know! Sorry if Mark F might be sponsored by Castle. Its a shame that he took it as a slam. He was a very cool guy when we talked on the phone last year.....

[LuckyDuc]

Glad you had no irreparable injuries. You are very lucky.

I boat with a retired shop teacher. He told me to always wear glasses, have a fire extinguisher handy (bucket of sand in our case), and a first aid kit. I usually wear the glasses and have the first aid kit with me, but I get lazy about the bucket of sand.

[sailr]

I've seen quite a few of the 240HV's smoke on plug in. Nothing new. The criticism here is a bit strong. I've seen the big Schulze's do the same thing. Regardless of price, HV esc's are still a weak link in our hobby. I'm not defending Castle, but do criticize all of the ESC makers for not seeming to be able to consistently make stable HV units!


I have been using Castle controllers for over 15 years now. I have burnt my share up and have even plugged the batteries together on 10 and 12s packs and experianced all the fireworks and a few burn marks. But I have never heard of a controller shorting out on plug in. I'm sure its happened before and not with just Castle controllers but to say they need to be discountinued I think is a little harsh to say the least. What you experienced was no different than accidentally plugging in 2 packs together and getting the crap scared out of you, which I'm sure most people on this board have done at least once if not more. Should we bad mouth all bullet plugs and lipos will were at it too and have them banned. How about propellers? Maybe we should have them discontinued because we all know how dangerous they can be. Im sorry you got hurt Mike but your rant I think was a little over the top.

Mark

[MarkF]

See most of us have seen this kind of thing happen before. By the way I'm not sponsored by Castle. They have been good to me on some of my burnt controllers but I had to go buy them originally just like everyone else. Most of my big cell count records were with Schulze controllers anyways and I had to buy them too. I'm glad your OK Mike but Castle has bent over backwards to try and give us a good controller and I didn't think it was fair for you to go on multiple sites and tell people that because of your incident that there HV controllers are no good and they need to be discontinued. You as a vendor yourself should know better. How would you like it if someone had a problem with one of your kits like maybe they got a bad splinter that required some stitches and started a campaign saying all of your kits are crap and should be discontinued because they got hurt so everyone better beware. Would you consider that fair and his right to do that? I guess you would have too. I didn't mean to affend anybody by my post, I think I just woke up in a bad mood this mourning.
Sorry

Mark

[Doug Smock]

Mark it's all good, point taken.
I've seen a couple of guys short packs. Saw a guy have some leads get loose on a 10s2P set up and short against a 300 Shultze, I've had Baracudas fry on plug in. I have never seen anything in model boating as violent as this was.:ohmy:

I always have a fire extinguisher and a bucket of sand near by, thankfully I have never needed either. Sometimes I have glasses on, sometimes I dont. Mikes experience changed that for me.

Doug:beerchug:

[Greg Schweers]

I've been doing this for 20+ years, and from the day I started to this day, the speed controller has always been the weakest link. I have burned up quite a few speed controllers. The old say was "if you want your controller tested, give it to Mark," because he could burn up anything. I've seen more than one Shultze poptop burn up on being plugged in. In '09 I had two 240LV controllers burn up on plug in, and one burn up in the boat. All 3 were basically my fault: the setup was too hot, and I knew it. If you push the controller too hard, eventually, when you plug it in, it will just burn. I solved the problem by talking to Castle, I paid some money and they built me a 360, and I haven't had a problem since. But, I've also dead-shorted 2S-packs and 4S packs - that will wake you up! Mike, this could have happened to any brand controller you had. I know that people have had a lot of trouble with the HV controller. You just have to remember you're playing with big amps, and when something goes wrong, something's gotta give (either the controller or the batteries). Yes, I have burned my fingeres more than once. Another safety tip, don't change the prop while the batteries are plugged in (don't ask me how I know).

[detox]

I once returned a VERY burnt Hydra 120 LV ESC to Castle. The nice lady I spoke with reffered to my burnt esc as "one crispy critter".

[ray schrauwen]

Mike glad you didn't have serious injury's!

The moral of this story is that this is very dangerous stuff we are dealing with. Proceed with the highest caution!

Nothing is without its problems. I had a rx fire on my bench two weeks ago. I simply plugged in a esc with a bec that was defective and supplied 15 volts to the rx and poof. Literal fire. If it was a bit closer to some plastic bags on the wall, it may be a diff story.

Again, glad your ok Mike!

I bet you moved those bags!! :doh:

Glad to hear you are O.k. Mike. Thanks for posting, always good to be reminded we are playing with fire so to speak.:flashfire:

I have dead shorted a pack or two and thats just not fun.

At least I've never welded leads together, :sleep:....