Castle Firmware 1.04

[Steven Vaccaro]

I know its been said before, but I think its worth repeating. I just uploaded firmware 1.04 and noticed the boat was a bit slower. Come to find out the led on the esc was blinking. Meaning that the esc was not running at 100%. I tried everything and couldn't get a solid color. So I downgraded to 1.03 and its working great. So if you do upload firmware 1.04 make sure to look for a solid red led at full throttle or it will go boom.

[Fluid]

Steven, did you re-program the ESC to the receiver again after loading the 1.04? I switched to 1.04 early this year and have had zero problems with my 240LVs. I custom program the timing to 1 degree for the Neu D motors and 8 degrees for everything else. Works for me on Spektrum and FASST radios...


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[Raydee]

Yep make sure you did a recalibration of the throttle after updating the esc. I am running 1.04 on all my Castle boat esc's now and yes I did notice a slow down from 1.03 but they are also running much cooler than they did in the previous firmware because the timing values were wrong. I am running my Y winds on RACE now and my boats regained most of their speed back, on my D winds I am running them all on Low and they seem fine.

I will not be the guy that jumps on every update that Castle puts out in the future. They just did a update on their Heli/Airplane ESC's they left a lot of them burnt or bricked. They came out with a revision the next day to fix the problem and told their customers that they would replace the controllers for them but that was a big problem. I still run Castle ESC's in everything I own with the exception of one of my Heli's (that will be getting the new Castle ICE controller soon) but I am still very leary about doing any firmware updates until they are 100% proven to be working right with no bugs.

[cacofonix]

hi there

is there any chance that ICE series will be declined into Boat version ???

herve

[Raydee]

I actually asked that to Lee and he just gave me a face and said it was a good idea. The Ice series with heatsink is good up to 8s with 5a switching BEC built in and only $120......no brainer for my heli's. If they come out with them for the boats with watercooling I would def try one.

[properchopper]

A few months ago at RCX, Jan and I talked to Patrick del Castillo, Pres. of CC about the Ice becoming available in a marine version. He was pretty enthusiastic about the control and said there were plans to market a watercooled version for FE use. No timetable was offered. Jan's memory of this conversation may be more accurate than mine, hopefully He'll chime in.

[bustitup]

A few months ago at RCX, Jan and I talked to Patrick del Castillo, Pres. of CC about the Ice becoming available in a marine version. He was pretty enthusiastic about the control and said there were plans to market a watercooled version for FE use. No timetable was offered. Jan's memory of this conversation may be more accurate than mine, hopefully He'll chime in.

let me see if I can get Joe Ford over here to address this

[properchopper]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if CC spends a good amount of time testing the marine version before releasing it to the FE community given their previous history with the Hydra series and our habit of actually desiring the controls to perform as advertised .

[Raydee]

Castle is at Ircha this weekend displaying some of their new ESC's and 700 Size heli electric conversion kits.

[Steven Vaccaro]

Steven, did you re-program the ESC to the receiver again after loading the 1.04? I switched to 1.04 early this year and have had zero problems with my 240LVs. I custom program the timing to 1 degree for the Neu D motors and 8 degrees for everything else. Works for me on Spektrum and FASST radios...


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I did and also advanced the throttle trim all the way and still couldn't get a solid red. I was a bit rushed and only had a 1/2 hour to mess around with it. I will try again when I get back.

[Ub Hauled]

A few months ago at RCX, Jan and I talked to Patrick del Castillo, Pres. of CC about the Ice becoming available in a marine version. He was pretty enthusiastic about the control and said there were plans to market a watercooled version for FE use. No timetable was offered. Jan's memory of this conversation may be more accurate than mine, hopefully He'll chime in.

Mid year was the word... but not actual dates.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if CC spends a good amount of time testing the marine version before releasing it to the FE community given their previous history with the Hydra series and our habit of actually desiring the controls to perform as advertised .

You are on the money my friend... but given that lately they have been... hmm... lacking on the QC (or something else) of the Hydras it would not surprise me at all if the release of Marine version of ICE was postponed, just like Tony mentioned.

One cool feature in my opinion of ICE, is the built in Black box...

[G Doggett]

I know its been said before, but I think its worth repeating. I just uploaded firmware 1.04 and noticed the boat was a bit slower. Come to find out the led on the esc was blinking. Meaning that the esc was not running at 100%. I tried everything and couldn't get a solid color. So I downgraded to 1.03 and its working great. So if you do upload firmware 1.04 make sure to look for a solid red led at full throttle or it will go boom.

Hi Steven
I have version 1.04 in both my Hydra 120s and like you found I could not get full throttle on the ESCs( light still blinking) in spite of recalibrating the throttle.
In the end I fixed this by setting the Throttle EPA to 120 and it worked fine.
I know the manual says use 100 for ESC but just ignore it.
Just another weird feature with Castle ESCs.
Graham.

[Jeepers]

Steven check the throttle curve on the esc, sometimes the line looks like its at 100% but its not click on the line and move it if need be.

I had to do this to a few of the controllers in the boat club and my own.

[D. Newland]

I had a problem yesterday with this while trying to get a new Tx to work. Turns out the Tx was not set on full brake, or something having to do with the brake setting. I got it after a few tries.

Also, I have noticed that new Castle ESC's shipped from the factory as recently as 7/1/09 are still loaded with V1.03. If you don't have a Castle Link, find someone that does and check yours!

[domwilson]

Has anyone had a problem with the Tactic/tower 2.4 ghz radios and this ESC?
I have to turn on throttle reverse for mine to work.