Castle Ice controllers

[Steven Vaccaro]

Eric I understand your backgound, but there are also us without that background but years of experience with the product. I'm on about my third year with esc's and corrosion x, no problems at all. The reason I dont use a conformal epoxy is the heat retention. Its like adding a winter coat to the esc.

[Eric Bourlet]

T, You need to call Castle they have great customer support talk to Joe explain your situation and ask him.

Steve, if a conformal coating causes any thermal issues then you have far bigger problems, like poor design, lack of proper heat sinking , thermal coupling between the heat generating devices (FET, regulator...) and the heat sink. If adding a conformal coating to the PC board causes over heating, buy a different product . What does a respectable company like CC use? I know that they offer a conformal coating service for a small additional fee. Either way I would certainly check with the manufacture of the ESC and ask them if they approve and will stand behind a product of theirs doused in a penetrating lubricant. At least that way you will know if there will be any warranty issues.

[Steven Vaccaro]

T, You need to call Castle they have great customer support talk to Joe explain your situation and ask him.

Steve, if a conformal coating causes any thermal issues then you have far bigger problems, like poor design, lack of proper heat sinking , thermal coupling between the heat generating devices (FET, regulator...) and the heat sink. If adding a conformal coating to the PC board causes over heating, buy a different product . What does a respectable company like CC use? I know that they offer a conformal coating service for a small additional fee. Either way I would certainly check with the manufacture of the ESC and ask them if they approve and will stand behind a product of theirs doused in a penetrating lubricant. At least that way you will know if there will be any warranty issues.

Epoxy or Spray conformal?

It depends on the type of coating and the esc's application it was built for. This topic is for an airplane esc that is designed to have a flow of air over the heat sink for cooling. In a boat it changes the whole design, adding an epoxy coating can't possibly help the situation.

Also, The spray is not nearly as good as epoxy, but its better than anything. I've tested that and proven it to myself, by dunking a esc coated with both under water. The epoxy is great but I wouldn't coat any airplane esc, unless I was willing to take the chance of an issue.

The Hydra Series is spray coated, I've experienced water or condensation shut downs that have been completely eliminated with the use of Corrosion X.

[Eric Bourlet]

I did not mean to imply that you cover the heat sink with any type of coating, sorry if I came across that way. I use a Silicone based conformal coating similar to what Castle Creations uses. I don't use epoxy based coating because that were not allow for removal if I wanted to change the wires at a later date. Either way I would not use any of them over a heat sink that required air flow to cool it only on the PC board itself.

[Steven Vaccaro]

I did not mean to imply that you cover the heat sink with any type of coating, sorry if I came across that way. I use a Silicone based conformal coating similar to what Castle Creations uses. I don't use epoxy based coating because that were not allow for removal if I wanted to change the wires at a later date. Either way I would not use any of them over a heat sink that required air flow to cool it only on the PC board itself.

I figured you didnt mean that. Sorry if I made it sound that way.

I've seen people(including myself), make bricks out of esc's with epoxy covering the entire esc, similar to a AquaCraft or ProBoat esc. Those are waterproof. A Castle esc with the conformal spray is more water resistant. Some water wont kill it, but if swapped, my moneys on a dead esc.

[electric]

So, besides the incident above in this thread. How have these "ICE" controllers been holding up? Interested in the 200amp model. I noticed Steven is selling those.

[Fluid]

So far my ICE100 has held up fine. A bunch of runs on the 6S setup, most had average runs over 125 amps and the ESC never shut down although it did get hot - over 250F a few times. Since then it has been running a 60-65 amp UL-1 setup for months and not a bobble; temps run 120-135F with no cooling.



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[tharmer]

Has it ever been dunked?

[BakedMopar]

I've had good luck with mines with the exception of one that got submerged.

[Darin Jordan]

Guys... Thinking of trying one of the ICE 100's for a Limited boat. Do you need anything besides the Castle Link in order to use the Data Logging function?? Are there any extra leads or ??? that are required/available?

Thanks,

[Eric Bourlet]

Just need the CastleLink. It comes with a gift certificate for a free one or for an additional $10.00 you can get the programming card that also acts as a CastleLink but allows you to program all the speed control functions without having to have a PC. BTW the data logging functions of the ICE are easy to use and a great tuning tool.

[Darin Jordan]

Just need the CastleLink. It comes with a gift certificate for a free one or for an additional $10.00 you can get the programming card that also acts as a CastleLink but allows you to program all the speed control functions without having to have a PC. BTW the data logging functions of the ICE are easy to use and a great tuning tool.

Right on... I have a sweet little laptop just for bringing to the races, already setup for Castle stuff, so I'll just go with the ESC for now.

Now to figure out the best way to protect it from H20....

Do you think the water cooling was worth it on this, or do you think it might be fine without??

[Eric Bourlet]

I would certainly water cool it for our P-Spec stuff. My data showed 85-100 amp with peaks of 130 amp and the temperature never got over 120F. It is easy to get excellent thermal coupling in a water cooled adaptation like in post 98 of this thread and it can be done with off the shelf aluminum angle and a dremmel tool.

[bustitup]

I would certainly water cool it for our P-Spec stuff. My data showed 85-100 amp with peaks of 130 amp and the temperature never got over 120F. It is easy to get excellent thermal coupling in a water cooled adaptation like in post 98 of this thread and it can be done with off the shelf aluminum angle and a dremmel tool.

will one of these work just layed on top of the heatsink...they are about 2" square
the one in this picture is mounted on a sentilon 100amp turnigy..there pretty large

two could be used on a turnigy monster 200 esc

I have a few of these available....pm with any interest

[Eric Bourlet]

It would not be very effective due to very little actual surface area making contact it would only contact the top of the fins. The way it's done in post 98 the water flows over 4 sides of the heat sink fins on both sides of the controller giving a very large surface area to transfer heat. In fact I would guess it has more surface area than the holes drilled trough the plate you show above, even if it was secured directly to the FETs. I may get an ICE lite and work on building a clamp on water cooled heatsink that can cool the FETS on both sides of the board, but from the data collected so far that would be serious over kill. Remember that this project is for racing where we are putting a bit more demand than the casual user so I want optimum cooling because the cooler we can run the lower the losses.