Castle Creations Hydra ICE 200A HV 50V

[Steven Vaccaro]

God love the Castle Dealer support. I find out more from my customers and Tower Hobbies than I do them directly?
A customer emailed me this link.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXAPNS&P=7

Looks like something new is coming. But god know what since they dont tell us?

[GeoVW72]

really

everything I have come across points to the new mamba xl platform.

Hydra XL HV

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=CSEHYDRAXLHV

not like castle's giving us any specs on the new xl yet

http://www.castlecreations.com/products/mamba_xl.html

[FighterCat57]

God love the Castle Dealer support. I find out more from my customers and Tower Hobbies than I do them directly?
A customer emailed me this link.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXAPNS&P=7

Looks like something new is coming. But god know what since they dont tell us?

What's up with them? Great final product and warranty but really disorganized.



A 200 ICE HV 50v, now, that's a good thing.

[LarrysDrifter]

The price sucks.And even these will still probably blow on plug in.

[RIPFENCE]

i am going to try one of these..and if they blow for no known then i will be done with castle esc's for good..if its a quality product then i do not think the price is that bad..yeah its still high but not nearly as ridiculous of the 240 hv..now that esc was terribly overpriced IMO..

[Fluid]

I've been running an ICE200 LV for months in a strong P Sport Hydro, pulling an average of 180+ amps without problems. And with only fan cooling; on a 90*F day after 7 laps on the 1/6th mile course the ESC stayed under 190*F internal temp which is about 140*F external. Zero issues after several dozen heats. A Marine water cooled version could only be better....but I paid just $223 shipped on eBay for this new ESC plus a PiStix.

Setup:
Neu 1521/1.5D
4S2P/5000mAh G3s
S230 prop

I have been running three different Castle ICE controllers this year, zero problems as long as they stay dry.


.

[domp444]

There's also the new 240XL which is the one I'm waiting for.

[Fluid]

It is highly unlikely that there will be two different Marine platforms, namely the ICE and the XL. My source at Castle said the new marine controller will be based on the ICE platform - but that was several months ago. Tower has been advertising the ICE versions for months too. The ICE had datalogging long before the XL announced it. I wonder what if any differences exist besides the names and the case?


.

[NativePaul]

All I know for sure is that the new hydras will be Ice based and will have single 8guage wires rather than twin 10g this has come straight from Patrick at castle in the last couple of weeks and is a very welcome change to me.

I would guess that the hydra will have more FETs than the MXL, the MM is 100A and the MMM 120A, I haven't seen the specs yet but if I was castle I would make the MXL 150A max, I just don't see the need for a 200A ESC for cars and the cost saving over the number of units they will sell will be very substantial.

I can imagine 2 Hydra ESCs one for 8s and a HV one for 12s both based on the Ice platform, HV FETs have higher resistance than LV ones so you have to have more of them in order to drop the heat down to the same level at the same ampage,
HV ICE uses Infineon BSC031N06 (3.1 milliohm, 60V)
Mamba XL uses Infineon BSC019N04 (1.9 milliohm, 40V)
They are working on a possible 12s HV MXL which will keep the price and size down by having the same watt limit, higher voltage and lower ampage, but I don't think that that would fly with us boat guys in the Hydra line, so if there is a 200A HV Hydra Ice at some point you can expect it to be bigger and more expensive than the regular 200A Hydra Ice just like the current Hydra range. Anyone know the specs for the current Hydra HV? The specs above would indicate a 50% bigger and more expensive HV unit whereas from pictures the current lone looks double size so FET progress could have lead to a cheaper HV version.

[video200]

$340 for 200 amp and 50V is not bad as long as they work as intended. and with datalogging you dont need a eagle tree in there as well.
i for one is looking forward to this one :D

[FighterCat57]

$340 for 200 amp and 50V is not bad as long as they work as intended. and with datalogging you dont need a eagle tree in there as well.
i for one is looking forward to this one :D

I agree, IF it works well and is reliable, it's worth the extra cost.

[melonballer]

Castle has updated their website with the new ice series controllers.

[detox]

I wonder if these will be sensetive to large voltage drop. The older Hydra's would burn if you did not run enough mah to guard against burn. Lots of stop and go driving would burn the old ones up in a heart beat.

http://www.castlecreations.com/products/hydra_ice.html

...

[Himalaya]

Castle has updated their website with the new ice series controllers.

Yep, and Tower says available later this month.