Castle Hydra Firmware

[Flying Scotsman]

Douggie is getting conufused again!! Software V3.12 is for the Mamba Monster controller. V3.05 was the latest for the Hydra series which included firmware V1.4 update. Are there problems in using the Mamba sotware with Hydra controllers,.

Joe Ford, PLEASE ADVISE.

Douggie

[Darin Jordan]

Douggie is getting conufused again!! Software V3.12 is for the Mamba Monster controller. V3.05 was the latest for the Hydra series which included firmware V1.4 update. Are there problems in using the Mamba sotware with Hydra controllers,.

Joe Ford, PLEASE ADVISE.

Douggie

Douggie,

The Castle link software you download from CC is for ALL of their controllers... It "knows" which controller you hook to it and gives you the appropriate options for that controller...

I downloaded V3.12 this weekend and like the additional detail it provides. Just have to sit down and reprogram all my ESCs now.

[Flying Scotsman]

Darin, thanks for that info. I am anal at installing new software. I have Microsoft to thank for that fear.
Thanks,

Douggie

[Darin Jordan]

Darin, thanks for that info. I am anal at installing new software. I have Microsoft to thank for that fear.
Thanks,

Douggie

No problem... Castle seems to have their software install utility working great. It uninstalls any previous versions and installs the new version and it's all pretty much transparent to the use... Just let it do it's thing and it seems to work great.

[Ub Hauled]

Not only does it install and unistall the software but if for some reason the install is not successful it rolls-back all the info to leave it as it was prior to the install. I had that happen to me, since I have Vista on the PC I use for the Castle link I had to jump to a couple of hoops to get it going... nothing too bad, just extra hoops.

[Darin Jordan]

since I have Vista on the PC I use for the Castle link I had to jump to a couple of hoops to get it going... nothing too bad, just extra hoops.

I'd be interested in more details on this, since I'm about to give my wife a new Dell Laptop with Vista on it for her Birthday... I'll, of course, need to borrow it for important events like testing at the lake, so I'll need to install the Link on it...

[Ub Hauled]

I'd be interested in more details on this, since I'm about to give my wife a new Dell Laptop with Vista on it for her Birthday... I'll, of course, need to borrow it for important events like testing at the lake, so I'll need to install the Link on it...

Darin I know what you do for a living so this should be a piece O' cake for you. It's easy stuff for anyone though...
the installer told me that there was a file that could not be used so the whole things failed, it rolled me back to the original state. I tried first to install it as a "Win Pro Service Pack 2" and it still would not go, then I tried to "run it as an admin" and
that did the trick. Easy, eh!?
BTW, I have a Dell as well... fairly new, we got it earlier this year for my wife.

[Punisher 67]

I have 3 dells including the little 9 inch for my mill programing and eagletree at the pond thats in transit right now , by far most dependable machines I have ever used..................

[Ub Hauled]

I agree Peter, the next best thing you can have, BESIDES A MAC, is a Dell, great support dept.

[Flying Scotsman]

I purchase a new Dell to replace an old Delll about 4 months ago. Nothing but problems. They stepped up to the plate and replaced the unit...no problems since. I run XP with Service Pack 3. I will not touch VISTA after talking to some IT guys. Plus much of my existing software would not operate with Vista
Darin, I reconfigured one of my CC ESCs Hydra 120 and will test with an Eagle Micro Logger, as soon as it warms up.
N.B. I had to reinstall the software twice before the ESC would re-calibrate correctly and with a steady LED on full throttle
P.S. Jan my settings are the same except for custom timing and cutoff voltage. I programmed 3 for timing and 16.5 cutoff(5S)

Douggie

[TRUCKPULL]

Now here is the big question
A lot of us ran V 1.03 software because a lot of people said that V1.04 made things hot.
We now find out that with V1.03 timing settings were actually
Low – 16.25 degrees
Normal – 16.25 degrees
Race – 10.75 degrees
Extreme – 16.25 degrees

If you used the V1.04 timing settings were.

Low – 4.75 degrees
Normal – 9 degrees
Race – 12.75 degrees
Extreme – 16.25 degrees

For NEU motors we were told to use LOW with “D” winds and Normal with
“Y” winds

Now with the V3.12 castle link, do we still have a chouse between V1.03 and V1.04??
What are the timing settings in DEGREES for racing with the NEU “D” and “Y” winds??
My setups before were as we see now 16.26 degrees for both “D” and “Y” winds.

Larry

[Flying Scotsman]

Larry, for the Hydra 120. I was given the choice of V1.3 or 4. The HV series may not allow this???

Douggie

[Ub Hauled]

Larry I believe you get to chose between "Firmware 1.03 or 1.04",
since you know that your motors were running 16.26 degrees, now all you'd have to do
is chose the same settings on the new Software version since the Firmwares are the same.
I think people are getting a bit confused as far as Software version and Firmware version....

The "Software" is the application one has to open to see all the options and change them...
The "Firmware" is what is inside the chips that does all the math for you to be able apply these options.
If someone has a better explanation please go right ahead...

So, when one is saying Software remember that that is the Interface and when someone says Firmware, remember it's invisible.
The problem that is occurring right now is that the selections showing on the Interface are not corresponding to what the Firmware is telling the ESC to do...
I hope that I could help someone with this.

Douggie, I believe you are right, the Hydra HV series does not support Firmware version 1.03

[Joe Ford]

Geez guys...I was at a show with no internet connection. I'm not leaving you hanging, I'm not running away, not going to ignore you...I was busy. I'm here now, ask away.

Darin...thank you for answering some questions while I was gone...it is appreciated. :)

I will talk with the engineers about the high timing voiding warranty situation. We'll see what they say...not my decision.

Castle is very sorry for any frustration this debacle may have caused any of you. We knew some people would be upset but chose to just put it out there. We could have just fixed it, released 1.05/06, and not said another word. But that's not the way we do business...if we mess up we admit to it. So our apologies gents.

[TRUCKPULL]

Thank You JOE
Castle is great, not many companies would give us this much information.

I downloaded the New Castle Link V3.12
Every thing is good, we can still switch between V1.03 and V1.04

I talked to Steve at NEU motors, we all know that he said before that the
"D" winds should be set to LOW
"Y" winds set to Normal

Now with V1.04 we can set the degrees to any thing we want.

Steve said to set the "D" winds at 0 to 4.75 degrees with V1.04
The 16.25 degrees that we had before with the V1.03 would not efect the motor, seeing that they ("D" winds) don't respond to timing changes.

The "Y" winds should be set at 9 to 15 degrees with V1.04

Larry