Water cooled mamba xl2

[kfxguy]

Try to make the story short....I wanted an ice 240 in my Rivercat im building. Well they don't make them anymore as you all know, but I found out quite some time back that a mamba xl2 is the exact same esc except (per castle and I have a burnt one I compared to confirm this) the top shell is different because it's air cooled and the firmware is a little different. I prefer how a car based esc drives anyway, so a plus for me. So I picked up a mamba xl2 and decided to water cool it. Me being me, I couldn't just epoxy some tubing to it and call it a day. No. I had to make crap complicated as I usually do lol. I wanted to show what I ended up with as it looks pretty cool I think.

First off I changed the caps on the board. It can with 35v caps. Hmmm. Common sense tells me it's probably not so good to cut it that close, especially if I run 8s through the thing. Sitting voltage with hv cells is 34.16v. Too close for me. So in went 50v caps. Then I lightly coated the whole circuit boards with clear epoxy like I use on everything else. This things are known for going out if water if thinks about getting close. Next I milled off the Fins to make way for two cooling blocks I milled.




Then here's the cooling blocks.

[kfxguy]

Epoxy coated the board. I did the little board too. That thing has been known to unplug and kill the esc. I taped it good after plugging in and put heat shrink over it. It should never come unplugged.





Finished unit. I bench tested it for a bit and appears to work perfect. My luck, it will last about 30 seconds when I throw the boat in the water haha!

[kfxguy]

It's also sealed with black silicon so water should not enter but in case it does the epoxy should guard it. Here it is sitting in the new Rivercat im building.

[kfxguy]

And a couple more pics. What do you guys think?

[tlandauer]

Looks really beautiful as always! Man, that block look as good as it can be!
So you are saying that this is essentially the same as the 240 A ESC that CC discontinued? How is the firmware differ between land and sea? I assume you can disable the "reverse" feature for boat use.
Forgive me for asking as I am still not quite clear , do you use regular epoxy to coat the board?

[kfxguy]

Looks really beautiful as always! Man, that block look as good as it can be!
So you are saying that this is essentially the same as the 240 A ESC that CC discontinued? How is the firmware differ between land and sea? I assume you can disable the "reverse" feature for boat use.
Forgive me for asking as I am still not quite clear , do you use regular epoxy to coat the board?

Thanks! Yes it's the same except the top shell of it is designed for air cooling. As far as firmware differences I'm not sure but I think I remember him saying something about the throttle curve being different. I have a ice 240 also and the boards are identical.

[ray schrauwen]

You can fool the esc into thinking it's a marine if you choose the marine version in software, so I was told by Larry Jaques but, I have not tried yet. Still not sure how I want to mod mine. Some have lightly mentioned that this has possibly current limiting but, I have no idea??

Looks good, well,, let us know what it's like on water. We'll be frozen here for a while.

[Cooper]

Yes that is good!! I've been wanting to do similar on my cc esc's. As I don't like how the past marine 4 tube cooling was. Thanks for sharing and great mod!!

[kfxguy]

You can fool the esc into thinking it's a marine if you choose the marine version in software, so I was told by Larry Jaques but, I have not tried yet. Still not sure how I want to mod mine. Some have lightly mentioned that this has possibly current limiting but, I have no idea??

Looks good, well,, let us know what it's like on water. We'll be frozen here for a while.

I actually like the way car escs drive anyway. Yes it has current limiting. Might be a good thing. Lol. I'm gonna test it in something soon.

[Spartanator]

Haha, build thread AGAIN!

CF Mamba XL2 looks better than factory! You ought to pop Castle an email saying you revised the Marine Division... lol

[kfxguy]

Haha, build thread AGAIN!

CF Mamba XL2 looks better than factory! You ought to pop Castle an email saying you revised the Marine Division... lol

Well honestly I don't have much faith in this design esc. There's all sorts of wrong about it in my opinion. I'm hoping that if I take it easy it may last. I'd be happy if I got as much use out of it as my seaking 180. It does look quite good I'll agree.

[srislash]

I like it Trav, I just got 4 Phoenix Ice 200's and will be modding them. I have had my Ice 240 for three(or four possibly) years and it is still going strong in my 1717 powered DF.

[Brushless55]

I like it Trav, I just got 4 Phoenix Ice 200's and will be modding them. I have had my Ice 240 for three(or four possibly) years and it is still going strong in my 1717 powered DF.

I've heard good things about those escs

[kfxguy]

I've heard good things about those escs

I hope I have good luck. My first one lasted about 5 minutes. I'm not 100% positive but I think it got wet. Hopefully the epoxy protects it well. Guess I'll be finding out.

[Brushless55]

I hope I have good luck. My first one lasted about 5 minutes. I'm not 100% positive but I think it got wet. Hopefully the epoxy protects it well. Guess I'll be finding out.

Keep us posted bro !