Has a worthy ESC been born? The Castle XLX2 looks to be an excellent ESC.

[Brushless55]

Has anyone tried the XLX2 on 9 or even 10s Lipo.
Yes, I realize the instructions say this will damage the ESC....
Just wondering ?

It is rated at 33.6V max. Not sure if anyone is silly enough to blow it up on purpose, it will be dead once you try, just a question on how much smoke will come out.
A typical voltage limit for capacitors is 35V, that might be one reason.

You don't want to exceed the cap rating.

Funny answers to a valid question..... since if you have one of these you would realize that the
capacitors are not externally visible. Thus there is no way for a user to actually read the capacitor voltage rating.

I asked the question thinking about other Esc's ratings. Consider the Schulze 32.170. This fairly rare
no longer manufactured German unit is actually capable of being used on 10s set-ups despite the 32v
label rating. Thought possibly someone here maybe Tyler or one of the other speed trials guys might
have tried pushing them past the rated limits. Since asking the question here I have talked to Joe Ford at Castle.
He told me they know from design testing that you cannot exceed the 8s limit. He also said they have
considered future options on Marine and High Voltage units, but nothing definite at this time. During the call he
asked me several other application and technical questions. I did mentioned this thread to him and the positive
feedback posted so far on these newer Mamba converted units. It was great to hear that although not currently
producing Esc's specifically for boat applications, they have not forgotten about us, especially understanding
that we are a fairly small segment of the RC market.

Lets see, I gave a valid answer to the question you asked.
not a snarky response

FACT I've done this many times running higher voltages vs what the printed label on the esc says of many "toys".

I check what the caps say and go from there on many of my park flyers.
I've started and been a part of dozens of threads at rcgroups on this very topic.
Several years back I was testing on 2s and 3s planes, and others wondering how I'm able to "exceed" the manufactures ratings with great results not burning things up.
For a solid 6 month time at rcgroups, many people were curious. I was the first person to run 3s on the 2s UMX planes. I custom made my on micro 3s packs. I was getting 245 watts+ per lb vs the stock 110ish watts per lb. My UMX planes were ballistic and a ton of fun.
I had many haters for whatever "internet" reasons saying it could not be done, but since then Horizon has released many BNF-PNP park flyers with higher ratings of cell count for higher performance.

Yes, companies were reaching out to me for information and sending "free stuff' to me for independent testing for them that in the last 10 years has reach the market.
We have better speed controls and more powerful batteries since then that we all are enjoying today.

I personally do not give dumba$$ answers to people who could possibly burn something up or worse yet hurt themselves and others.

Oh and BTW, I spoke to Joe several years ago about this very thing on his 8s speed controls.

This is an 8s ecs and typically they have 35v capacitors that gives a little headroom, and you most definitely would be taking a risk at almost 38v that I myself would not do.

[RaceMechaniX]

The XLX2 uses 40V FET's. This is confirmed. Most 10S ESC's uses 50V components and 14S ESC's use 63V components. With any ESC you need some headroom between the DC input voltage and rated voltage of the FET's, Caps, and other components to account for voltage ripple.

BTW, The Schulze name plate ratings are based on round cell counts not the voltage. So a 40.160 was designed for 40x NiMH cells, the 32.170 for 32x cells and so on. Round cells were typically rated at 1.2V/cell hence a 32.170 could run 10S.

[jaike5]

Great info Tyler. Thx, J.

[T.S.Davis]

Oh and BTW, I spoke to Joe several years ago about this very thing on his 8s speed controls. [/B]

So then tell us that.

Take a breath man. You're initial response struck me as.......sure if yer a dumb a$$ also. You might not have typed that but it I read it that way. Lost in text translation probably. Textlation? We need a new term for when we can't read someone through text. Kens' response reads a little pissy too but I doubt he was trying to be.

So don't run the XLX2 on 10s. It will likely blow it's caps to bits. Thanks guys. Great info.

I once plugged 12s into a Phoenix 200 backwards. I had soldered my connectors reversed. Now THAT was dumb a$$ and I did get hurt. Hurts just remembering it.....eventually the chunks of gold connector worked their way out of my hand though so....... we're good!

[zooma]

I notice that the Castle ESCs don't have a motor timing setting called "auto". I am using 0 deg for D wind motors and 10 deg for Y wind. Is that right. On a D wind, would 5 deg give me more speed? I am propping for about 200+ amps on a Q class oval boat now.

[donhuff]

Ron,

I just leave the castles at the factory 10* setting. I have been running my deltas at 10 and 15 degrees for several years now, it doesn't hurt a thing, including power. I use that same setting for D and Y winds.

[ray schrauwen]

Are any of you using these esc's BEC to power the boat servo or no?

[zooma]

Are any of you using these esc's BEC to power the boat servo or no?

yes

[LibertyMKiii]

I notice that the Castle ESCs don't have a motor timing setting called "auto". I am using 0 deg for D wind motors and 10 deg for Y wind. Is that right. On a D wind, would 5 deg give me more speed? I am propping for about 200+ amps on a Q class oval boat now.

As Don noted he was able to run D wind motors on the 10 degrees timing setting within the castle link with out issue.
The reason for this is that Castle ESCs like this use dynamic timing that adjusts the timing by around 10 degrees up or down based on what the ESC determines is best from the back EMF it receives from the motor. Smart stuff and it works well!!! I attempted to lower the timing for my TP power D wind motors to zero degrees and lost speed/rpms while not gaining much in regards to motor temps (maybe 5 deg F.).

[Shooter]

So if this ESC is working well for us with a cooling mod, when will Castle offer a factory XLX marine version?

[RaceMechaniX]

Don't plan on Castle offering a marine version unless a vendor like Traxxas requests one for a boat they are building and are willing to pay for the additional validation.

[TRUCKPULL]

XLX2 - on 8s - with cooling - what is the continues amperage, and what is the peak A?

Larry

[TRUCKPULL]

I found the answer.

[NativePaul]

And...

[TRUCKPULL]

And...

350A all day long - over 500A Peak - This is with testing so far -numbers may go up.