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

[RaceMechaniX]

Tyler did you receive my pm?

No, did not receive any.

[meangenesracing]

No, did not receive any.

OK just tried again, thanks

[LibertyMKiii]

What is a little strange for me is that I find an amp-rating on the BEC but none on the ESC itself.
Any chinese Manufacturer tells you the amp-rating like 10sec and continuous on his 50$-ESC but Castle tells you what cars and batteries you can use but no amp-rating

4-600A sounds great but what duration?
Is it the max. value that you find somewhere in the data recording / Logger for one sample or is it the current at the end of the run and the peak was higher? I just ask because I use some Flycolor 150 in some SAW setup and I have also seen 500A+ as max. Peak but the max. Peak is more a function of how hard you accelerate and not how powerful your drive is



There is a lot of data, the pity is that I am not really sure about the current. Does it end at 200A in the end of the run?
If my understanding is correct don't expect too much to happen. That performance can also be handled by the FC150 for 50$ (limited to 6s of course) , it just needs a cooling modification and some caps

It would really be interesting to see some official specification to get more concrete then talking at the regular table.

Just to add some additional detail on the Castle MMX8s and XLX2. I was able to speak with an engineer at Castle Creations who confirmed there is no current limiting. Like Tyler mentioned finding that max for long durations is a very different number than what we can pull out of it for a short 10 second SAW type run.

I think you could take X number of watts total and consider something like 8-12% is converted to heat, and determine if your cooling system (or the water temps) is enough to cool down that X number of watts of heat. Ultimately with every boat, prop, and setup being different.... you will need to test and pull logs to be sure.

A few notes of interest:

1. If you are new to Castle Data logs... The RPMs in the logging were initially designed around a helicopter application where they were keeping track of rotor RPMs. Make sure in the settings that the gearing is always 1:1 and it should display the correct motor RPMs (although I see some variations that make me suspicious of how accurate it is) (also turn off graph smoothing to see the most accurate values)

2. The motor timing is dynamic and will self adjust based on back EMF. From memory it could adjust it self by 10 degrees as needed.

3. You should always leave the Castle Link setting on "smart sense" mode. If the motor is sensored it will recognize that input and do its thing and if not it will figure it out via the back emf. You should never run it on sensored only mode.

[plinse]

Fins removed.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]173522[/ATTACH]
...

If Castle does not want to do a boat-version, this format would be great to sell as well.
A flat aluminum cooler with 4 threaded holes in the corners would give every interested person all options.

My next step would be to mill the sealing surface flat but then you have the chips from milling around...
Is that a hard potting or something flexible/sticky that would have problems with chips?

The DLux 250 were a great basis for modifications. You could remove the housing, do the milling, clean everything and put it back together.

The RC Car guys seem to have much higher numbers so the manufacturers focus on them.


The interesting part would be so see whether you can run top of the notch 5000mAh LiPo up to full potential with a one motor setup using such an ESC. So far I focus on 2 motor setups (catamarans) for SAW-like runs due to the ESC topic.
Most really competitive boats with single motor setups in SAW use self made ESC utilizing some controller boards at the moment.

[RaceMechaniX]

The XLX2 is hard potted so no real concern for aluminum chips getting stuck. I have dropped the hint to the responsible Castle contact and we will just have to see. The car market is 10X what the boat market is and with this waterproof design it will not be too hard to convert to marine use with an inexpensive cooler. At $250 this is a bargin if the performance works out.

[Speed3]

The osc raider 150 is a gem.

I saw a friend run a 2240/5 turn lehner on 6s with the raider 150 with I think a x640. After seeing that I was convinced that the raider was special.

After seeing that I start running my raider with some hot setups.

Example 3650 4550kv on 3s with a x642 for just 1 pass.

Rewired 4092 to 2752kv on 4s with a x450 cut down to 45mm for 2 passes of over 400 feet. And I know the raider will handle the same 2752kv 4092 on 6s with a x642 for 2 passes.

I ran a 4092 2140kv on 6s with the cut down x450 with the raider for a few passes. Mind you the cut down x450 was not a detounge prop.

And fortunately my raider 150 is still going strong and ready for almost anything thrown at it.

Only one hot setup I saw the raider shutdown on.
I believe it was due to low voltage protection rather than overload to the esc.

It was with a 1527neu with over 3000kv on 4s with an abc 1814 17 45.

[T.S.Davis]

The Mamba X will run a limited sport. That has 4mm connectors on the board. Tiny little bugger. Mine is in my 10th scale at the moment on an old stock 1500 motor.

[donhuff]

Terry, the one I converted to water cooled has 6.5mm connectors. But It's called a Mamba Monster X and usually sells for $149.00 We did some testing with it yesterday and found that it works exactly like the bigger one and just as well for a limited setup, and it's a lot smaller and lighter than the big ones. I tried a couple of different props to see where it's limit was, but we didn't find it!
I had it in one of my monos with a 36x60 motor, actually one of my biggest motors with 2150kv, and a 1714 prop. Then I tried an 1814 prop, and it still worked fine with no knock offs. I was surprised to see that it would run that setup without getting to hot. In the graph you can see that it was a full 6 laps, the internal temps did get up to 145* but the controller never skipped a beat.DSC_0002.jpg

[donhuff]

And the big xlx2 will pull some serious amps too.

DSC_0003.jpg

Notice that this too was a full 6 laps.

[ezhitz]

Any progress to show I have one I need to convert to try in a Q hydro.

[RaceMechaniX]

Stump Fabrication is machining the first samples now. So far they look good. We need to check the O-ring gland and sealing before releasing for sale. I expect 2 more weeks. In the meantime I am working on instructions.

Castle XLX2 cooling plate lower.jpg

[ezhitz]

Thanks for the update and work your doing Tyler. At about 350. Canadian I don’t want to be impatient and blow up the esc.

[zooma]

Let me throw out a couple of questions.

Any chance this would simply work with only its fan in a boat hull on 6 cells at approx 200 AMPS?

After the sanding, could it be cooled by an aftermarket cooler from OSE or taken from a dead ESC? ZTW Seal 200 comes to mind. What adhesive?

[donhuff]

Ron,

I bet you would be ok using JUST the fan as is. I mounted a cooling plate to the bottom of the one I have in my Q mono and used it for a couple of races, and the fan never even came on that I know of. It was never on when I untaped it. And I have a TP 5660 motor in it. Lamar has one in his P mono and it acts the same, fan never comes on. I think the instructions say it is supposed to come on around 135-140(?)

We have since put water cooling caps on them, over the fins.

[donhuff]

I have a few pictures of how I do it.

This is the X8s controller, but the method is the same for the XLX2 and the little Monster X.

First, unscrew the fan and top cover and remove it and unplug the wire harness.
DSC_0001.jpg