Can you add a no spark resistor to a Hydra Ice HV

[drkdgglr]

As the title says: Can you add a no spark resistor to a Hydra Ice HV?

Is ask this because with the Mamba Monster from CC it is advised not to:
Do NOT use a pre-charge resistor on the Castle Creations "Mamba" line of speed controllers. Due to the way these controllers are designed, using a pre-charge resistor may render the unit inoperative. This has been confirmed by Mr. Patrick del Castillo, president of Castle Creations.

[carlcisneros]

call CC and ask them.

[drkdgglr]

I'm from the Netherlands, so calling them is going to cost me about as much as a new esc ;-)

I have emailed tech support twice, with a different question but never got an answer. That's why I thought I'd try asking here.

[m4a1usr]

As the title says: Can you add a no spark resistor to a Hydra Ice HV?

Yes you can. But it has to be a very low resistance resistor. I dont have the link added to my favorites which is from a Castle post. Its here on OSE somewhere. But the details are, it needs to be no larger than a 1 ohm resistor, minimum of 5 watts (thats what they state). I would stick with the max 1 ohm rating. Thats because using a larger resistance resistor will slow down the peak voltage reading within the time frame the ESC see's input voltage. Telling it that the pack is of a lower voltage.

I did the math. Amps= Volts (10S pack) divided by Ohms. 42 amps. Watts= Amp X Volts. I get 1764 watts. The resistor will not see 1764 watts in the time it takes to charge the caps. How much will it see? Dont know. But I use a 3 watt 5 ohm on my Schulze and other HV ESC. Havent smoked one yet. Just my 2 cents. Maybe someone will post the link to Joe Fords/ Castles recommendations.

John

[drkdgglr]

Thanks. I found the post:

Correct, but this is mainly due to the fact that higher ohm resistors will cause the ESC to improperly detect the # of cells you are using when the controller is in "auto-lipo" mode. Since the Hydras do not have this there's no worry, BUT we WILL be adding it so if you're going to do this mod it is best to use the 1 ohm 5W. However, it is not recommended with boats to use these simply because the spark you see on plug in lets you know if your capacitors are damaged or not. Spark = good caps, no spark = bad caps.

Seems like the 1 ohm recommendation only applies to the auto-lipo mode.
Strange though as MGM recommends 20-50ohm resistor's for their esc's.

I will also be adding a cap board to my Hydra Ice HV, so a 1 ohm resistor seems useless?

[drwayne]

MGM HV esc have programmed lipo count.
Thus 20-50 ohm does not affect autodetect by slowed voltage rise to fully charged caps.

W