Help me power my new Spartan!

[Zx14187]

@zx, just curious why you want to run 5s in parallel ? Your better off using what is advertised, 4 or 6cell. I would go for 6 cell and just watch your temps and maintain the boat properly, also don't do speed runs fir the whole batt , do a couple then take it easy, then do a cool down before you come i'n , as the motor/ esc heat up alot after you bring it i'n.... I saw (on mine) a 15 deg spike when i bought it i'n and let it sit to cool, that was on the motor .... Hope you get running soon and good luck and keep us posted!!

I decited I to go 5s in parallel for long runtimes and to help keep temps down. I read a nice review of the Spartan on 5s power and figured it was what I wanted.

[Rcforever27]

Oh gotcha.... I'm running (on my other Spartan) a leopard 1774 kv motor ,and a turnigy 180 esc on 6s in series/parallel, so it's 22.2 volts and each batt is 4000mah so its 16,000 mah so far no issues. Don't kno why your motor popped on that setup, if you said your motor was hot and esc was hot it would be certain that your runtimes were too long and heated things up too much.....The only thing that kills a motor is too much voltage and current which equals heat ..... Lol i don't believe it popped because of that, but it's always good to stay within the manufactures limits ....

[Zx14187]

i tried to tell you it wont work. been there tried it and when it was in low speed power i stopped so it didnt burn up. when i talked to traxxas they said 4s and 6s only!

heres video of my aquacraft motely crew with traxxas/castle system on gps at 66.2mph. best ive had it is 68.4mph. motor temps were 115 on all 2 min runs we did and was on octura x645. believe i can get 70mph if i get more prop(only for speed runs though)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCEy8MG8YLs

I ordered e battery's after talking to traxxas CS on the phone and before seeing your warning, Traxxas CS told me running 5s should be fine and that the esc would detect the 5 cell. There are several guys running 5s with no issues. I wonder what gives? I hate the thought of buying the 5s packs and not being able to use them.
I'm looking into a replacement esc and motor that will work with 5s and drop into the Spartan.

[Rcforever27]

top pic, custom made series parallel connector( made by my father), using 10 gauge wire and ec5 connectors ,bottom pic Spartan 22.2 volts and 16,000 mah....

[Brushless55]

Tested out my new 5s parallel lipos, about 3 seconds of low speed power then the motor made a pop sound and came to a stop. Now when you hit the throttle the motor shutters and will not spin. Nothing was hot or even warm.. It's on it's way to traxxas now, they will have it on thursday, hope they are quick about it. Almost a grand into a rc boat to take on my vacation up to the lake, now it's broke and I leave for the lake tomorrow lol, should have researched this before I bought it. Looks like after you finish swapping in a new motor and esc, a wire drive, lipos and figure out a way to keep the water out it might be a fun boat!! Lol

sounds like a posible bad solder joint on the esc or motor??

i tried to tell you it wont work. been there tried it and when it was in low speed power i stopped so it didnt burn up. when i talked to traxxas they said 4s and 6s only!

funny stuff man...
uh not sure if you realize that this boat comes with 7cell Nimh packs and those fully charged are just shy of 5s
running 5s is within the speedos limits and it's a great idea to do so
taking what "traxxas" says about this boat and trying to tell us at OSE like it's the Gospel?

I ordered e battery's after talking to traxxas CS on the phone and before seeing your warning, Traxxas CS told me running 5s should be fine and that the esc would detect the 5 cell. There are several guys running 5s with no issues. I wonder what gives? I hate the thought of buying the 5s packs and not being able to use them.
I'm looking into a replacement esc and motor that will work with 5s and drop into the Spartan.

when you get your new esc things should be just fine..
kudos for running under the limits of this system..

[bruce5385]

yeah i have read that people are doing it but in my case it didnt work. not trying to make anyone mad. just throwing the info i know/experianced out there. i dont know why mine or zx didnt work you know how electronics are. lol good luck

[Brushless55]

i tried to tell you it wont work. been there tried it and when it was in low speed power i stopped so it didnt burn up. when i talked to traxxas they said 4s and 6s only!

yeah i have read that people are doing it but in my case it didnt work. not trying to make anyone mad. just throwing the info i know /experianced out there. i dont know why mine or zx didnt work you know how electronics are. lol good luck

[Zx14187]

These guys ran a 5s and liked it. Others say 6s is just not nessary with this boat. http://www.rcnightmare.com/traxxas-s...-overheat.html
I hope traxxas is gonna be cool enough to just swap out the power system for the castle stuff. After all I only bought this a week ago, it shouldn't have even have been on the shelf if you ask me.

[Zx14187]

Well, it's been about 2 weeks now, I emailed traxxas and asked for an update, they responded quickly within a few hours, they told me I was getting the castle system as a replacement, but they were out of stock. Glad to be getting the upgrade, bummer it's taking so long..
For the mean time I bought a Traxxas 4x4 slash and a few 3s battery's for it, but it's overheating lol

[Zx14187]

I received an email from traxxas, my upgraded castle system in there shipping department, I should get it soon! I don't know if I want to sell the castle system or not, I plan on trying 5s 2p again. Meanwhile my traxxas slash 4x4 showed up, 3s power is good for 45-60mph! And the best part is with paddle tires it will walk on water! Now I have two boats lol

[Zx14187]

What the deuce is going on with the traxxas shipping department? My parts sat there for about a week! They just now sent a tracking number and had the package picked up, is this all part of there plan to run out the 30 day "kinda free" warranty? I'd like to try this thing out before the lakes freeze over lol

[Zx14187]

So my castle system just showed up after a very long wait, first thing I notice is a poor solder job on the power wire leads to esc, along with a burned spot where a big drip of solder or the tip of the gun melted into the esc cover, along with solder up the side of one of the caps (the neg post is now touching the cap next to it). And the u bent water intake pipe it in a postion that kinks the intake line!? What the heck? Can I rotate the intake pipe without breaking it?

[Brushless55]

holly crud bro!
can you post a picture for us??

[JT13031]

Thats some bad luck! I bought a Spartan (Castle) almost 2 weeks ago. I have ran the boat for at least 10hrs actual run time. Not a single issue that hasn't been self inflicted. I have ran the boat on 2s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and the stock nimh. 2s is just enough to get the boat on plane and have really only done it to prolong playtime while other batteries are charging, but it's a good way of cooling down the electronics too because they where ice cold after a 12 min run on 2s 5800mah. 6s seemed to be a waste IMO. 5s isn't much slowerbut gives that safety margin. 4s is where I prefer it for combination of speed and handling. Mostly just wanted to help insure that 5s is a good choice and your esc will arm and detect the 5s and the lvc works just fine.

[Zx14187]

I'll get a picture up tonight,
I ended up re soldering it, I removed the excess solder.
Aside from cosmetic issues it works great!
I'm going to start a new thread on 5s Spartans