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Went to my buddies pond (well across from his house anyways, has full access to it) today to run the Spartan for the first time with the new Castle electronics and something was not right! Ran 2 setts of fully cycled and charged batteries, stock NIMH's and some DTX5000 NIMH's and it was just plain slow. We think the ESC might have been in "training" mode, 50% throttle, but it was running on plane. I ran the boat all summer with the origional electonics and the same batteries, i know it was considerably faster than today! No, the boat was never a world record speed demon, but it ran well enough to be fun and fairly impressive before on NIMH's. I have gone back and re-set the ESC to "sport" mode, but i have no way of knowing if that was the problem until i run it again. I'm really hoping the new Castle stuff is not really that much slower than the origional Traxxas motor/ESC!! Unfortionaly i forgot and left the manual home and did not know how to change modes, maybe tomorrow i might get tim to try it again. What's everybody else's experience with the Caslte products, slower, faster, the same? Anybody else have the same problem i had today?
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Last edited by Checkmateguy01; 11-26-2011, 04:19 PM. -
Get some lipos! -
did you program it?"Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone except God.
Billy GrahamComment
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No i didn't. I just put the new electronics in the boat and powered it up, but at first i had no throttle, just servo. So i messed with holding the trigger while it was powered and i may have accidently programed it to training mode, thats all i/we can figure out. I have now re-programed it according to the manual for "sport" mode, i just talked to my buddy and we can use the pond tomorrow for testing. My buddy runs several Traxxas brushless trucks and is thinking about getting the Spartan, he said he's had issues with both Traxxas and Castle ESC being in training mode from the factory.Comment
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Is it in lipo mode? That would definitely cause it to be slow as the nimh packs won't hold their voltage under load and be hitting the lvc. I have the Spartan with Castle electronics and it still runs decent on nimhComment
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Never thought of that! But i just went and plugged in my batt's and ESC led is glowing red which means the LVC is disabled, according to the manual. Yeah i think the boat should run just fine with the NIMH's and the Castle motor/ESC, it ran good with the origional set-up!Comment
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Went back to the pond today, reprogramed the ESC, it was in training mode! Ran much better, even my buddy that is used to running on-roads R?C trucks at 40-50mph was impressed! I did get to try a set of 2 S lipos today too, just some cheap chinesse jobs, it would jump out of the hole pretty hard then immediatly hit the LVC and limp back to shore. My buddy said he charged them up the night before just to try in the Spartan, so they were charged, not sure whats going one there. Does it matter they were only 20c batts? Anyways, with a nice wide open pond that we have access too now, i have to go to Lipo's with this boat, no doubt!Comment
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The "C" rating is only half the equation - what was the cell capacity in mAh? I thought you said in post #7 that the LVC was disabled? What voltage is the LVC set for?Does it matter they were only 20c batts?
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Yes, the LVC was disabled while i was running my NIMH's, i ran 2 set's of NIMH's today and it ran great on them. THEN i tried a set of Lipo's, i enabled the LVC as per the manual (green LED was on) and it would run but only a few feet before hitting the LVC. I don't know what the MAH was, no make on them either, all we know was they are 2 S packs and 20c, and supposedly fully charged. These particular packs he uses in his race truck, never had a problem with them.Comment
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The boat is pulling a huge amp load when you punch it and the cheap packs are most likely dropping voltage under that load and hitting the lvc.Comment
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I use 2 Venom 3s 5000 mah 30c packs in series and no isuue's. Run times are about 5-7 mins at full throttle most of the time. New ESC and Castle motor installed. Get at least a 30c pack.Comment
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I was thinking about getting a set of either the 2S 40c 5000mah Venoms or the 2S 50c 5000 Venoms, the diference of about $50 total, but i've been advised from freinds not to buy Venoms. I like that they have a universal plug system and i wouldn't have to solder on my own plugs like if i went with Hobby King.Comment
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IMO batteries from HK are a much better choice than any offerings from Venom! I have had lousy luck with their batteries and have seen one catch on fire in an SC10 at the lhs. If you can't handle soldering on a connector it's probably time to find a new hobby, sorry for being blunt but if you can't solder than electric RC isn't a good hobby choice.Comment
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Not to many people a fond of the Venom's. It depends on usage I guess. Boats dont seem to be a good choice but I've seen a few truck racers talk them down as well. Experience is all I could offer. I had no problems thus far and even forgot about them and left them connected for about a week. When I realized they were still connected, I hooked them up for charging and they had fallen below voltage so my charger wouldn't charge them under the lipo charge setting. However I was able to recover them by using the nihm charge rate until they came back up to 3.3 volts and then resumed charging under the normal lipo charge rate and they recovered just fine. IMO, TP's are the best followed by XPS. Both are phenomenal batteries but are high priced. But you pay for what you get. HK's are good for the price as I have had 6s 5000mah packs as well with no issue's. Paid $67 a piece for those and that was a great deal! I did solder on my own 5.5 bullets but that was the easy part.Comment
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