seaking

[nickm669]

I have a seaking 35 a esc. The website says it's good for 2-3 cell Lipo. On the esc it says DC: 5-16.8v. Why? Can I use 4s?

[nickm669]

Anyone? Going to the lake tommarrow. I'm going to try it on 14.8, unless someone stops me. Thanks. Nick

[Rex R]

4s fully charged is 16.8v(or a smidge higher) which is the upper limit of the esc. it may survive once...but will likely suffer a greatly shortened service life if you make a habit of running on 4s.

[nickm669]

thanks for the response. I'll probably stick to 3s

[lucozader]

the boat would probably flip on 4 cells anyway and/or be uncontrolable

[sailr]

First, do NOT use 4S on that esc!

I love lucozader's answer! Nearly every day we get phone calls saying "how can I make it go faster?" We go crazy trying to explain that our boats are designed to run optimum out of the box. While they could do this or that, the esc or motor will burn up and if not that, the boat will become uncontrollable. The bottom line is, what is better....GREAT SPEED and CONTROLABILITY or a little more speed and UNCONTROLABILITY?

There's an old saying "First you must finish in order to finish first". I can't tell you how many races I've been to when the slowest boat wins. It's not all about speed unless you're running SAW's!

[nickm669]

Sailor, thank you for the response. This isn't one of your boats. It's one of the blue esc's that is in a hard plastic case, not the yellow shrink wrap. I got it in a cheap eBay mini shovelnose. I was just wondering why it said 16.8v on the case. Advise is appreciated. I'll stick to 3s. Thanks.

[sailr]

No problem. We are familiar with the esc. We are including it with our Mini ECO. Great little controller. I always try to stay on the side of caution. I'll do a little more research on the controller and get back to you.

[nickm669]

Now I'm a little confused. I picked up a used mini Eco. The esc in it is yellow shrink wrap. I thought that maybe seaking had two different versions, or they updated it. Is this yellow esc not the original for the Eco?

[Rumdog]

I believe sailr upgrades them with the Seaking. You may have a 25 amp tenshock controller.

[nickm669]

thanks for the info. That makes sense now. I did some research and mine came from the first test batch sailr brought in.

[sailr]

I spoke with the manufacturer. They discovered that if you used 4S, the BEC is compromised so they say 3S only. They have now changed the wording on the outside of the case in the latest production runs.

[sailr]

We NEVER had a yellow controller. Not sure what that one is.

[nickm669]

Thanks for the update. Does that mean I can try it, and if the bec frys I can cut the wire and use a receiver pack? Only in theory, I won't hold you to it.

[sailr]

I would say NO. I had a Seaking 120 the BEC cooked on due to a servo that locked up. I thought, well, I can cut the red wire and add a battery pack. No go...still didn't work right. The BEC evidently took out something else in the ESC as well.

You can do whatever you want as long as you're willing to live with the consequences! We're all adults here! Haha ;-)

[Jeff Wohlt]

Get an extension lead and then cut that one so you can always go back to the stock set up

[Rumdog]

Just remove the red wire and run a bec or rx pack.