Castle ICE ESC and Pistix

[sailr]

I just saw it there. Now I feel really stupid! Not sure how I missed it before. $349 and it only goes to 8S? Crazy man.

[BakedMopar]

One thing I like about them is the current limiter works. I've had my 100 to 180 plus amps many times when it hits the limiter.

[Raydee]

Sailr that is the Castle price. MOST vendors are selling the 200 for under $300. The last one I bought (the one I am using now) I got from a online store that was selling them on ebay for $210 shipped. One of the other 200's I bought for $250 shipped.

[Raydee]

One thing I like about them is the current limiter works. I've had my 100 to 180 plus amps many times when it hits the limiter.

I can tell you right now by looking at my logs today that I am going to be going over 200 amps EASILY in the near future.
I think I hit the limiter on mine twice today. I thought they were radio glitches but after switching props it never happened again. I have my limiter set to sensitive so it will kick in pretty fast, I might have to switch it to normal for the next time out.

[Fluid]

I just saw it there. Now I feel really stupid! Not sure how I missed it before. $349 and it only goes to 8S? Crazy man.

I guess there's no pleasing some folks. An 8S controller with full plug-and-play data logging (at least $70 on the aftermarket and a lot of screwing around installing it) that is known to be able to exceed 200 amps reliably is not a bad deal at under $300 street pricing. Right now Castle are also throwing in a free CastleLink adapter (another $25 savings). It will require fan cooling though.

Castle has certainly had their problems since they started in the marine market - I remember very well the issues with the original Barracuda 80 - but they do eventually make the necessary improvements. Personally I have owned over a dozen of their controllers and the only ones that I 'lost' were due to owner abuse (SAW racing mostly). I have seen one burn up on initial plug-in, and others which just stopped working (usually after getting wet at some time in the past). I have seen the same with several Chinese controllers. IME - which covers over 20 years of FE racing - speed controllers (brushed or brushless) are expendable items on an FE boat. They are usually the most vulnerable fuse in the system.


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[Raydee]

I was using the Hydra HV series for 6s so in that case the HV240 were costing me over $400 so to pay $250 for a controller that will do 8s works. THey also have the Ice 160HV that will do 12s and has been known to pull some very high amps and that controller is about the same price as the Ice200 or even a little less. To me these controller's are the best thing that has come to the RC market in some time. I will be honest after losing my HV180 for no reason and then a Ice 200 very recently I was going to switch brands but Castle has a great warranty service and just like every other company that sells brushless controllers....they ALL burn up and sometimes for no real reason.

[Steven Vaccaro]

I'm on vacation playing with my boats and Hydras. All doing well. Castle has been outstanding in standing behind burned up esc's. Even the ones that were no fault of the esc.

[Raydee]

Jay I know you are using the larger Sport 40 Rudder on your hull, Can you tell me if you cut yours down and what length it is?

[Fluid]

I have not cut down the ruder on my SC, it remains full length. Every time I think about cutting it I race in some rough water where the long rudder undoubtedly kept me from spinning out or rolling over as the boat bounced around. Any speed advantage from cutting it off would be less than 2 mph, not worth it to me.


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[sailr]

That's crazy! I'm a Castle dealer and those prices are well below my cost! How are they doing that? Makes no sense.

Sailr that is the Castle price. MOST vendors are selling the 200 for under $300. The last one I bought (the one I am using now) I got from a online store that was selling them on ebay for $210 shipped. One of the other 200's I bought for $250 shipped.

[Raydee]

No idea, I may have just got lucky! Ask all the guys I boat with, they will tell you a lot of times I find some great deals.

[Fluid]

I guess! The lowest I've seen them is $297 on several internet sites including eBay. Those are for NIB units though.



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[Raydee]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Here is one I got recently

[tharmer]

So are you guize waterproofing the ICE? How do you fan it if it's in a waterproof box?
-t

[Fluid]

Corrosion-X




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[Steven Vaccaro]

$210 is less than cost on those. Consider that a tremendous deal!

[sailr]

A heck of a deal for sure. It is well below cost. Somebody got real lucky! It surely doesn't set a benchmark and people shouldn't expect that price as the norm. I just saw the same one on ebay for $297

$210 is less than cost on those. Consider that a tremendous deal!

[Steven Vaccaro]

It surely doesn't set a benchmark and people shouldn't expect that price as the norm.

Why not. I'm scoping out Ebay for another low priced one.

[sailr]

Haha! You'll have to beat me to it. I already looked as you can see from my post above!

Why not. I'm scoping out Ebay for another low priced one.

[Jeff Wohlt]

As a dealer, I think I would be making a call to Castle. That would pi$$ me off.

I have found other Castle things like the 2200 KV at prices below dealer cost.

[sailr]

It does tick off us dealers but it is hard to tell who the seller really is. It could just be somebody that bought it, never used it, and put it up for sale. Another scenario is when a dealer is seeing what the market will bear and is willing to risk some loss, or a shop going out of business or a liquidator that has bought out a shop. Happens all the time.