Castle Hydra Ice 240A XL - New Pic!

[domp444]

I was just browsing the towerhobbies site and saw this: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAPNR&P=7

Getting closer to release :)

[RIPFENCE]

sweeeet..definately looks like a hydra and ice hybrid for sure..i am all over these

[domp444]

Yeah it does! I'm really liking the data logging feature on them. I'm gonna be putting two of them in my MHZ C5000 :)

[Make-a-Wake]

Lottsa bucks for only 8s.............

[domp444]

Well, the Hydra HV 240 is $450 and it's good for up to 12s, so I guess 4s lower gets you to $300. Haha. I'll be running 6s max, so I think I have enough headroom.

[RIPFENCE]

i am going to try the 50volt version which is a little pricey but if castle has stepped up the boat esc's then it will be worth it

[domp444]

I wasn't sure which to go with at first, but I think with my high-amp setup and 5s/6s lipos the 240A XL will be the way to go.

[Raydee]

I wonder how well the cooling tubes will actually work the way they are mounted to the heatsink and now on the fets. I sure wish they would just give us the Hydra software for the normal Ice controllers. My Ice 200's are working fine in my boats without water cooling.

[domp444]

Yeah I was wondering about that too. I hope the cooling works out well though.

[Fluid]

My ICE200 works great in a powerful P Sport setup. The "water cooling" in the Tower picture looks pretty weak - OTOH it would be easy to duplicate on an existing 200.


.

[domp444]

I really do hope that the water cooling works better than it looks. If anything I'll add extra cooling somehow.

[properchopper]

Nice that there's only five wires instead of the ten on the current 240's.

[forescott]

I am hoping for another castle clearance sale on the older version 240hv's. Probably won't have a warranty though.

[Jeff Wohlt]

I would suspect that Joe is very well versed on our needs by now. I would guess they know what is needed to cool the block....maybe it just runs that much cooler. You may be surprised at how cool it performs.

[Chilli]

Nice that there's only five wires instead of the ten on the current 240's.

[BakedMopar]

Lol that's the way I have mines setup except my tube goes on the inside instead of the top.

[sailr]

Dang they're stingy with the wire!!

[Doug Smock]

Dang they're stingy with the wire!!

Someone please tell us that was just for the photo.

Doug

[ray schrauwen]

The engineers at Schulze are probably laughing about the $0.10 Bec cct in a $300 controller.

What was the point? Unless its a 15 amp BEC, it's useless for the size of boats these will go into....

They still aren't listening completely, Castle, tisk, tisk... Great ideas but only a 90% execution on a product.

[LiPo Power]

Well, at least this time it looks like there is only one board, not two.
Easier to wire it up and keeping it cool....
What do you guys think about the cooling system on it?

[ray schrauwen]

My opinion is they have designed it well enough that it really doesn't need water cooling.

The water cooling is just an afterthough IMO, for this unit...

[ray schrauwen]

Since it has Datalogging, I would say this is a very good value esc. Five years ago it would have been at least $500.
I MIGHT consider a purchase of one of these.... when Steve gets stock.

....AND I haven't bought or run a Castle esc in at least 5 years... I told them what I thought directly, seems like they listen fairly well, just dump the BEC Castle and I'm BACK!!!

[Doby]

Looks like its still going to be a PITA to attach the cooling lines.

[ray schrauwen]

I don't see why?????

[Rumdog]

Cuz they are too damn close together.
That doesnt mean I dont want one though!

[Doby]

I don't see why?????

The tubes will have to be bent to accomodate any decent size of tubing.......they Hydras are the same, a real PITA ........Castle needs to get on the ball with that.

[LiPo Power]

So it looks like this is a hit sink beefed up with 4 cooling pipes, no cooling plate, where the water is going in and out and it is sitting directly on the fets....
I like it. Going now to SDM to see my friday lottery tickets... Maybe I will order one toonite...

[Make-a-Wake]

I'm only seeing two caps....................???

[Rumdog]

Thats all thats necessary if they are good caps

[Ub Hauled]

IMO the cooling is just to say that it is a Hydra version of the ICE with a software that is made for pistol grip... it won't do Jack. I think a fan on top of that would be a way around it... but seriously, that is bad planning on the cooling part...
on the CAPS issue, you just know we'll need more then the 2 provided caps, even if they are good ones... I think they have done something nice coming out with a more inexpensive ESC that can take the abuse that boating does to it, but... I am a little disappointed that it came out "not thought out" all the way through, it seems to me they are trying to capitalize on the thirst we have of a good "inexpensive ESC"... it was a software change to allow pistol grip Tx use, 4 aluminum pipes and a whole lotta wait (from the original ICE that is).
I saw the ESC at the last LA SAW event and it performed ok for a test ESC, I hope they used all the data acquired to fine tune it.
After all this I just wanna say that I am a CC fan, I just think that sometimes they could have taken 2 more steps and land a great ESC but they stop that short... please let me be wrong, we need a reliable ESC.