Castle Hydra Ice 240A XL - New Pic!

[Fluid]

Jan, if what you think is correct then whose fault is that? How many of you have fallen for the trap set by the Chinese - very very low price. How many of you have been bitten by the resulting poor quality but rationalized it by saying "it's really cheap so I don't care if it doesn't work, I'll just throw it away and buy another"? How many American companies have been closed because of this Chinese strategy? There are consequences for not buying American, consequences we may not like.

I know it's tough for those of you with no business experience to accept, but in today's economy companies have to make business decisions in order to keep the doors open. If the market's price point for a certain product is too low for the vendor to make a profit, then he will have to reduce his per unit cost - or not sell many. How does he do this? He uses lower cost components, less R&D time, commonality between ESC lines, minimum inventory. That's probably why the Hydra looks so much like the aircraft ICE - it is cheaper not to have to design and tool up for a much different ESC. Realize that R&D time is very expensive for any company and it generates zero revenue. Bringing a new product to market as soon as possible is essential to staying in business. All the Chinese have to do is keep the price low, far easier for them to do with low wages, minimal environmental considerations, you name it.

If we want to wring our hands about a "cheap" Hydra, we really have ourselves (and the economy) to blame.


.

[domp444]

We'll see how it performs when it comes out. I hope it works well in my setup. I was gonna go with the HV 240 but when I saw this I figured I'll wait.

About the caps - I think I will add more to be on the safe side. They're not expensive so I think it's worth it. Thanks for all of the comments guys! Pretty informative stuff

[LiPo Power]

Come on.....
I am one of the fans of Castle Hydra line of ESC's but will not purchase one, at least in the near future...
To me it is simple. Listen to people using them!!! Get all the feedback on the paper, black on white, design one product based on what you have on this paper!!! Make one based on it and I am sure there will be many of us willing to pay extra money for what we need this ESC to do for us....
I will pay extra dollars for Castle, no problem!!!! I will put them way ahead of ANY China made product!!! But that is only if they will charge me for staff that will make sense...
Nice logo, 4 pipes on the top of the heat sink and easier wireing is not enough for me to pay $300.00 US plus shipping, plus importing fees from our closest friend USA...
It is not our foult to purchase from Asian market. They just looking at what is going on here and taking adventage from it, making money on the same time....
Look at the GM....
All of the sudden they are capable of making nice cars.... hmmm....
Too bad this is after arround 5 years of Korea, Japan and China making and salling cars in N America and US

[Ub Hauled]

Jan, if what you think is correct then whose fault is that? How many of you have fallen for the trap set by the Chinese - very very low price. How many of you have been bitten by the resulting poor quality but rationalized it by saying "it's really cheap so I don't care if it doesn't work, I'll just throw it away and buy another"? How many American companies have been closed because of this Chinese strategy? There are consequences for not buying American, consequences we may not like.

I know it's tough for those of you with no business experience to accept, but in today's economy companies have to make business decisions in order to keep the doors open. If the market's price point for a certain product is too low for the vendor to make a profit, then he will have to reduce his per unit cost - or not sell many. How does he do this? He uses lower cost components, less R&D time, commonality between ESC lines, minimum inventory. That's probably why the Hydra looks so much like the aircraft ICE - it is cheaper not to have to design and tool up for a much different ESC. Realize that R&D time is very expensive for any company and it generates zero revenue. Bringing a new product to market as soon as possible is essential to staying in business. All the Chinese have to do is keep the price low, far easier for them to do with low wages, minimal environmental considerations, you name it.
If we want to wring our hands about a "cheap" Hydra, we really have ourselves (and the economy) to blame.

Jay you are correct about the reasons behind the way the Hydra came out, it is plain and simple... money! But these days one has to dance according to the music and CC was a bit off pace this time IMHO.
I just wish that they had their efford$ a bit differently, spend the good money in the R&D electronic process, sure! But have a Chinese heat sink that was planned by CC... it may or may not increase the street price but if it did increase it would be so minimal that people would buy it anyway.
I am not bashing CC, I'd like to think of my last post as a constructive suggestion... I cannot see a reason for the solution they found for the water cooling... it seems "winged".

The moral of the story here is, American products will never be inexpensive as their Asian counterpart, it's simple math! But there is no excuse for things poorly made and blamed at cost, if there is no way to market it at "full thought" make it differently, dance according to the music... adapt... but make it the American way.

[Steven Vaccaro]

One question, for the people already bashing a product that hasnt been released. Have you used or witnessed the Airplane Ice esc's in planes or boats? I have been using them this past summer in boats. An ice 200 and an ice 100. Both still running quite well.

[video200]

well i for one hope it wil be a good ESC. i already "sold" the idea that i need a new esc to the wife :D
with datalogging,HV and high amp how can it go wrong as long as it dont blow up when plugging in.

[raptor347]

Well, I've been quiet on this until now. I've got a bit of testing time on the little beastie.

The interesting thing about that heat sink is how it's thermally coupled to the power board. It's pretty well thought out and producable, but that isn't apparent from a picture. You need to have opened one up and taken a good look at it.

The water cooling is VERY effective, just like the finned version is very effective when placed in good air flow.

BEC works great, plenty of capacity to run the high torque digital servos I'm running in my 6S rigger and tunnel. I'm happy with the performance and the data logging is fantastic.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Sweet...thanks for speaking up on these. My lips were

[ray schrauwen]

I think it's a perfect 6S esc for those bad ass boats like Brians running.

I'm very suprised you run BEC brian, Wow! on 6S too...Hmmm.

[raptor347]

The newer swiching BEC's have been fantastic. I run them in my airplanes as well.

Runs an S5050 1/4 scale digital in my big 6S tunnel and and S9156 in the rigger. The BEC voltage supplied to the RX circuit is more consistant under the load of the big digital servos than the small battery packs we usually run.

Some people look at it as one more electronic device to fail. I see it as one less battery pack to keep an eye on.

Some of it comes down to how much you trust your equipment/setup to function properly and reliably.

I've seen an awful lot of dead Rx pack run aways over the years.

Of course I haven't had problems with Rx batteries either. Sort of a pick your poison deal.

[ray schrauwen]

I appreciate that Brian as i was curious if I could run a 1/4scale Digi servo with it's BEC.

Looks like I'll wait until I have more $$ in the spring unless I sell a couple things.

[BakedMopar]

The air guys are running four big digitals with no problem. I've been using the Ice since the 100 came out and I also run the 200 and a 50. The heatsinks are mounted ditch to the board as Brian said. I water-cooled one 100 and didn't do any of the rest and they still operate flawlessly. The dataogger is a plus as well as the castle link to infinitely adjust different perameters. I will be trying the hydra series as they should be pistol ready although it would be nice for a firmware that could change the air versions to land versions.

[tharmer]

What do you think about 8s?

[raptor347]

I haven't run the Hydra Ice on 8S yet. I have run the Phoenix Ice ESC on 8S with no problems at all. So all else being equal, it should work fine.

[RaceMechaniX]

Likewise I have remained tight lipped about these, but before too many false assumptions are made I'll add some insight. I have tested both the HV and LV versions of the new Hydra ICE's. I too was skeptical at first about the cooling, but performed several tests on each esc with known hull/battery/prop combos using a thermocouple probe temp meter and measuring both the case and internal board temp. Temps were all within their correct bounds.

Castle did us a great favor by using a common board layout shared between the air and water users and only had to change the extrusion and software. This signifigantly cuts the cost of using a bespoke controller design just for marine. Yes, there will be compromises, but I still think this is an excellent offering for the price.

I tested the LV version on 4S, 6S and 8S and tested the HV version on 8S and 10S. Both units perfomed meeting my expectations. The data logging is a real nice feature of these. The current measurement is not labratory grade, but works excellently as a comparitive device. No esc will have accurate current mesurement without a current loop. I can't think of any that come to mind currently using a current loop due to the packaging. Most are measuring the gate resistance and voltage and calculating a current.

I used the BEC on both versions and had no problems feeding current hungry digital servos.

Also, the software/user interface has been improved and works nicely. A big improvement over the old.

BTW, they are of course pistol grip compatible.

Tyler

[Eodman]

Early in my learning curve(still learning) I smoked a few CC esc's and returned them for rebuild and Castle covered all but 1 - 4 didn't cost me a dime to be replaced!

That said - what product on the market today comes with everything you personally think should be on it? Technology is ever changing and I'm sure over time this ESC will evolve if need be!

Me, I 'll wait till they are out for public consumption before forming my opinion!

[AlanN]

Over all the years that I have ran FE boats the only controller issues I ever had were my own fault. Blow caps....man I love this one. I have only blown one cap and that was on a brushed boat years ago. I don't understand why so many seem to think that they need 12 caps on board. Maybe those that require them do not have a sensitive throttle finger? I used to shy away from Castles but have had very good results from all the ones I have purchased. Never needed to send any of them back. So, before the bashing continues, please re-read what Jay and Brian have posted. There's a lot of experience behind them.

[ray schrauwen]

Larry uses some of the old 120's that he modified or had modified by Castle or someone. Those seem really tough.

I like this new stuff, looks very solid. Typically i don't add caps to esc's, only did it once but, I don't run my esc's to the Voltage or Amp limits.

I'm done with $40 Suppo stuff, zero quality control.

[Doby]

Maybe you will actually finish a race now without something blowing up......

[ray schrauwen]

No smilie face.... Suck my wake

[ray schrauwen]

I signed Wendy up as a blocker for racing, you won't get past me this year, LOL....

[Ub Hauled]

I stand corrected, Brian and Tyler would know better then I about the cooling capabilities of the little tubes glued to the sink...

[ray schrauwen]

Over all the years that I have ran FE boats the only controller issues I ever had were my own fault. Blow caps....man I love this one. I have only blown one cap and that was on a brushed boat years ago. I don't understand why so many seem to think that they need 12 caps on board. Maybe those that require them do not have a sensitive throttle finger? I used to shy away from Castles but have had very good results from all the ones I have purchased. Never needed to send any of them back. So, before the bashing continues, please re-read what Jay and Brian have posted. There's a lot of experience behind them.

Here is a pic for you Alan:

[domp444]

Tower Hobbies is now showing an "early feb" stock status. I hope Steven gets some in as well.

[video200]

Tower Hobbies is now showing an "early feb" stock status. I hope Steven gets some in as well.

[keithbradley]

One question, for the people already bashing a product that hasnt been released. Have you used or witnessed the Airplane Ice esc's in planes or boats? I have been using them this past summer in boats. An ice 200 and an ice 100. Both still running quite well.

I have been running a 160HV ICE with no water cooling and it works quite well. The temp slowly rises and approachs 140's toward the end of the run. A little water cooling would eliminate the steady heat build up and keep temps even lower.
I think people also underestimate how well an aluminum block (heat sink) will dissapate heat. I weld aluminum every day, and I can assure you that heat will spread through the entire peice almost instantly.

[Chilli]

Tower Hobbies is now showing an "early feb" stock status. I hope Steven gets some in as well.

Stock status estimate bumped up to late January.

[GeoVW72]

This guy on ebay has a couple apparently

[Chilli]

I guess sometimes little guys do get stuff before the big boys. I saw the much anticipated Associated TC6 (1/10 scale car) in hobby shops before Tower had them in stock.

[LiPo Power]

I would be carefull with this....