Ok something is funny with Castle's Hydra firmware and so far I am not the only one to notice it. I am hoping some of you guys can try a little experiment and see if its a software problem.
Here is the deal, I set my boat up with the older version 1.3 firmware and ran my hull. With a 637 prop the boat ran pretty good. I decided to update my firmware to the latest 1.4 version and with the same setup the boat was very slow. Not only was the boat slow but everything was cold after a 2 min run. I ended up working my way all the way up to a 445 prop before the boat was as fast as it originally was with the old firmware and the 637 prop. Last night I decided to revert back to the older 1.3 firmware and run my boat again. I knew that it ran good on a small prop before so I threw on a 642 prop and ran it for about a min. It ran great but when I pulled it out of the water everything was much hotter than it ever ran in the past. The motor was about 138* the ESC was 150* and the cells were 135*. My lipo's have never been over 125* ever after longer runs. Now the big question is do I just run a smaller prop with the older firmware or run the new firmware with a larger diameter prop? Why is there such a difference between the two firmwares?
If one of you guys would like to give it a try, run your boat on the normal prop that you like and then update to the new Firmware and see if the speed changes or not. Maybe it is just a problem with my Hydra or maybe there is a problem with the firmware. If you decide to try this let me know what you find so I can post this to Castle and see what they think. One thing to remember is Castle relies on the boaters for feedback and if there is a problem we need to let them know.