Swordfish 300

[T.S.Davis]

Michlee, I can be reached at h2o-racing@comcast.net

In fairness to all manufacturers, they all fail eventually. Sorry to sound all "doom n' gloom" but we are abusive. The question isn't "if" it's going to fail. It's "when" it's going to fail? I would prefer the "when" to be as far from the first run as possible. When my old Castle Hydra esc's failed they were old.......ish. Hot cold hot cold hot cold amps amps amps then maybe get it wet one time. Next run.....fr'shizzle. Who's fault is the failure? Design, waterproofing, or am I just a moron? That's all me. I broke it. Maybe this is why I'm weird about warranties. I rarely use them. Foolish on my part.

Drwayne, I had no luck with those Castle Ice either. The old hydra worked much better for me. At least three 240LV died at the first pull of the trigger. Same boat ran great on an old Hydra though. Never figured it out.

I keep threatening to do this but I'm gonna tonight. After cleaning up some bench space I have all my dead speedo gathered up. I'll lay them out and snap a pic for you guys. Some are long gone. The old brushed stuff, the BK's, Hacker, Castle Barracuda are all in a land fill somewhere but there's still all kinds of modern stuff in the pile. Even at least one Schulze. Sent that for repair and they sent it back still broken but with brand new shrink. Works on the bench but in the water.....not so much. I was surprised how many Seaking were in there. I'm just saying, don't ever think we're going to have a 100% every time successful ESC that stays good forever. It wont be Flier, Hifei, or even MGM. You can extend their lives by taking care of them but they're going to fail.

If Hifei is putting any effort into even communicating with us we need to give them the opportunity to figure it out. It's good for all of us if they can.

...............wrote another novel. Sorry guys.

[kfxguy]

travis,,, sorry bro she is blowing smoke up all your AZZ 's,,, pretty simple,, my friend actions speak loader then words !!!

Lol your probably right! I'm just trying to be optimistic! We as a community might need to come together to make things happen as far as having a reputable company build us a few different models that are of better quality.

[kfxguy]

So for the fellas that are subscribed to this thread, I just contacted a company I've dealt with in the past and asked them if they would be willing to provide what we are asking for. There will be a buy in I'm sure but I bet we can round up enough participants. What I'd really like is once (if) I get this ball rolling and have a heavy duty unit made, is hand this over to Steve to carry in the ose store. I'm not interested in selling anything myself but if I can do something to benefit all of up, I'm all for it.

[Silver954]

With all due respect, getting upset and typing like that isn't going to help. I don't think she is treating us like morons, just trying to be courteous and respectful. You've got to understand they are from a different country and they don't talk like we do.

Now I'll agree, I've seen lots of issues here lately and right now we are almost bent over a barrel with the very few choices in buying escs. I do want to give them a fair chance to get their stuff together and up their game up or I'm going to seek out investors and manufacturers so I can have better units made and offered for everyone. This has been on my mind for a while and I don't like the situation we are currently in.

Yea I agree getting pissed won't do much, moving on.... I am down to check out a different esc, I would like to get a picture of the components on the board and maybe if they have a bom sheet to see if it's better then the swordfish currently. Speaking of components there isn't much to these speed controls in terms of cost to build...somewhere in the 30 to 40dollar range I am guessing including labor if not less.

[kfxguy]

I was informed later on today that someone is already working on an alternative. I can't say who or what but I'm glad. The sword fish escs have been all I could turn to, I haven't had much bad luck myself but that's because (I think) I take the shrink off every one and fix any issues I find, epoxy coat it (like it should have been originally) and then run it. I did have a couple that just quit after a flip never to work again. Maybe they have a g force sensor (I kid) that makes them stop working after so much g force because I'm not the only one that had that happen to them. For swordfish's sale they better get their stuff together and improve their quality control, customer service and over all quality of their products because if they don't they are going to lose ALOT of sales if this other ordeal pans out.

[oscarel]

I was informed later on today that someone is already working on an alternative. I can't say who or what but I'm glad. The sword fish escs have been all I could turn to, I haven't had much bad luck myself but that's because (I think) I take the shrink off every one and fix any issues I find, epoxy coat it (like it should have been originally) and then run it. I did have a couple that just quit after a flip never to work again. Maybe they have a g force sensor (I kid) that makes them stop working after so much g force because I'm not the only one that had that happen to them. For swordfish's sale they better get their stuff together and improve their quality control, customer service and over all quality of their products because if they don't they are going to lose ALOT of sales if this other ordeal pans out.

I think this is key, I've did this with the 300 lite I'm currently running and it lasted all year. First one that's lasted this long.. When these work the work great, I even won our district and the open sport class at Voodoo World Championship with it.

I also would like to see Swordfish improve on this as they currently are the only ones making a decent esc for the price. Fix the simple stuff and you'll have a great product.

[oscarel]

Yea I agree getting pissed won't do much, moving on.... I am down to check out a different esc, I would like to get a picture of the components on the board and maybe if they have a bom sheet to see if it's better then the swordfish currently. Speaking of components there isn't much to these speed controls in terms of cost to build...somewhere in the 30 to 40dollar range I am guessing including labor if not less.

You're going to spend more than that on FETs alone. No way to make a 300 amp controller for $40.

[oscarel]

Over several years I had a 100% failure rate with Castle Creations(cremations) 240HV ... and to some extent the 240LV
*user error .. water damage ( but the bloody thing was always bone dry ?? )
*user error .. died on connect .. please explain how ? ....
*user error .. too many amps .. ?.. huh ??.. 1515/2200 4s1p25c4400 on 240LV .. wth ?
*user error.. overheated .. bah-humbug..new esc fried on contact ..
*user error .. cap legs burned off ... excessive load .. ditto 1515/2200 4s1p25c4400 on 240LV
*user error .. unable to program esc.. how in heck can Catle-Fink usb programmer put too much voltage in ???.
*possible user interference !! .. . .. I blame the Mexican assembly workshop.......
Each return from Au to US was a costly exercise indeed .(+50usd postage ). costly repairs for what were not user errors .. excuses and near zero customer service.
Frustrated at repeating out-of-bag failures , flabbergasted at inane 'user error' reports, horrified I was charged repairs and postage for flawed product assembly..
When sending esc back to Castle for repairs, this was a 6-10 week turn around from here .. adding 40-60usd to the repair bill.. user error ( but it died on first contact ? ) ..we can generously offer you 1/2 RRP new replacement ( and if this dies ? ) ..Please be assured the esc will work fine ( 2 surface mount component were rattling around in the retail bag, FFS .. it FLAMED on contact .. USER ERROR, no warranty. oh come on FFS .. .) ...
Beef Hooked.. Castle lost my faith
Castle finally abandoned marine esc ... .. problem solved.

Anything posted US→China→US is a 5+ week journey .. unless 'express' which halves the time but quadruples the cost.

As an electronics engineer designing ( and repairer of) complex circuits .. having a variety of people jump on the bad luck band wagon and sing songs of failures doesnt truly help with product correction... indubitably there is always room for improvement even with the best available this rings true ..

We've lost Castle as a provider ...
We've lost Shulze 40-160 .. ( why stop manufacture of this brilliant esc ?? ... why release the 40-161 which is insipid by comparison ??.
We've no faith in FlierRc pop-n-blo esc.
We love MGM, but massive amp provision = massive esc .. and if you're happy with MGM, why post in this thread ?. ..how many of you have actually held their 63v400A ?.. haha

here for the long haul, not splashing about in the shallows.

See post #1, a picture is worth a thousand words.

[drwayne]

I'll see if i still have photos of the cc240 they would send or add 1/2rrp replacements ... the seconds bin was too good for those pos.
The greatest flaw in any design is the human touch in it's assembly.

[kfxguy]

Michlee, I can be reached at h2o-racing@comcast.net

In fairness to all manufacturers, they all fail eventually. Sorry to sound all "doom n' gloom" but we are abusive. The question isn't "if" it's going to fail. It's "when" it's going to fail? I would prefer the "when" to be as far from the first run as possible. When my old Castle Hydra esc's failed they were old.......ish. Hot cold hot cold hot cold amps amps amps then maybe get it wet one time. Next run.....fr'shizzle. Who's fault is the failure? Design, waterproofing, or am I just a moron? That's all me. I broke it. Maybe this is why I'm weird about warranties. I rarely use them. Foolish on my part.

Drwayne, I had no luck with those Castle Ice either. The old hydra worked much better for me. At least three 240LV died at the first pull of the trigger. Same boat ran great on an old Hydra though. Never figured it out.

I keep threatening to do this but I'm gonna tonight. After cleaning up some bench space I have all my dead speedo gathered up. I'll lay them out and snap a pic for you guys. Some are long gone. The old brushed stuff, the BK's, Hacker, Castle Barracuda are all in a land fill somewhere but there's still all kinds of modern stuff in the pile. Even at least one Schulze. Sent that for repair and they sent it back still broken but with brand new shrink. Works on the bench but in the water.....not so much. I was surprised how many Seaking were in there. I'm just saying, don't ever think we're going to have a 100% every time successful ESC that stays good forever. It wont be Flier, Hifei, or even MGM. You can extend their lives by taking care of them but they're going to fail.

If Hifei is putting any effort into even communicating with us we need to give them the opportunity to figure it out. It's good for all of us if they can.

...............wrote another novel. Sorry guys.

I have hopes that hifei will fix the silly issues we are having. Linked hose. No tie straps on the hose. Spa units. Units that only last a run or two even under low stress....all that gets addressed then things will bE much better than they are. Add some decent epoxy waterproofing to it and it's even better. I'm a firm believer that no matter what you do and no matter how experienced and good you are at keeping water out.....it's a boat....water is going to find its way in. Whether it's a pin hole in your cooling hose, hose popped off, motor oring leaking because it got nicked when putting the cooling jacket on.....something. I personally would not believe someone if they told me they run their boats a lot and have never had a single drop of water make it inside the boat....I simply wouldn't believe it. Heck I've got some in my boat from removing the hatch and the residual water on the hatch dropped into the hull. Anything could happen that's why I always strive to make all of my electronics water proof with 5 minute epoxy. I had a customers cheetah take in water a few weeks ago because the coolin line popped off. I like to crapped my pants. Then I remembered that I coated everything. Shook it out....back to running. Stuff happens and we all know that's true. There's my novel. Lol

[Silver954]

I was talking about the 220a esc with the smaller fets, but none the less the 300A esc will cost under 70 bucks to make guaranteed. I can find out the exact number but it's not worth knowing that it's 4 times as much. Also when it comes to volume pricing components are cents on the dollar, sure fets will be a couple of bucks each.
Build quality and labor are a huge cost factor also who made the software and how reliable it is. For example the 100 degree over-temperature protection on the swordfish is not always protecting.....so there is a lot that goes into making a reliable product.

[drwayne]

I was talking about the 220a esc with the smaller fets, but none the less the 300A esc will cost under 70 bucks to make guaranteed. I can find out the exact number but it's not worth knowing that it's 4 times as much. Also when it comes to volume pricing components are cents on the dollar, sure fets will be a couple of bucks each.
Build quality and labor are a huge cost factor also who made the software and how reliable it is. For example the 100 degree over-temperature protection on the swordfish is not always protecting.....so there is a lot that goes into making a reliable product.

If esc were so cheap and easy to build.. why would you buy them ?
Please show me where 70usd will supply components for a 63v300A esc .. :)
Dont be shy !

[oscarel]

I'll see if i still have photos of the cc240 they would send or add 1/2rrp replacements ... the second bibs was too good for those pos.
The greatest flaw in any design is the human touch in it's assembly.

That would be great if this was a thread about castle.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Michlee]

Hello guys,
Sorry to make you feel that you have been misled, I apologize.

About quality issues, we have been paying more attention on it after the not nice quality control has been exposed, we set the solution of quality question at the first place, put forward higher quality requirements in our production,
and additional checks to ensure our customers get best possible product.
Every production factory has components supplied from ourside our control, we check every batch but sometimes one or two fail in service, we offer warranty for this.

In order to offer you a better and faster after-sale service , you are welcome to mail me derectly fix@hifei.com or leave message on our official website www.hifei.com once you meet problem, we will get back to you in 24 hours.

About the defective product shipping back, Please always use services in which have a tracking facility to ship the defective product back to us, for example, DHL express, FEDEX express, UPS express or a Registered mail service with tracking facilities are recommended. As soon as you have shipped the products back to Hifei, please email us with your tracking number details so we can follow the delivery. Please keep in contact with our after sales service department email sales2@hifei.com for regular updates on the status of your repair.

Hifei team appreciates your feedback and suggestions for improvment, and we are weeding out weak links as they appear..assembly skill or components.. Hifei appreciate your support and reporting at all times as we continue to improve our supply and service into the RC boat community.
Thank you for your time.
Best regards
Summer

[drwayne]

That would be great if this was a thread about castle.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

True.
I saw this thread as an opening to pass judgement / comment on the general aptitude and competency of any suppliers. ... Castle were hounded by 'well meaning' users peeved by issues. I take my hat off to them for their eagerness to please everyone .. .. look where that left us .. they quit marine esc pidgeon holed into the 'too hard basket'.

[kfxguy]

Hello guys,
Sorry to make you feel that you have been misled, I apologize.

About quality issues, we have been paying more attention on it after the not nice quality control has been exposed, we set the solution of quality question at the first place, put forward higher quality requirements in our production,
and additional checks to ensure our customers get best possible product.
Every production factory has components supplied from ourside our control, we check every batch but sometimes one or two fail in service, we offer warranty for this.

In order to offer you a better and faster after-sale service , you are welcome to mail me derectly fix@hifei.com or leave message on our official website www.hifei.com once you meet problem, we will get back to you in 24 hours.

About the defective product shipping back, Please always use services in which have a tracking facility to ship the defective product back to us, for example, DHL express, FEDEX express, UPS express or a Registered mail service with tracking facilities are recommended. As soon as you have shipped the products back to Hifei, please email us with your tracking number details so we can follow the delivery. Please keep in contact with our after sales service department email sales2@hifei.com for regular updates on the status of your repair.

Hifei team appreciates your feedback and suggestions for improvment, and we are weeding out weak links as they appear..assembly skill or components.. Hifei appreciate your support and reporting at all times as we continue to improve our supply and service into the RC boat community.
Thank you for your time.
Best regards
Summer

This reply tells you that they do care (well it seems like it!) so I hope to see greater things in the near future!

[ray schrauwen]

If esc were so cheap and easy to build.. why would you buy them ?
Please show me where 70usd will supply components for a 63v300A esc .. :)
Dont be shy !

The only person I've seen make his own speed controls was a guy from Germany.

He built up a riverrcat hull and hand made everything except the hull and motors basically.

He is both a mechanical and an electronic engineer. It was easier for him since he had access to PCB production or perhaps he works at an electronic manufacturer I'm not sure.

It can be done. I'm sure he copied some designs from other esc manufacturers but it was impressive. This was a good 5 or more years ago.

[Silver954]

If esc were so cheap and easy to build.. why would you buy them ?
Please show me where 70usd will supply components for a 63v300A esc .. :)
Dont be shy !

I think you are missing the point, and yes I am confident the 300a esc doesn't cost more than I stated $70 american ones! I work in r&d and manufacturing and build boards overseas so yea. Again I don't want to make anybody mad by saying it's a cheap thing to build, just because when I see it I know.

[drwayne]

I think you are missing the point, and yes I am confident the 300a esc doesn't cost more than I stated $70 american ones! I work in r&d and manufacturing and build boards overseas so yea. Again I don't want to make anybody mad by saying it's a cheap thing to build, just because when I see it I know.

Sf300 run staged mosfets for the full 14s power rating.
Find me any , where the required minimum of 18 are available for under 70usd :)
Assuming you'll supply the boards and other components free of charge .
Regs
Wayne
( ps .. read my skills & quals in signature )

[Steven Vaccaro]

Hello guys,
Sorry to make you feel that you have been misled, I apologize.

About quality issues, we have been paying more attention on it after the not nice quality control has been exposed, we set the solution of quality question at the first place, put forward higher quality requirements in our production,
and additional checks to ensure our customers get best possible product.
Every production factory has components supplied from ourside our control, we check every batch but sometimes one or two fail in service, we offer warranty for this.

In order to offer you a better and faster after-sale service , you are welcome to mail me derectly fix@hifei.com or leave message on our official website www.hifei.com once you meet problem, we will get back to you in 24 hours.

About the defective product shipping back, Please always use services in which have a tracking facility to ship the defective product back to us, for example, DHL express, FEDEX express, UPS express or a Registered mail service with tracking facilities are recommended. As soon as you have shipped the products back to Hifei, please email us with your tracking number details so we can follow the delivery. Please keep in contact with our after sales service department email sales2@hifei.com for regular updates on the status of your repair.

Hifei team appreciates your feedback and suggestions for improvment, and we are weeding out weak links as they appear..assembly skill or components.. Hifei appreciate your support and reporting at all times as we continue to improve our supply and service into the RC boat community.
Thank you for your time.
Best regards
Summer

Thanks for the response and standing behind your product.

[Steven Vaccaro]

I know Oscar has had a 300 that was not covered by warranty. But Id like to ask the other people that have complained about the product in this post. How many of you have had a Hifei product that you have returned and then not covered under warranty?

I can say over the years there have been very few that have been returned not repaired. Most have been esc's that come back in several pieces.

[T.S.Davis]

The only person I've seen make his own speed controls was a guy from Germany.

Too bad we couldn't get Andy Kunz to design us something. Makes me miss the brushed days.

[drwayne]

[QUOTE=T.S.Davis;678791]Too bad we couldn't get Andy Kunz to design us something. Makes me miss the brushed days.[/QUOTE
Last i spoke with him, he was working at/for/with Spektrum as a programmer.
Gone, but not forgotten.

[RandyatBBY]

Over several years I had a 100% failure rate with Castle Creations(cremations) 240HV ... and to some extent the 240LV
*user error .. water damage ( but the bloody thing was always bone dry ?? )
*user error .. died on connect .. please explain how ? ....
*user error .. too many amps .. ?.. huh ??.. 1515/2200 4s1p25c4400 on 240LV .. wth ?
*user error.. overheated .. bah-humbug..new esc fried on contact ..
*user error .. cap legs burned off ... excessive load .. ditto 1515/2200 4s1p25c4400 on 240LV
*user error .. unable to program esc.. how in heck can Catle-Fink usb programmer put too much voltage in ???.
*possible user interference !! .. . .. I blame the Mexican assembly workshop.......
Each return from Au to US was a costly exercise indeed .(+50usd postage ). costly repairs for what were not user errors .. excuses and near zero customer service.
Frustrated at repeating out-of-bag failures , flabbergasted at inane 'user error' reports, horrified I was charged repairs and postage for flawed product assembly..
When sending esc back to Castle for repairs, this was a 6-10 week turn around from here .. adding 40-60usd to the repair bill.. user error ( but it died on first contact ? ) ..we can generously offer you 1/2 RRP new replacement ( and if this dies ? ) ..Please be assured the esc will work fine ( 2 surface mount component were rattling around in the retail bag, FFS .. it FLAMED on contact .. USER ERROR, no warranty. oh come on FFS .. .) ...
Beef Hooked.. Castle lost my faith
Castle finally abandoned marine esc ... .. problem solved.

Anything posted US→China→US is a 5+ week journey .. unless 'express' which halves the time but quadruples the cost.

As an electronics engineer designing ( and repairer of) complex circuits .. having a variety of people jump on the bad luck band wagon and sing songs of failures doesnt truly help with product correction... indubitably there is always room for improvement even with the best available this rings true ..

We've lost Castle as a provider ...
We've lost Shulze 40-160 .. ( why stop manufacture of this brilliant esc ?? ... why release the 40-161 which is insipid by comparison ??.
We've no faith in FlierRc pop-n-blo esc.
We love MGM, but massive amp provision = massive esc .. and if you're happy with MGM, why post in this thread ?. ..how many of you have actually held their 63v400A ?.. haha

here for the long haul, not splashing about in the shallows.

I have the TMM 40063-3 for Race Boats X2-SERIES PRO. Ran it all last year love it.

I still have a 40.160 will run it in my 1/8 some day when I have some competition.

Possably the SW 300 is better suited for HV and not LV.

One of the controllers I sent back is a SW 220 that I tried to run a UL-1 motor on 4S and it quit. the other two SW 300 and one SW LV 240. They ran for a while, one died over the winter while sitting. We will see after they get to china.

[oscarel]

I have the TMM 40063-3 for Race Boats X2-SERIES PRO. Ran it all last year love it.

Shouldn't have to pay $1000 for a decent controller. For that price I'd expect it to do more than just be an esc :-).

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[RandyatBBY]

Shouldn't have to pay $1000 for a decent controller. For that price I'd expect it to do more than just be an esc :-).

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

It was $825 shipped and the Schultz was $675. I love racing scraped together all the gold I could find and bought one and a friend bought one at the same time. I had my Schultz for 17 years, plan to have the MGM for the same.

[oscarel]

It was $825 shipped and the Schultz was $675. I love racing scraped together all the gold I could find and bought one and a friend bought one at the same time. I had my Schultz for 17 years, plan to have the MGM for the same.

Seeing what I have in my dead esc drawer, I probably should've done the same and used that space for something else.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[oscarel]

Seeing that I'm not the only one that's had issues, I actually ran all year with a Swordfish 300 lite in one of my boats. I replaced the tiny jumper hose, bored out the cooling line on that side as it's a smaller inside diameter than the inlet side, added more conformal coating to the whole board and added extra caps. I don't think it would take much to improve these controllers and make them a very good product.

[Jamey]

Oscar, how do you set your voltage cutout for lipo protection? I have had some issues with my 300sf where it seems like it is going into protection mode but it never will return power. I get it on the bank, flip the power off, back on and everything is fine. Weird stuff, I hope it is just the lipo protection kicking in but it just doesn't act like I would have expected since it never starts working until a power cycle.

[oscarel]

Oscar, how do you set your voltage cutout for lipo protection? I have had some issues with my 300sf where it seems like it is going into protection mode but it never will return power. I get it on the bank, flip the power off, back on and everything is fine. Weird stuff, I hope it is just the lipo protection kicking in but it just doesn't act like I would have expected since it never starts working until a power cycle.

Hey James, it's set to 3.2 I believe. I can text you when I get home with the exact setting. Check the data recording to see what it looks like.