just an advise try not to set the punch to 1. U may burn the esc, there's a batch of esc with software problems. I burnt mine

Yeah, sounds like a thermal pad. It's not electrically conductive, so no worries about shorting things out. Ideally, the thinner the pad the better, but manufacturing tolerances for the plastic case (and thus the mounting depth, placement, etc. of both the PCA and heatsink) and for the heatsink may require 1-2mm of tolerance to ensure no interference in fit. That and perhaps they did think about the possible physical stress from an impact as I mentioned (maybe, I don't know). Regardless, the thermal pad is better than most electronics where the heatsink just sits atop the PCA with air in between to act as a thermal transfer medium (and radiation is not nearly as effective as conduction through a thermal material). I personally wouldn't worry about the design. Those thermal pads work fine in most environments except in vacuum.

i mean i do know about wat thermal pad or thermal past is. I used to mod heastinks to fit onto CPUs in the past. But isn't 2 mm a bit too much for the heatsink to be away from the heatspreaders?. Btw do open up and ensure that the thermal pad covers all your heatspreaders. There were 2 rows of heatspreaders on my esc that was not in contact with the thermal pad.

Yes. I know what thermal pads are. I'm in electronics manufacturing and have used them in far more applications than most people. Like I said, 2mm isn't ideal...the thinner the better, but there may be manufacturing tolerances and environmental issues that may have been taken into account. A computer is a static device that does not see drastic Gs, especially directly on the unit itself. An ESC is in an environment where it may suffer from direct impact. I'm not saying what HW did is absolutely correct or ideal, but that there are often other factors involved in a design than many people realize. Or it could just be poor design. If you don't like it, don't use it.

Not that i don't like it. Just seeking opinions on it. And 2 mm isn't going to absorb alot of shock.

Thanks for your reply anyway. Maybe my questions are stupid. But thanks.

No stupid questions. We're all trying to learn here and help each other out. Considering the structures are all solid (or semi-solid as the plastic case may have quite a bit of compliance), 2mm is quite a bit for shock. A direct transfer of shock from the heatsink to the PCA is what you want to avoid. The part where you said some of the heatspreaders are not in contact with the thermal pad at all is the worst of your findings. Overall, if it doesn't thermal, I wouldn't worry too much.

i just got my 150a today and installed it the esc is very big my question is the red/black wire that is coming out of the esc is that for the fan and is it necessary to hook up and i'm assuming that would get hooked up to the batt/telem spot on my RX?? i'm running on dirt and at times a dusty track is this a good idea? does it need to be connected the instructions dont even show it??? the rest of the esc i can figure out! thanks in advance for the help!

U can connect the fan there, I use it for the motor fan. But if u got the combo it comes with the huge fan. Fan in offroad is fine just make sure it's secured:)

i have the ESC mounted still waiting on a motor though i also picked up the program card how does it work exactly? don't really want to mess with it to much just want to put power to it set and forget it! thanks!

there's 2 outlet one batt the other is esc. Just connect the -/+ accordingly. That's for u to change the setting for d esc. The default setting seems ok.

Manage to contact hobbywing china, seems that the person on charge Jack was very keen to know more abt the problems of the 150esc n will send one to me within 1wk:). Hope this time the esc will be better n who know I will race for hobbywing in Singapore :)

I fried my engine that's included in the 150A combo set. Sent about 5 mails to hobbywing but I didn't get a reaction. Do you have a mail address for me. I sent the mails to support@hobbywing.com and michael_shoky@hotmail.com wich I both found on the hobbywing website. The motor fried in 5 minutes. I'm now using a 36-50 robbo motor that is working fine.

His email is zj@hobbywing.com let me know wat he says. Good luck

thanks, just sent the mail again. I hope they will reply.

Managed to get a latest version of hobbywing 150 esc tested in my 3rd race.

1st heat software problem car has max drag brake, managed to reset.

2nd heat batt died, I used a 4s 5000 zippy set 4s manually on d esc but still one cell died. Dunno izzit batt problem or esc

3rd heat completed with no problem

At the Main batt pop out becoz it was a 6s n was not secured properly, fix n tried to run then found out d switch was cut by my spur gear. Tried to connect the black n red wire but can't start d esc. Din want to try d white wire in case the esc gets burnt.

So far I m ok with d esc change all setting except punch, esc ran cool. Need to find out how to undo the drag brake though.