Pic of newer MMM ...green controller board
 

I finally got me a MMM. Well I finally wanted one ever since Castle announced the newer fets. Had my LHS call Castle asking how to find out which version came with the lastest fets. They were told that the lastest versions have the green controller board as apposed to the blue board. Well we went through a few boxes of them and nothing until today's shipment came in.

I will say this about this new 3/10 batch. The assembly is a whole lot cleaner compared to the older version. It doesn't look like a mess inside like the ones with the blue controller board. The parts are nicely centered on the traces as well.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...c/DSCF0191.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...c/DSCF0193.jpg

Woooooo....

That a new bec coil thingy I see there, wonder how that compares to the old one- looks beefier :yes:

Ooo she's purty... Does she have a sister? How much does she cost? :lol:

Looks a good bit different than my true V3

The sister is at the LHS. I didn't look underneath her skirt, but I'm pretty sure she has the same stuff as the one I have.:lol:

That's the V5 control board. It looks "cleaner" because we went to smaller components and a more compact, beefier BEC design.

Well I'll say, job well done with this revision.

How can you tell a V5 from a V3 without opening the ESC?

You can't. But no worries, the V5 is pretty much the same controller as the V3 -- the changes were mostly for manufacturing.

Thank you. I'm still very happy with both my V3s solid as a rock so far :yes:

i've had two MMM fail and both times, it was from a tiny chip breaking off of the control board. other than that, rock solid. i was worried about running 6s in my v3 MMM, but it is still alive and well in my extended savage flux.

Hi Romano!

Did you already drive with the MMM? If yes, how do you like the performance of the MMM compared to other ESC's you've used?

I haven't used the ESC yet. It's still open sitting on my desk at home. The ESC will be used in the TM buggy with a Acepow Hardcase Lipo(once approved). Ik kan in een week of zo, de ESC even testen.

Oh ok :) The XTM (I assume you ment XTM?) buggy is really nice, I'm curious how this buggy will perform - especially the drivetrain.

Hehe! :lol: Ok... I'm curious what your opinion to the MMM will be!

Nee, het is de Team Majic M8 buggy.

looks like more 0402 components are used, I think I even saw some 0201 sized R/C parts? those are more often seen in cell phone boards. And Castle changed the BEC coil to a Sandust cored one? the best just got better.

No 0201 parts -- I think I'd have a rebellion in manufacturing if I tried that. :lol:

And yes, the BEC coil is now a sintered metal coil. Nice high saturation -- means higher peak currents in big cars. :party:

would castle take our old MMMs and some cash in exchange the new updated ones :)

You can always upgrade to the most recent version for the "non-warranty" price.

Just make sure you call in and let them know that you are doing the exchange only for a NIB unit.

HOWEVER, the difference between the V3 and the V5 simply isn't worth doing the upgrade IMHO. Most of the design changes were to increase production yields -- There isn't any changes that would really be noticeable to the user.

Had to open my newest MMM this morning to replace the fan (imagine that) and I see that the board is green but the components don't look the same as the pics of the v5. So it must still be just a later v3...with a new Evercool fan when I'm finished :lol:
Anyway here's a pic.

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Z01-B/023.jpg

New fan ready to install

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Z01-B/024.jpg

I like where it says Long Life Fan. Sounds like a challenge!

:lol: True story! But on my older MMM (3yrs) I have five race days and a couple of practice sessions on the evercool and it is holding up well. The reason I went with these fans is because my racing bud has had one in his MMM for two seasons and it"s still working perfectly and he isn't easy on a buggy! :whip:

Yes, notice your BEC board is still blue even though the rest of the power board is green. The v5 has green BEC and power board.

AHHH! I see that now.

I got me some plugs today with the intention of benchtesting the ESC with the 1520 motor. As I still had the ESC apart an paid some closer attention to the final assembly. Some of the fets weren't heatsinked at all. Check the below pic.

Patrick what do you suggest I do with this ESC? Just use it or take the heatsink off and reattached?

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...c/DSCF0202.jpg

Look like somebody had a case of the Mondays!

Lousy job of gluing... but on the MMM the main circuit board is very very heavy copper -- and that's the main heat path.

It should be just fine.

I just got another MMM combo and the ESC is worse that the first. All the outer fets are not even touching the heatsink. I'll post a pic once I get home.

Romanooo! :intello: Doesn't look/sound that good but I still want to hear your opinion about the performance of the MMM as you're very critical. (I might buy one if you're pleased with the performance)

I'm very critical, as it's what I do for a living for the past 11 years.

I do know that the Castle ESC's put out the power. Heck I still help peeps out from different states with their Castle ESC's for dragracing. So I'm not putting Castle down by any means. However, for 1/8 scale dragracing and speedruns(what I like to do), I want the most out of a ESC. That means proper cooling. As it sits right now with the two MMM that I have, heat dissipation is achieved by the fet board and that little patch of thermal adhesive to the heatsink. I prefer that all fets make contact with the heatsink. If you have an efficient setup, there wouldn't be a problem in it's current state. But I need max cooling in this Texas Heat.

Oh damn... I just bought a MGM ESC lol. Never had a MGM before, curious how it will perform.


I understand :) But one of those 2 goes in the TM Buggy right?

My camera is not good enough to show the gap between the heatsink and fets.

The MMM will be used in the GTP. Power, speed and brakes will be compared against the RX8.

I had an MGM before. Awesome power untill one day it just smoked.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...c/DSCF0238.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...c/DSCF0235.jpg

I know ideally the heatsink should make direct contact with the fets, and the glue is just there to hold it in place ( gap filler ), but I wonder if you could use some thermal glue and squeeze it into the gaps so that the remaining fets and heatsink are linked to some degree?

I have some 3M Thermally Conductive adhesive somewhere that I could try to use.

Any resuslts of the 3M compound?
How did you remove the heatsink?

This is put on the backburner. Family addition keeps me too busy.
But to remove the heatsink, you can use a heatgun and a razor.

Thanks!
I don't like the stock heatsink mounting.
Ps I've also this nice V5 board:-)

is it a short on the reciver wiring on the left one? ether way its kind of nasty soldering job

Also look at the negative wire connection it's not the same soldering as the positive one.

None of it is soldered by hand. The solder is a sticky paste and when heated in an oven it flows, there will be some variations in the way it flows depending on the wires

yeah i have seen that on discovery, but shouldent it be none ore little variation in such case?

also im sure all the small components in the board is done in such way, but it may be the wires is done some kind of manually, ether way you can clearly see the orange and red have contact. also the black and brown