Castle Pricing for Non warranty
 

So I have 2 dead mamba monsters, i was thinking about sending in as they are just back-ups. Last time i checked it was $70, which seemed fair. I checked a little while ago and it was $80, well its now $85. I emailed castle support, which took them 9 days to reply (that's beside the point). I was having an issue with a bec and needed some help, as well as asked about if i sent in my 2 mamba monster v3's if i would get a Mamba monster V2 Waterproof as it was the same price for sending them in. The response i got was The cost for mamba monsters is now $85, send in the BEC as we'll so we can check it out.

WTH? none of my questions where answered in the original email i had sent. I've only dealt with sending in an items twice now and all where pretty painless and didnt require much on my end. But it seems like it's gone down hill recently and leaves a sour taste in my mouth as i strictly run all castle in all of my 8 rigs. So now for $85+postage, i may as well trash bin these mmv3's and pick up a brand new one from a xo1 off ebay for $100. If getting a V2 waterproof was an option i might send ONE in...

Be aware that the Castle ESCs that are coming out of Traxxas or HPI cars are not upgradeable because they won't allow beta firmware on them. So you'll be stuck with firmware 1.32 and it's cogging issues when using the XO-1 ESC. On the lightweight XO-1 with small tires and not much traction it's only a little annoying when running high gearing, but if you run it in a heavier Monster with big tires and more traction you will have issues.

Maybe someday they will release a final version of their firmware (but don't count on it, it has been over three years now after the latest non-beta firmware).

For the HPI Blur ESC from a Savage Flux there is a way to upgrade it to the latest firmware because they work with older castlelink software that still has an unencrypted settings.mdb (Microsoft Access database file). The XO-1 ESC however, will only work with newer castle link software that has an encrypted SQlite settings file, so there's no easy way to change things in there.

Edit: Forgot to mention that you also cannot downgrade the XO-1 ESC to 1.24 firmware.

Nice, thanks for the info! I usually only use the 1.24 firmware on most of my rigs and run an external BEC on 4 outta the 5 mamba monster i have now. I do have a blur ESC though, maybe i'll have to play around with the firmware now...

I only run a Mamba monster in one MT that is a big heavy pig. The rest are fairly light weight, but i hear you on the Xo1 esc. I was just looking into that because of the price point and the added bonus of the cap pack already installed.

I have 3 dead mamba monsters ...

How much is the replacement cost for a MMM2 ??

To swap out a non-waterproof Mamba Monster (Castle or OEM) for a Mamba Monster 2 the cost is $100 + shipping. Standard shipping for US customers is $8.00, international customer are calculated based on destination and weight.

To swap out a non-waterproof Mamba Monster (Non-OEM) for a non-waterproof Mamba Monster the cost is $85.00 and includes return shipping.

To swap out a non-waterproof Mamba Monster (OEM IE Traxxas, HPI, etc.) for a non-waterproof Mamba Monster the cost is $100 + shipping.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Thomas

I can't find a way to do it through the web can you help me ?

Right here Molak:

http://castlecreations.com/support/repairs.html

^^^^ What he said.

About half way down there is a blue box that says "Process Repair"

Choose
Is this a warranty claim? > No - Non-warranty Claim
Type of product > Car/Truck
Select a product > Mamba Monster 2

The price will show $85, but that is only applicable if you're sending in a Mamba Monster 2 for non-warranty. The repair department will manually adjust the price once they receive the units. You can enter a credit card number on the following pages, but the card will not be charged until we are ready to ship out the replacements. You can also send a check or money order (USD only) or they can setup a PayPal payment if you'd like.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

If I pay $75 to mail in my dead mamba max, what esc will I get back?

We will replace a Mamba Max with a Mamba Max Pro for $75.00.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Speaking of the old MM, I wonder how long it will be before a sealed-in-original-box MM becomes a collector's item?

Ohh heck, if a Castle ESC becomes an "antique" I've got a desk draw full of goodies we could flood the market with! :mdr: There's a Mamba Max floating around Tech Support that has a neon yellow case.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Proof: Neon yellow cased Mamba Max.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

I'm glad that idea never made it into production. Yellow in general literally angers me. Don't know why since yellow is supposed to be calming. You would have gotten several of those mysteriously destroyed for warranty work.

Anyway, it's not sealed in the original box. Mine is. I'll see what it's worth in 20 years I guess.

As of a month ago they are worth $69 on ebay bundled with a 2 pole 6900kv motor and 2 pinions. Yes, new in the box. Yes, I was disappointed. :neutral:

Hi Guys just tried to go through the send in a Non Warranty Mamba max Pro, from the page it then sent me to says paypal, did that logged in to paypal, then phoned my bank as the payment never went through? any body tell me please, thanks

Non working prototype? There's no caps on it...


Why did you move away from having a USB port on the ESC? I've lost so many castle links over the years.:diablo:

I don't think they take payment until they rx the item and assess it.

More expensive to build.
A lot of people hated it because they couldn't hook up the USB cable when it was mounted on the chassis and had to remove the ESC to connect it to the computer. (Present company included)
Nearly impossible to make it waterproof with the USB port.
Difficult to get the driver to work on 64-bit operating systems.

The last reason was the biggest problem. The engineers just couldn't quite get the Castle made driver to work on 64-bit operating systems and it wouldn't work with the Human Interface Device (HID) driver that we currently use on Castle Link adapter.

I understand completely about losing the Castle Link adapters. My desk here at work and my tool box have swallowed up countless adapters over the years. I have started using the Field Programming Card the last few years and love it. I rarely use it to actually program the ESC as a standalone unit. But it's larger than a credit card and bright yellow, so it's a lot harder to misplace.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Makes sense... The CClinks were harder to lose when they had a 10in servo lead on them:sarcastic:

I could never justify the programing card, my laptop goes everywhere with me:neutral:


So when is the MMp^2 coming out? I heard the MMP was out of memory a loooong time ago... And it won't do high timing motors, forcing me to run the 'other' company's esc:no:

The PC connection port on the new white ESCs is nice:angel:
A stronger BEC would be nice, something epic, like the CC bec...:whistle:

Now you know I can't speak about any new products that may or may not be in development. But it would make sense for us to redevelop the Mamba Max Pro and pack in some of the newer bells and whistles. IE data logging, waterproof, bigger BEC, sensor port moved to the top, removable receiver wire. We have been listening to customer suggestions and taking notes over the last few years. The above list seems to come up the most consistently when people are looking for upgraded features for a Mamba Max Pro and Mamba Monster..

The Mamba Max Pro was pretty innovative for its day and has served us well over the past 5 years. But as with all things, particularly electronics, there are innovations and changes that occur that require continual updates to a product to keep it competitive and innovative. So it only makes sense for us to come out with updated car controllers, but only time will tell.

If we were to redesign the Mamba Max Pro and Mamba Monster, are there any features you would like to see incorporated that could make or break your decision to buy one?

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Have the monster with sensor ports. Sensorless is smooth for the most part, but TBH, sensored operation during starts/low speed and braking is even more so. And while we're at it, create an optional add-on endbell which would contain sensors which could be attached to the current motor line.

I liked how the MMPro had sensor ability with fallback to sensorless if the wires were broken or whatever.

Has it been 5 years? I remember buying mine at Ihobby when they were first announced :surprised:

It MUST be durable. My MMPs have been through hell and back and they still work. I have one that's been plugged in backwards twice(that was a bad day) and one that's had the BEC/parts blown OFF the board, they still work.

I stopped using tekins, novaks, etc because they had the bad habit of dying at the worst possible times, even though they are 'faster' on the track.

Ability to run 70*+ static timing motors. Tamiya TCS went to 21.5 this year. The fastest motor is revtech with ~78* of static timing.


Wants:
Removable fan would be nice. Make 2 versions? one with heatsink/fan, one with smaller heatsink/no fan(same internals). Even if they are the same price...

If your adding dataloging make sure it can do current, and add an extra port for a temp/RPM/etc sensor/2.

Solder posts or a way to change the wires

'link' jack on the esc.

Keep whatever sensor jack your using. It's the only one I've seen that the cable doesn't back out on.

External "fan" jack with adjustable output. So I can run fans at 8-10v when running 6s.

Custom startup tones?

Most importantly, SOON...

I want to put Castle on the podium of the next local TCS race in febuary.

Bump old thread still got this to send in, I now need a spare so it's for out of warranty replacement! So I don't pay straight away just send it in??

Thanks