Mamba Max Cogging
 

I'm runnning a Mamba Max with 4s lipo, UBEC and a Neu 1512 in an MBX 5. Every now and then the motor will cog so bad that I cannot get going without pushing the car. Are there any settings on the ESC that are better to reduce the cogging? I set the start power to high and that seems to help.

There's a thread on the Castle forum for this type of thing under "Mamba Max Quirk". So far, no one has been able to find a definite solution. Your situation sounds a little worst than other though. Have you also messed with the motor timing?

I'll try experimenting with the timing. It's not real bad, maybe 1 time out of 10 from a standstill I'll get the cogging. I can usually get going by easing into the throttle, but sometimes the car just sits there stuttering.

From what I've seen/heard, your brand of cogging seems to be when the MM ESC is used with a Neu motor in a heavier vehicle, like a buggy. People, such as myself, running the MM in a Stadium Truck or similar vehicle, only seem to have the quirk I pointed out (where it cogs from reverse to forward).

What you describe sounds a lot like what glassdoctor has noticed. I wonder if the MM has a hard time with 4 pole motors?

What someone needs to do is make some kind of spreadsheet listing each setup for all those with MM problems. Once enough data is collected, maybe a common demoninator will be evident.

I wonder if the information in this thread should be merged with the "Quirk" thread so all the info will be in the same place? I guess that's a decision a mod has to make.

I have seen this, yes. I haven't found a setting that cures it either. And I got conflicting suggestions from Castle depending who I talked to.

One thing I can say for sure is that if it coggs bad like that so that the car just sits there..... DO NOT stay on the throttle. If it happens, let off throttle immediately and try to give it just a little throttle like you said, ease into it.

If you mash the throttle when it's just sitting there stuttering it will get VERY hot VERY quick. The thing is though that sometimes that's what makes the car go... I have seen many times when I give a full throttle take-off and it cogs just for a second and then takes off. But sometimes it won't go and the longer you stay on throttle the more it will heat up, if the car doesn't GO....

This hasn't really been an issue for me when racing because it's rare to have the car stopped. Only when getting marshalled, etc... so the odds are it won't be cogging during a race. But still it's a possibility and I have had it happen a couple times while racing.

That's good to know. I did have it happen in a qualifier and it cost me 2 positions, but I was stabbing the throttle which was probably aggrivating the situation. There have only been two occasions where the car just wouldn't go.

How do start when you run a main? Do you start from a standstill or do you have someone hold the car up in the air while you spool it up like a nitro. I did the spool up method and it worked pretty well. I was in the first position and could not risk having a hesitation and causing a big pile up.

I am using the MM with a 6 pole motor, it goes okay, Brian

What 6-pole motor, that interests me so.

An inrunner.

I just start with the car sitting there... it normally doesn't cog and I just hope that it won't happen at such a bad time.

I guess eventually it will happen at the start of a main.

But you only do that once per race day and odds are it would only happen maybe once in a season of racing??

Right now it's the off season for me... maybe next summer I'll get to do a lot more racing with it and get a better handle on the issues. I'm hoping there will be a MMM by that time but who knows?

Yeah, Glass, the money is on the MMM. But we can hope for a software-update for the MM too.

Daf, speaking of which;

how is the rc10t2 doing? you must get serious runtime from it with that 12Ah pack?

Well, there goes that theory...

But perhaps it's the rough startup of the neu's which makes it worse. My 6 poler isn't that hard to turn than the 4 pole Neu..

I guess that's why we need some sort of spreadsheet to document everyone's setup and the problem they are having. It still seems the MM has more issues with the Neu motors than others...

I thought the Mamba wasn't recommended for the Neu motors in the first place.

I haven't seen any documentation that says you can't use a 4 pole motor. And the description pages for the Neu motors here say:

The price and specs for the MM are just so nice, it's hard to pass up. I mean, where else can you get a 100A, 4s ESC with the programming features for $140?

I've seen Shawn Palmer recc neu motors w/ the MMax many times, so I would think its ok.

Yeah, i noticed the very same Brian. Neu's are a pita on the MM.

Which makes me think the Plettenbergs may be even harder.

Here is an excerpt from an email exchange I was having with tech support at CC. I was inquiring about the MM that died on me moments after plugging it in for the very first time. They inquired about the motor I was trying to run, and told me that the MM was not set up for other motors. Just the MM motors. I then questioned why this was not documented anywhere and why they were selling the ESCs as stand alone units if this was the case. Apparently they are not recommending using any motors other than theirs until the next software update. But, they cant tell me when that will be.

Interesting, I have a rustler with MM esc and 5700 motor and then I also have a 1/8 buggy with MM esc and Neu 1512 (2200kv). I get the same stall/stutter on the rustler as I do with the 1/8 buggy. Only difference is that the rustler only stall/stutters for a second then it will take. The 1/8 buggy you have to return to neutral then throttle it again. This is only an occassional quirk btw, I can get it either one to do the stall/stutter if I go full throttle, brake to a full stop, over and over and it does it 1 out of 6 times on the rustler and more on the the buggy. I wonder if it is more of a weight issue. I'm probably a little over geared on the rustler.

Hmm that's diff than that was being said on their support thread on RCZ, but I'll take that as the official word.

Thank you, it's doing fine! And yeah, the pack usually lasts longer than the truck :)

I only had it on a real track once so far, though. But it's on the BMX track almost every weekend now.

BTW, I never had any sort of cogging with my MM/5700/2S setup.

DAF

Blaming the problems on the Neu motor is B.S.

The boys at CC love the Neu motors and they have used them extensively, even hoping to be able to use them to re-brand as CC motors.

I can believe that the larger Neu motors (and other brands) may not be optimized, but THEY have been talking to some of us for months about running these setups and never happened to mention that we should expect to have problems due to a known compatibility issue.

These problems are unexpected and they are not limited to Neu motors. As someone already mentioned.... the problems are apparent even with CC motors.

I must say that CC built an incredible product in the MM but they must find and fix these glitches. They work awesome for the most part and I wouldn't have anything else in my 1/8 conversions right now.

I would rather live with an occasional minor "quirk" of the MM than go back to the horrible brake issues of the MGM or the self-destructing Mtroniks... or the who-knows-when-it-might-get-fixed $$$$ service of some other brands.

These are rather small glitches and sometimes not even repeatable. Some would difficulty ever noticing some of the glitches. But they ARE there.

So I am still a CC guy and I still expect to help them do some testing for the MMM, but I don't like hearing from CC that these problems don't exist and don't need to be addressed.

I know Joe visits many forums, so I hope this one is of some concern to CC. And since you guys have been working with Neu motors all along, why don't you give us a software patch specificly optimized for them? That would be in the best interests of everyone.

Good to hear it's doin fine Daf! you like the handling/runtime? what is the weak part on the truck? replaced a few of the spare arms?