Bad News Comes in Trees
 

So, not dissin Castle here, just thought I would share my bad luck story..

Two weeks ago at the races, after I had just left the pit area in the second qualifier, I get about half a lap and the MMM In my 1/8th buggy starts stuttering and lets out the magic smoke. I figure I can get back out for the main if I steal the MMM from the truggy (not racing it that day). I get it out, and it sounds like gravel rattling around in it. Open it up, and the TVS (? big square coponent on bottom of board) is busted up. I may have done this myself... usually, I am verry careful to not pry on the bottom when removing these, but being in a hurry between rounds may have caused me to forget my normal caution. So, that is number 2, and I did not race the main that day, in the 1/8th buggy class anyway.
So, the day before this weekends race, I decided to go back to the old standby: MM w/bec. This meant a complete connector swap on the old MM and a trip to LHS to get cc bec. I got everything in and hooked up, checked rotation (had to swap 2 wires). Took it outside and ran for a minute or two to see if all was good... yep, all good. When I picked it up, i revved the motor a couple times to throw some of the dirt off the tires. I had the body off, and noticed about the second rev that there were sparks coming out of the MM. There was number three down and I was just going to give up racing 1/8th scale the next day (still running 4wd SC though). Bummer though, as it would probably knock me out of a trophy spot for the points series.
Get to the races (last outdoor race for the season), and they decided to start a bit later than usual so we can run under the lights. I had one worthy esc left, a MMP (and now enough time to swap it and a motor). I installed it, leaving the bec in, and all was well. Quite well in fact, I only finished 5th (got 3rd in points series), but had several other racers come and say how my buggy was looking better than ever, or wondering if I had a different car now. The motor swap or the MMP could have been it... the car just felt great! Perhaps the MMP (being newer than the 2+ year old MMM) was just that much smoother, or switching from the Castle 1512 1800kv to Teckno Neu 1512 1700kv did it. Only reason I swapped the motor is because the connectors matched the MMP, so less connector soldering at the track (left soldering vise at home, oops). Looks like I may keep that set up in there a while... plus I have 3 ESCs to send to Castle.
Looks like I will end up paying for all of them, I have too much hard use out of them (beyond warranty period). The newest MMM from the truggy was about 1.25 years old, the buggy one well over 2 years. I think the old MM was at least 4 years old and saw more than it's share of high voltage (4s in 1/8th scale), and high current (2s in 4wd SC) use. Look forward to getting them all back for more years of abuse, I mean use.:whistle:

Bugger, sure hope that Castle step up and look after you here, you've obviously been a very strong supporter of them.

What does a tree got to do with it? Is it a saying i'm not aware off?

It's because bdebde moved up from the "van down by the river" to a plush treehouse in the burbs...

And that's where his neighbor told him the bad news? (Woodworms, that could be bad news for a man in his position?)

But if he, for instance, received a free subscription to a magazine, monthly describing/illustrating what he likes best, then good news would come in trees? (is that the correct interpretation of this saying?)

It's always good to have a clear insight in the situation.

Anyway, the woodworms would truly upset me, better straighten that out before contacting Castle for your smoked controllers!

Hang on, this has nothing to do with woodworms, has it? it are the castle-controllers?

bdebde, it would be handy if you kept your location more up to date, it's very confusing for us foreigners..

Ok, sorry guys, I was hanging out with (pun intended) Tarzan at the time, so yeah in the trees. Well, apparently I can't spell, it was supposed to be threes. Oh, and still in the van! :lol:

You can spell, i just thought it was a good reason to use the edit button and be the ignorant foreigner.