Quote:
Originally Posted by Pdelcast
At Castle, we don't rate our controllers based on a battery size and lifetime. Rather, we rate our controllers based on temperature rise and stabilization. So if you look at something like, say, the Phoenix-ICE-100 (rated at 100A continuous) it can handle 100A for as long as you want to put 100A through it, and will temperature stabilize at about 80C (176F) with a 5mph airflow over the controller.
We decided not to put a current rating on our RC car controllers because we didn't agree with the way the industry rated controllers. There are controllers on the market that are rated at amperage levels that would actually MELT 12ga copper wire. (which is a ridiculous claim... most brushed controllers on the market that claim hundreds of amps of capability can actually only handle about 30-40A by Castle's rating method)
And so we decided not to get into an amperage "arms race" with companies that deliberately mislead the public.
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OK, so that makes more sense to me, but according to your website there have always been current ratings for the RC car controllers. They have changed since I first started looking at the MMM.
The Sidewinder used to be rated at 100 amps, now it's rated "More than you can handle!"
http://www.castlecreations.com/products/sidewinder.html
The Mamba Max has been rated at 100 amps continuous and still is according to the website.
http://www.castlecreations.com/products/mamba_max.html
The Mamba Monster was rated at "More than you can handle", but now has a rating of 120 amps continuous*
*Full throttle continuous operation with cooling airflow
http://www.castlecreations.com/produ...a_monster.html
Before I bought a MM I ran a brushed motor and modified my Duratrax Streak (12V capable and 12 turn limit). I asked all the guys around here what kind of current draw I would have on different turn motors and no one knew; most would glaze over when I started ask any technical question regarding anything to do with power needed for a system. Well I started modifying the Streak to handle more power by adding a couple more fets and then I realized that the traces on the board were too small to handle more than about 10 amps, so I cut some copper sheet and added it to the power traces. I was running an 8 turn motor just bashing around in my Rustler. So I have always (at least the last 5 or so years I have been back into this hobby) looked at ratings like they were absolute maximums of the componets, like adding up the pulsed drain currents of all the fets in the system. It takes more than componets to make an ESC the traces have to handle the current,
It’s really hard to get good information in the RC industry. The only way I was able to get any information at all was to buy the Eagletree data logger even if it has a very slow sample rate to me it was better than nothing.
So, if I may ask how do you test your ESC’s? Is it a purely a resistive load or an inductive load, or combo, (I did see the resistor array in one of your posts)? Do you use a large motor with a brake to load it to certain amperage? Is it done at a set “RPM”, or varying (but with the same current load) since the impedance of real motor changes with speed?
Just very curious about this.
Thanks
Jeff