Wow, that's a really weird failure! I can't be the heatsink shorting out on the plugs though, as Patrick has already stated that they've never been able to get this to happen...even after scraping the anodizing off. I've heard of ESCs dying as a result of cogging due to motor incompatibility, but this is bizarre.
It seems that most of these faliures so far have been bad luck or user error (bad motor lead connection, battery lead coming unplugged while braking, and a bad setup which appeared to be overstraining the cells and maybe causing excessive voltage ripple)...but this is a real strange one. Maybe a bad solder joint in on the ESC power board, causing a phase to operate eratically?
Weird definitely, nothing external and it didn't happen instantaneously but slowly over a 3 day period. Once it died it was completely dead, no castle link, nothing. When I ran it I didn't do anything extreme just circles, straight runs etc my motor was a Medusa 36-60-2000, and I also slapped in a Fiego 9xl to make sure the motor wasn't causing any problems. Both motors work perfectly with my MM.
I don't think these few failures should be the cause of worry, they are all different and I'm 95% confident that when I get my replacement it will be good, there will always be some failures!
We see (rarely) a failure like that -- often they are caused by a cracked resistor or capacitor (or solder ball stuck under a chip, or bad solder joint, etc.) that was missed during testing, and fails shortly after.
What we call that behavior is "two phasing" -- means that two phases are working, but one either isn't driving, or has a problem with the back-EMF circuit.
We'll make sure you get your replacement ASAP.
Patrick del Castillo
President, Principle Engineer
Castle Creations
I know, I'm sure it was a complete fluke! I actually was messing with it last night and got CastleLink to recognize it, so I may try a couple more things.
BTW The Castle customer service has been outstanding, otherwise I would have given up on this months ago! I know this will be a solid products, just those beginning kinks to clear up, I just wish you waited a few months to announce it