Racing w/a v3

[slimthelineman]

Not a pro just your average weekend warrior. Been able to race once a week for a couple months now since were back in so cal and thought i would share my experience with the v3 so far.

rc8
neu 3200xp 25/50c 6s
neu 1512 3d
5-5-5 (needed thicker on the blue-groove in the center)
15-18/46 depends on dia of tires and track size(indoor/outdoor in my case) mostly 40mph outdoors ~35indoors

MMM settings
19.0v cutoff
50% brakes
30% punch control
0 timing
start power medium
very small deadband

First thing, TOURQE (i think i spelled that right?) tons of it everywhere. so much so that i broke (spread apart under load and snapped) a rear diff out drive saturday on the second lap of my heat(outdoor-blue groove). Pretty much the only reason i opted to use the punch controlin the first place, helps keep my car out of the stratosphere and keeps the setup about 10-20 degrees cooler
5min race indoors 110 motor/ 75 MMM/ ~75 batt(~800-1000 mah)
5min race outdoors 125 motor/ 90MMM/ ~90 batt(~1000-1200 mah)
10-15min race outdoors 140 motor/ 100 MMM/ 100 batt(~2400-2600mah)

these are small tracks, OC/RC and Hotrod my accuracy on the above #'s is to the best of my recolection. I temp the componets as i pull the car off the track so its not like i write them down...

The only real gripe i have on the v3 is the loss of the batt side bullets. i like my wires short as i can get em, and have extra 6.5 bullet pigtals, and lets not forget its a no no to solder on the pcb so cutting the wires is just a trap.

FYI
Mount your MMM on the chassis!!!! this isnt really an issue now that we have all these sick conversions out. The car itself was done last Feb. and initially had the MMM mounted on a CF "divingboard" off the top of the center diff twards the rear. It didnt like it there for whatever reason. not really sure why didnt abuse/crash my rig, but since on the chassis its been smooth sailing, and better ballance too Would like to remove the case and drill some holes in the front where the caps are just to let some air in due to where its mounted, but the fan never comes on and the caps are always +/- 2deg from the rest of the esc. Couldnt hurt though right? only the warranty

Other than that the thing rips! Much quicker than any of the nitro cars. Its definately not as "smooth" as a sensored motor, IF you drive it that way. It has way too much power but driving it smoothly its as fast as the gas cars in lap times when i dont bobble/get hacked or have the marshall try to carry it off the track because its not making noise Have never had it hit cutoff, dont bash, all racing. Ran it twice on the street w/sportwerks tires to align the front end but thats about it unless i trim the steering at the track in the pits around 5 mph.

Will be the millonth to say castles customer service is just that CUSTOMER SERVICE, i know hard to believe huh? like some others i have had failures v2 bec's and v3 as well. why? couldnt tell ya, i have a v3 in my rig and one factory sealed in my pitbag. if anyone cares pm me and i will let you guess which numbers they are shure it sucks and in the beging everyone one was pissed because we waited for what seemed like an eternity to just HAVE one myself included. BUT the cc crew is top notch and as long as i run my rc8 it'll hav a MMM or version of it pushin the amps.

Would REALLY LIKE TO RUN 8s if the "rc-gods" are listening. Probably on a 1100-1300 kv motor with mikes 2500 cells. I think it would be great, run long cool and fast... or something like that, also because HV is fuuuunnnnnn....

[e-mike]

nice review....im a semi racer and i can confirm that the v3 is a solid esc(even if i have one unit melt...)

[slimthelineman]

i am very happy with the v3, hell i liked the v2's too, everything is 10000000% better when it works and i think the v3 is a solid performer for my application.

[magman]

Very nice review...I had a v1 die on me a while back and sold it's replacement. I am considering getting another one but, my inner voice is telling me to go for the sensored system by Tekin

[slimthelineman]

yeah alot of people seem to be hooked on the sensor deal but i kinda like the crazy "snap" of the sensorless neu! suits my driving style. I suppose the difference is subtle but it is there.

[e-mike]

Originally Posted by slimthelineman

yeah alot of people seem to be hooked on the sensor deal but i kinda like the crazy "snap" of the sensorless neu! suits my driving style. I suppose the difference is subtle but it is there.

its seem that the v3 is a very smooth esc i cant imagine how smooth is a sensored unit.....for racing i dont really think that this device is needed....in crawling maybe....

[bdebde]

So no problem getting 15 min race time with the 3200 6s?

I have been thinking about going 6s in my race buggy. I am still running 4s on a MM.

[slimthelineman]

geared for 40mph yeah the 3200xp's work good, about 500g too. neu is out of stock on them so i dont know if they will get any soon but the 3300ep's are in and they were only like 30g heavier if i rember right. 6s is great, tons of power if you can lay it down. thats the hard part. but then again its always better to have and not need than need and not have right?

[Unsullied_Spy]

Do you have any issues with the ESC "hesitating" under hard acceleration? I noticed mine would cog a bit hitting full throttle from a dead stop or slight roll. Maybe mine was defective though, it stopped working after some hard braking so maybe mine was a lemon from the factory.

[slimthelineman]

no not once its moving, once and a while it will hesitate coming out of neutral but nothing horrible. dont really use neutral much while racing with it.

[slimthelineman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjbpGSjJjk

not the greatest video but about 2.5 mins of playtime at a electric series race over the weekend. ran the MMM during the heat of the day today on dry-track too! was quite impressed with the speedo handling the heat, traction, and my horrible driving that day...... only four cars including myself and another track local included. kinda shocking since the track hosting the series race usually has two heats of electric 1/8 scale, andonly two of them showed up? needless to say i was the only castle user there.... nobody wants to run their novak on 3-4s on a larger track?

anyway i drove the setup pretty hard on the semi blue groove surface and suprisingly temps were only about 10-20 degrees higher than normal. didnt chang any settings on the MMM and got:

MMM ~135 on the heatsink through the case but fan was running
motor ~160
battery ~110

used around 2200 mah per five minute race, alittle higher than normal but expected. still running the 3200xp's would like to get some of the 3300ep's (and an eagle tree) soon but work has been slow for the last couple of weeks. ok time for a dumb question, anyone seen the trinity lipo warmer? (140deg. F constant) what the hell is that about? dont think i would run a fully charged 140 deg lipo in my buggy. yet...
also how do we all feel about saddle packs? used them before in 4w 1/10 but seems to be popping up more.

[brushlessboy16]

That thing accelerates like a bat outta hell :), very nice...

I run 2x 2s saddle setup, but the packs are normal sized. its a really nice setup

Originally Posted by slimthelineman

not the greatest video but about 2.5 mins of playtime at a electric series race over the weekend.

Great video! That buggy has insane power when you get on it. Nice job!

[slimthelineman]

thanks guys, looking to get some stronger packs soon so i can get rid of the punch control (30%) and see what it can really do, though i have a feeling a slipperential will be needed to keep the drivetrain in one piece. and lots of practice!

What track is that? Looks like a fun track to run wheeler on.

You are rolling on a stupid amount of power! LOL why dont you quad those first set of jumps?