brushless 1/5 4wd conversion about to begin! couple questions.

[Ryu James]

Originally Posted by Metallover

Have you tried programmin it yet? Do you get any leds at all? Are you trying a full 10s now?

That would be horribly bad luck to have a doa. Listen to the song DOA by the Hunted to vent your frustrations.

i havent been able to program it cuz it wont even turn on. it doesnt have a port for hookup to CastleLink...at least not one that i can see. i think it can only be programmed via the transmitter.

i tried hooking up 10s and still nothing. with 5s a small red led blinks 1 time right when i plug it in but thats it. when i hooked up 10s i didnt notice if the red led blinked or not. it doesnt beep or anything and the light on my spektrum rx doesnt light up so i know something isnt right. the rx is fine too cuz i checked it with a MMM.

anyway, i have no idea what is wrong. it must just be a faulty esc.

i am just re-reading the instructions and it says one of the features it has is a
"Safe Power ON" arming program to help prevent motor from accidentally turning on. but ut doesnt say anything about how it works or what to do. just says to connect a battery safely.

for troubleshooting it says if the symptom is nothing working at all to check all connections, check polarity and if that doesnt fix it then contact Castle Tech support. i am certain that everything is connected how it should be and i made sure to hook it all up right cuz i didnt want to fry a $400 esc. it never acted like it got fried or anything. it simply has done nothing other than a 1 second red led blink from the first hookup.

so damn frustrating. and i havent heard back from castle yet after sending emails and leaving messages. hope to hear back soon.

Originally Posted by Ryu James

i havent been able to program it cuz it wont even turn on. it doesnt have a port for hookup to CastleLink...at least not one that i can see. i think it can only be programmed via the transmitter.

Your supposed to use the Castle Link adapter that plugs into the servo plug on the ESC, connect it to the battery and then try and program it.

[aqwut]

Originally Posted by Ryu James

what? are you serious??!!


hey aqwut,
is the hobbywing esc the Pentium model? that is the only HV version i can find for $100 but its a airplane/heli esc. is that the one you are using?

Yeah, I'm using that ESC, but i have a PiStix adapter with it and using the mechanical brakes.. no motor brakes at all...... What's your final drive ratio?.. mine is currently 8.42:1 @ approx 16K RPM..
The most that I have tested was 7.36:1 @ 16K RPM. I haven't tested any higher gearing yet, so for now the ESC can run safely (on Grass)...

38Lbs @ 53 MPH on 12S5000mAh....

[Ryu James]

Originally Posted by Bad Karma

Your supposed to use the Castle Link adapter that plugs into the servo plug on the ESC, connect it to the battery and then try and program it.

yeah, i have been working on trying to use castlelink to see if the esc works and still nothing. castlelink says that the hv series controllers need to be hooked up to at least a 12v battery to be able to program. so i hooked up the batter and connected the esc to castlelink and still nothing. castlelink doesnt even recognize it. it just gives me an error saying nothing is connected. so i tried my MMM with castlelink to make sure everything was working and i was able to program my MMM no problem. there is definitely something wrong with this controller.

[Metallover]

Do you have the motor plugged in? Properly? Maybe try plugging in the battery with the turorrle held all the way down on the transmitter. Have a separate bec plugged in?

Don't know why I'm saying all this... Doubt you're doing anything wrong. You're experienced enough. Wonder what castle says.

Edit- Looked at the led meanings sticky in the cc forum. It only says it's for car controllers, but it might be somewhat universal. Solid red or green means full throttle or reverse. Doubt the little flash of hape you got was that, but it might be. Maybe you have the rx plug plugged in backwards?

[Ryu James]

Originally Posted by Metallover

Do you have the motor plugged in? Properly? Maybe try plugging in the battery with the turorrle held all the way down on the transmitter. Have a separate bec plugged in?

Don't know why I'm saying all this... Doubt you're doing anything wrong. You're experienced enough. Wonder what castle says.

Edit- Looked at the led meanings sticky in the cc forum. It only says it's for car controllers, but it might be somewhat universal. Solid red or green means full throttle or reverse. Doubt the little flash of hape you got was that, but it might be. Maybe you have the rx plug plugged in backwards?

i will check the led meanings. i have checked and re-checked the to make sure its plugged in right and polarity etc. i cannot see anything i am doing wrong? i wish it was something i am overlooking so then its just a quick fix but it seems to be a problem with the esc. i mean, i hooked it up exactly the same twice and one time it worked fine with the MMM and the other time nothing on the HV. i also have test this with the rx and the same thing happens. everything is fine when i hook to my MMM but nothing happens when hooked to the HV.

castle hasnt responded yet to any of my calls or emails. maybe i will hear back tomorrow.

edit: so i checked the sticky with the led definitions and there is not a definition for a 1 second red blink and then nothing. i take that to mean there is something wrong. thanks for your help though metallover. even now i am still open to more ideas. i guess i just want to hang on to the hope that its just something i am overlooking so i dont have to send it in and wait 2 months.

[aqwut]

Originally Posted by Ryu James

i will check the led meanings. i have checked and re-checked the to make sure its plugged in right and polarity etc. i cannot see anything i am doing wrong? i wish it was something i am overlooking so then its just a quick fix but it seems to be a problem with the esc. i mean, i hooked it up exactly the same twice and one time it worked fine with the MMM and the other time nothing on the HV. i also have test this with the rx and the same thing happens. everything is fine when i hook to my MMM but nothing happens when hooked to the HV.

castle hasnt responded yet to any of my calls or emails. maybe i will hear back tomorrow.

edit: so i checked the sticky with the led definitions and there is not a definition for a 1 second red blink and then nothing. i take that to mean there is something wrong. thanks for your help though metallover. even now i am still open to more ideas. i guess i just want to hang on to the hope that its just something i am overlooking so i dont have to send it in and wait 2 months.

Well, kinda similar problem I have.... my 2280 is sitting pretty in the firehammer, and have no ESC that could handle the current.. Been toying with the MGM for months... Mine takes programming, but nothing else...

[Ryu James]

Originally Posted by aqwut

Well, kinda similar problem I have.... my 2280 is sitting pretty in the firehammer, and have no ESC that could handle the current.. Been toying with the MGM for months... Mine takes programming, but nothing else...

which mgm did you buy? i know they arent cheap. plus i hear getting them fixed is a pain being as they are located in europe. it almost sounds like that little hobbywing is the way to go. didnt you say that your specs showed you werent even drawing 100amps?

btw, i dont really understand all the details of of gearing and watts and on and on. you seem to know all that very well. here is what i am running. was wondering if you could tell me if you think the hobby wing will work

2215 2y 750kv
10s 5000mah 30c
and 15/40 gearing

i know the gearing is high. i can go a bit lower down to a 12t pinion for a 12/40 setup if needed. is that gonna be geared low enough? what would my gear ratio be? remember i dont have the drive reduction unit like you. just a spur and pinion gear and of course the stock front and rear diffs which are 30t spur and 10t pinion.

[aqwut]

Originally Posted by Ryu James

which mgm did you buy? i know they arent cheap. plus i hear getting them fixed is a pain being as they are located in europe. it almost sounds like that little hobbywing is the way to go. didnt you say that your specs showed you werent even drawing 100amps?

btw, i dont really understand all the details of of gearing and watts and on and on. you seem to know all that very well. here is what i am running. was wondering if you could tell me if you think the hobby wing will work

2215 2y 750kv
10s 5000mah 30c
and 15/40 gearing

i know the gearing is high. i can go a bit lower down to a 12t pinion for a 12/40 setup if needed. is that gonna be geared low enough? what would my gear ratio be? remember i dont have the drive reduction unit like you. just a spur and pinion gear and of course the stock front and rear diffs which are 30t spur and 10t pinion.

roughly 7.5 final drive ratio has been the most I've been able to push/try on the 100A ESC without any issues.. but my KV is set for 356, and your's is 750KV.. but your tires are smaller diameter... and your vehicle is quite lighter in mass... your's is about 9.99:1 final drive ratio if you use a 12T pinion... I think yours is setup same as Kaz..? With the buggy tires and the high FDR and higher KV motor/rpm, I think the 100A ESC would handle fine...

I bought the 28025 temporary for my 1/5th scale race a few months ago, but it didn't work.. it was pretty much a waste of money since that's the only ESC that would've been able to handle the 2280-5 on 6S 10000 mAh, 5th scale.., and it still doesn't work, I'm sure Mike would help me out.. Just waiting for a reply.. I'm in the same boat as you, I really don't want to send it out, unless I'm 200% sure that there is nothing else that could be done for it to work.... because my Hydra 240 on 6S couldn't handle that motor either, but that's because it needed water cooling and the motor RPM was 1480KV...

The Hydra was 75+ Deg. C, the Lipos were about 50 Deg. C 6S2P 10000 mAh, and the motor was about 40 Deg. C. and all 6 10 AWG wires were warm...

[florianz]

I think it's just a bad joke, selling expensive esc's which just don't work. and bad service doesn't make it better.

but anyways. some months ago I was about to buy one of those esc's:
http://www.r2hobbies.com/proddetail....=rcps81708_120

My first 5s bl-esc had the same black programming box like that one. So I guess it has a "kind of" car-program. using that box was just so easy. great stuff. But, I didn't use one of the esc's shown above. you probably could use the car brake of that esc. maybe you add some caps to be on the safe side.

suppo used to have a super high voltage esc, but their HP is down. Just because it's "no-Name" and chinese, doesen't have to mean it's rubbish. As you see, you buy "brand" and it's not working at all.

I used to have a plane esc similar to that one http://www.bidproduct.com/part/Produ...20ESC_106.html and it was rock solid, worked absolutely flawlessly. Only problem is, they have no dynamic car brake, but that doesn't matter for you.

here's the suppo 10s esc, I am sure that they had a 100a esc:http://www.lightflightrc.com/HTML/pr...80A_HV_ESC.htm

further there are the etti boat esc, for more than 10s. They are known to be good, not that cheap like a suppo or a hobbywing. I had one, which smoked soon...

I don't know how high the amps are driving that big, bautiful car. using 10s, 100a could be sufficient.

[Ryu James]

ok, so here is the email i just got from castle. it appears it am just an inexperienced idiot. i knew it had to be something i was overlooking. what i dont get is why it didnt say this in the instructions. i guess becuase any boat guy, which is who this esc is for, would have known this without having to to be told.

quote from castle:

Ryan,

The ESC is opto coupled. It does not have a BEC to power the receiver. You must power the receiver and the ESC with a separate receiver battery plugged into the receiver.


end quote.


ok, so it sounds like i need a bec and a separate rx pack. lovely. at least its gonna run today. woohoo. fingers crossed. so, i want to make sure i get this right. i have only used a bec one time and it was a looong time ago. can some of you experts guide me through how to set this up. i have that little blue castle bec that was like $20. is that gonna work?

[Ryu James]

Originally Posted by aqwut

roughly 7.5 final drive ratio has been the most I've been able to push/try on the 100A ESC without any issues.. but my KV is set for 356, and your's is 750KV.. but your tires are smaller diameter... and your vehicle is quite lighter in mass... your's is about 9.99:1 final drive ratio if you use a 12T pinion... I think yours is setup same as Kaz..? With the buggy tires and the high FDR and higher KV motor/rpm, I think the 100A ESC would handle fine...

I bought the 28025 temporary for my 1/5th scale race a few months ago, but it didn't work.. it was pretty much a waste of money since that's the only ESC that would've been able to handle the 2280-5 on 6S 10000 mAh, 5th scale.., and it still doesn't work, I'm sure Mike would help me out.. Just waiting for a reply.. I'm in the same boat as you, I really don't want to send it out, unless I'm 200% sure that there is nothing else that could be done for it to work.... because my Hydra 240 on 6S couldn't handle that motor either, but that's because it needed water cooling and the motor RPM was 1480KV...

The Hydra was 75+ Deg. C, the Lipos were about 50 Deg. C 6S2P 10000 mAh, and the motor was about 40 Deg. C. and all 6 10 AWG wires were warm...

thanks for the input. i think i will be able to run a test today. so is yours actually geared higher than mine? i guess you could gear a lot higher with such a low kv motor and so much power. i am really hoping it works as planned. i really dont want to have go back to the drawing board.

sorry about your mgm. luckily for me i was just over looking things but it sounds like you know what you are doing and chances are the mgm needs to be replaced. idk, i know some guys swear by them. i have never owned one but have looked at getting one several times.

[florianz]

ooops...

well, w/out bec it won't work...

be careful with the ubec/external bec, it has to work for 10s. it also should provide enough amps for the big servos.

eg, the turnigy ubec/bec are quite good.

[aqwut]

Originally Posted by Ryu James

thanks for the input. i think i will be able to run a test today. so is yours actually geared higher than mine? i guess you could gear a lot higher with such a low kv motor and so much power. i am really hoping it works as planned. i really dont want to have go back to the drawing board.

sorry about your mgm. luckily for me i was just over looking things but it sounds like you know what you are doing and chances are the mgm needs to be replaced. idk, i know some guys swear by them. i have never owned one but have looked at getting one several times.

Yeah, mine is geared higher because of the lower KV... But don't hook up your Castle BEC to your 10S, it will fry.. 6S maximum on the BEc, so you'll need a seperate pack for that.. but I suppose you already know this... Your buggy should be rockin' today man.. .Hurry up and post a video...

Originally Posted by florianz

ooops...

well, w/out bec it won't work...

be careful with the ubec/external bec, it has to work for 10s. it also should provide enough amps for the big servos.

eg, the turnigy ubec/bec are quite good.

They do work very good, but I do like the castle UBEC.. I have quite a few of them myself..

[redshift]

Hyperion to the rescue... http://www.allerc.com/product_info.p...oducts_id=2821

Good for 10S, all e has done VERY well by me, ships from AZ to NY in 2 days, everytime!