What is this BS Castle is feeding this customer?

[Pdelcast]

WELL, nice of everyone to keep everybody else honest. :)


HERE IS THE STATUS of our investigation.

1. It seems to be an infant mortality problem with the switcher control chip, a National Semiconductor LM3485
2. There is already a TVS (transient voltage suppressor) on the circuit that feeds the LM3485 -- so it may NOT be a voltage spike related failure (28V TVS on LM3485 power line, LM3485 part is rated to 36V operational,) but we are not ruling out the possibility at this time.

We are working with National Semiconductor to determine the cause of the failures. It seems that making a couple minor changes to the circuit make everything work fine -- but we haven't determined the cause of the failures yet.

Patrick

[JerryF504]

Originally Posted by Pdelcast

WELL, nice of everyone to keep everybody else honest. :)


HERE IS THE STATUS of our investigation.

1. It seems to be an infant mortality problem with the switcher control chip, a National Semiconductor LM3485
2. There is already a TVS (transient voltage suppressor) on the circuit that feeds the LM3485 -- so it may NOT be a voltage spike related failure (28V TVS on LM3485 power line, LM3485 part is rated to 36V operational,) but we are not ruling out the possibility at this time.

We are working with National Semiconductor to determine the cause of the failures. It seems that making a couple minor changes to the circuit make everything work fine -- but we haven't determined the cause of the failures yet.

Patrick

That's waayyy over my head lol, but I know Castle can and will make it right. Does that mean that it is a problem with all of the ESCs sold so far?

[lutach]

Originally Posted by Pdelcast

WELL, nice of everyone to keep everybody else honest. :)


HERE IS THE STATUS of our investigation.

1. It seems to be an infant mortality problem with the switcher control chip, a National Semiconductor LM3485
2. There is already a TVS (transient voltage suppressor) on the circuit that feeds the LM3485 -- so it may NOT be a voltage spike related failure (28V TVS on LM3485 power line, LM3485 part is rated to 36V operational,) but we are not ruling out the possibility at this time.

We are working with National Semiconductor to determine the cause of the failures. It seems that making a couple minor changes to the circuit make everything work fine -- but we haven't determined the cause of the failures yet.

Patrick

It might just be some faulty units. I see that a lot in the electronic industry. Your failure rate is for a new product is not bad at all. Big electronic companies would love to see that kind of failure rate for their new designs.

[skellyo]

Originally Posted by Pdelcast

WELL, nice of everyone to keep everybody else honest. :)


HERE IS THE STATUS of our investigation.

1. It seems to be an infant mortality problem with the switcher control chip, a National Semiconductor LM3485
2. There is already a TVS (transient voltage suppressor) on the circuit that feeds the LM3485 -- so it may NOT be a voltage spike related failure (28V TVS on LM3485 power line, LM3485 part is rated to 36V operational,) but we are not ruling out the possibility at this time.

We are working with National Semiconductor to determine the cause of the failures. It seems that making a couple minor changes to the circuit make everything work fine -- but we haven't determined the cause of the failures yet.

Patrick

Thanks for the information Patrick. I just have a hard time swallowing information from someone other than those who actually work at Castle. It's one thing for someone to speculate upon the failures, but it's entirely another for one to dissemenate information about failures from Castle as a 2nd hand source. If indeed someone at Castle is speaking with RURC regarding these failures, you guys should keep an eye on how your PR looks with someone like him speaking like he works for you. However, if he's just some crackpot trying to solve the world's problems, then you guys really should make it known that he is not affiliated with your company because he's really not giving anyone warm fuzzies about the whole situation.

[BrianG]

Could it be the LM3485 is really sensitive to ANY spike over 36v and the TVS isn't responding quickly enough to prevent the spikes?

Another possibility (I'm reaching here); could the high voltage and high currents on the motor leads be inducing a voltage somewhere in the BEC circuitry where it is "unhealthy"? I wouldn't think that the chip would be that touchy.

[jfruge]

Cound it also just be an infant mortality problem of the LM3485 and nothing more? So some of the units will just die in the first 10 minutes of use...The rest will work just fine for ever.....?

Has anyone heard of one running longer than 10 minutes and then stopping?

I am just thinking out loud here.....

[Pdelcast]

Originally Posted by jfruge

So some of the units will just die in the first 10 minutes of use...The rest will work just fine for ever.....?

Yep -- that's what it looks like. If it works OK for more than about 20 minutes or so, it doesn't seem to have a problem after that.

Patrick

[TexasSP]

I think it's rather obvious the guy has no connections with CC. I have run across his posts/rants/hallucinations many times reading on forums and usually choose to ignore him. I get real suspicious when people choose to ignore questions they can't answer. I find it rather impressive Patrick and Joe both respond to us on this forum rather rapidly all things considered and would only take there words in these matters and ignore the others.

[phatmonk]

Originally Posted by TexasSP

I think it's rather obvious the guy has no connections with CC. I have run across his posts/rants/hallucinations many times reading on forums and usually choose to ignore him. I get real suspicious when people choose to ignore questions they can't answer. I find it rather impressive Patrick and Joe both respond to us on this forum rather rapidly all things considered and would only take there words in these matters and ignore the others.

Diddo he is repeating it today almost word for word.

[xtremelimits285]

Originally Posted by phatmonk

Diddo he is repeating it today almost word for word.

i know an hes still posting

an cc let us know the real problem

Are you going to do a recall on the current Monster Mamba Max's and hold off the sale of anymore until you locate & fix the problems?

I mean it wouldn't be fair to someone like myself who has to wait a couple of weeks for international shipping to receive your product only to have it fail within the first 20 minutes, wait a month to get a replacement only to have the same thing happen again.

[Pdelcast]

Originally Posted by Longhair

Are you going to do a recall on the current Monster Mamba Max's and hold off the sale of anymore until you locate & fix the problems?

I mean it wouldn't be fair to someone like myself who has to wait a couple of weeks for international shipping to receive your product only to have it fail within the first 20 minutes, wait a month to get a replacement only to have the same thing happen again.

We have shipping hold right now, pending final determination of the issue.

Please note that this is (so far) a MINOR issue -- we have had 6 failures total out of 1000 pieces shipped.

Originally Posted by Pdelcast

We have shipping hold right now, pending final determination of the issue.

Please note that this is (so far) a MINOR issue -- we have had 6 failures total out of 1000 pieces shipped.

6 out of 1000 isn't bad at all.

I'm just saying is how big of a problem it would be if those 6 failed ones made it to the hands of 6 different people outside of North America. Instead of a week of down time those people would have a month of down time because of the shipping times - which are in nobody's control.

I do plan on buying this for my Savage conversion but before I do I want to make sure all the bugs are out of it because of the wait time.

[rhylsadar]

i just take this quote as an example.

DITTO THAT RURC guy is full of Crap, he thinks hes GOD ....
he said hes been into 1/8th scale brushless for over 10 or 15year
(when we all know 1/8th scale brushless just sarted a few years ago, an just started to cartch on last year)

i wouldn't be too fast with a judgment. RURC may have a kind of a 'special' way to express himself sometimes and that may easily sound 'arrogant'. however there is no doubt that he has lots of experience and from what i read for years in the rcu forum his informations are mostly not bs but rather correct. maybe he didn't get it exactly right this time. idk but it has been stated here again that lower quality batteries may cause a problem for the esc. so the basic message isn't that wrong. and he is sure not just some trashtalker that knows nothing.

btw of course it was possible to build a brushless 8th scale models many years ago. it just wasn't as popular as nowadays. i do not have that long time experience but when i got my first converted savage in 2003 there wasn't much talking about brushless monsters on any internet platform. and i have no doubt that there were some people out there that already converted some trucks or buggies before 2000. so a guy like RURC may easily have around 10 years of experience.

bye
rhylsadar

[jhautz]

Originally Posted by Longhair

6 out of 1000 isn't bad at all.

I'm just saying is how big of a problem it would be if those 6 failed ones made it to the hands of 6 different people outside of North America. Instead of a week of down time those people would have a month of down time because of the shipping times - which are in nobody's control.

I do plan on buying this for my Savage conversion but before I do I want to make sure all the bugs are out of it because of the wait time.

So your going to wait to do anything cuz you dont want to wait????