Yep, I see that alright. I fell hungry looking at that.... toast for lunch I reckon. There must have been one hell of a surge/short/whatever for the leads to melt down like that.

As for the cap-bank AAngel, neat is only a word. You wouldnt know there were any on there if you hadnt said, just a mysterious block piggybacked to the esc. Nice work.

that cap bank looks great. That fan is too big for my taste, but it's neat how how u attached it. I would of used a couple of smaller fans instead, but looking at your setup, it seems that you don't even need the fan.

Ignore my post Aangel; i didn't looked close enough, just make sure the wires don't touch eachother.. (with your rep, you know..) for guys like you they invented plasti-dip..

Yeah, unless they were both bad caps and they shorted internally, which blew the leads from the massive currents they would have got from the battery.

Wait, I just thought of this... I could use my extra Quark case and make that into a cap bank! :027: What do you think?

AAngel dipped in plasti-dip, lol

Looks almost like both caps developed an internal short. :032:

Yeah, if wires are vaporized that sure sounds like an internal short..

I thought you had cut them off, but if this is how they looked, i think you really pissed them off..

OK guys, I'm going to start crying if you don't stop picking on me. LOL.

I think that the old quark case would make a stellar cap bank. It'll look really cool. As for the blown caps, they (S&T) did tell me that they had a run of bad caps. On my last Quark, it was the caps that went first.

Asfor the fan, like I said, it was there and I already that mount clamped in the drill press, so I made a provision for it. It moves a lot of air. I'm going to try running it on the track with the fan. If it doesn't get broken, I'll keep it. If it does, I'll take it off. It may not directly affect the cooling of the esc, but it does keep the air under the body moving around.

BTW, have either of you guys gotten your caps yet? I checked and they were mailed out on May 30.

Quark case as a cap bank- sounds sweet. If you didnt fill it with thermal epoxy goo completely you could also stash a ubec in there to get it out the way.

well i know im off topic sorrta..... but do u guys think a air pro 125b is worth it?

shorted cap, yeah, must be. But I never heard a pop or any sound whatsoever, I just applied thottle once, cogged, checked for binding, nope silky smooth drivetrain... tried again, cogged, again.... sizzle, then smoke show. None of this makes any sense as far as chain of events? :032:

Great idea Neil, but I will check if a UBEC fits inside of the case, it might be too big. But S&T is sending me a free Pro-BEC, what does this thing look like, and is it any good?

I don't know about the air pro, it's an airplane controller. LOL. Just kidding.

The Air Master, I assume you are referring to, is not geared toward cars. The hardware specs are the same as they are for the Monster Pro, but it lacks the software for running in a car. I don't know that there are settings for torque or anything. I'd stick with the car controller. Just because it has reverse, doesn't mean that it will play nicely in the car/truck.

That is the only factor though (besides thermal issues but we know about them already). That said..... if you've ever driven a truck with the HvMaxx, you learn to do without fancy programming options such as torque control, soft start, drag brake, adjustable brakes etc. With the HvMaxx you get:

Foward- brake- reverse
Forward - brake
Forward - brake - 25% reverse = I use this setting to avoid going backwards at full throttle.

Thats it, really. The esc itself may adjust timing at mid-throttle, but as far as brakes and throttle curve go.... thats what your fingers are for! It might be worth looking into if you can live with a 'basic' truck esc- think HvMaxx with better spec & more cells & sensorless motors..... but it might go up in smoke on you without warning, unlike the Hv....

Huh? Did I miss something here?

Oh, my bad, I never saw emaxx rocks post about the air master. :005:

yeah, don't go for that, what's the point?

Its $100 cheaper. You just need to make the most of the limited settings, and be more gentle on the trigger.

I would rather have a MM than an Air Master.

Horses for courses- the MM is obviously much better programming wise & in a lightish truck, but the Air master can handle higher loads in a heavier truck- just doesnt have many programming options. Like I said, its like a better spec HvMaxx- simple but effective. I think its best to let 10kguy test it out and report back.

Won't you need that other device that translates the rx signal... the pistix adaptor or something like that?

Ah, quite possibily. I know somewhere it says that certain escs normally used on planes/helis require that item inorder to work correctly. But then again quark may have taken it into account since the two escs are basically the same.

There just HAS to be something else that is different about the two to account for the difference in price (more than 33%!), other than a simple software change. I wonder if they both use the same FETs and/or the same FET count? I think one of our richer forum members should pick one up, take it apart, and report the findings. :)

And no, I'm not volunteering...

You might be right Brian. I am starting to think that they can get away with having great customer service because of the high price tag of the Quarks. I just can't see it costing that much to build, or at least, no more than a MM? :032:

Does seem like rather a large price difference for a software upgrade, but it may be because the Monster Pros are more likely to get abused and require fixing/replacing alot more often than the Airmaster version. Anyone daring enough to put on a fake accent and phone up S&T to enquire- pretend you're interested in getting some of each for your new R/C business.....

I think that the software could account for the price differential. I'm going to assume that it took a lot more programming and testing to develop the software for the car controller, than it did for the plane controller. I'm not saying that the large difference in price is justified.

I compared the specs of the two controllers and they appear to be identical. I wonder if the 125 was initially designed as a car controller and then made into a plane controller as an after thought, either by accident or design.

I agree, it would be a lot more work and testing a car software compared to air software. The pricing must be because of more abuse on the car version, and they want to keep a satisfied customer base. I know I am, even though two crapped the bed on me.

i think its just that they know that they have a niche at the moment until mamba max monster comes out.

Anyone remember when the quarks were 100 dollars cheaper at rc mart when they first came out and then quark obviously enforced there msrp policy and rcmart changed there prices.

I think these are 170 dollar controllers that are being sold at 270 dollars because they can people still buy them.

i mean it does not even run 6s lipo as its rated to do.
It also overheats as they used double-sided tape to stick it together i mean come on.

I wonder how hard it would be to read the software off a monster pro rom chip and then flash it to the 125 air master?

$100 cheaper, when did they come out? The firmware reading thing would be near impossible, I would think.

I would have to agree, the Quark really is a niche (not niche market), as it is an impressive controller in it's own way. But so is MM, in another way, and the ComPro as well. But overall, the Quark, among other controllers is the one to have I think. If only they added a USB programming hub...

well no mods runs his is his converted mgt... and he said theres no cogging with 8 cell packs... hes running a neu... in a 13 lb truck......

I saw one of their air controllers on ebay at a great price, so I emailed S&T asking if I could send in an air controller and have it flashed/converted to a car controller.

Their repsonse; "No."
:031:

The chip they use might be a program-once type of IC. Unfortunately, they grind the top of their ICs so you can't read the part number, so it's hard to say. Maybe they simply can't without replacing the chip...

Isn't there a way to replace the chip with some sort of eprom? If that is the right word for it.

Without knowing what the original chip is for pinout and spec compatibility, that would be difficult IMO. It's one thing if someone has all the parts to do it, but it may simply be easier to get the car version after all is said and done.

Precisely.

well, this guy at work owes me favors. He is the ROM developer for the business PC's. If somebody could get me the S&T "rom" chip, there might be a chance of reading the data that's in it.
It would be kinda neath to be able to totally modify the Qaurk like a mamba. Oh, that is what I need to do when I get my mamba esc back....piggy back with another rom...

Brian, since when do we do things the easy way? If we did that, we'd still be running nitro.

snellemin, now that I think about it, it might be some sort of copyright infringement. Unauthorized use of software or something like that.

Now for the drama. I've managed to get my Quark to thermal twice today. All I was doing was running around in my front yard. I've run the MM harder for longer periods of time and never had any trouble. I took temps at the sink and along the aluminum case and got a temp of about 115, but when I temped the motor leads, it shot up to 140. I'm thinking that the FETs are a lot hotter than the case is getting. How can this be? A THIRD Quark and I'm already having problems. I'm really hesitant to open this one up to do the "mod," but I don't think I have a choice.

Maybe I should just sell the Quark and the Neu that I have coming back and get into a Lehner and run that with the MM. I just hate the thought of buying a motor from FD, but I'm getting to the point of putting all of this stuff aside and waiting for the technology to catch up.

AAngel, how hot is it there? That's pathetic, what is going on? Do you want a machined case for your Quark like in my other thread? It will make the Quark into something else, super cool running will be it.

Nitro?..Easy way?

That really sucks about the Quark. I have just been running Mambas... I don't even know what a thermal is! I tried to get a Lehner from FD, but I asked him if it was in stock first, never got an answer back. If he is just going to order it and I have to wait months, well you know the rest (no patience).

zbp, it's starting to get hot down here. In the 90's. I would be interested in a Quark case, although it would tick me off to no end to put it into a nice case and have it blow anyway.

bdebde, I never had any trouble running nitro. I really had the touch when it came to those engines. I had to tune like everyone else, but I usually spent much less time doing it. I only ran two engines and knew them intimately. The O.S. RG and the Novarossi P5X. Both great engines, if you know what to do with them.

I'm telling you, if the Lehners were available, I'd jump on one and stick with the MM. What sucks is that I found myself afraid to squeeze the throttle with the Quark because I'm afraid of hurting it. I never have such worries with my MM controllers.

Yeah, I am alot on the full throttle with my Mambas too, probably what torched the 8XL. lol