You are probably right, some will go buy them just because they saw this thread or similar thread. And I pretty much agree with you and think this tread should be moved to a different category as well out of respect for Castle.....but then again this forum is much less regulated than say.......... the Traxxas forum....:lol:

Don't forget this is mainly for UK market only.

Right. Theft is not theft in the UK.

Indeed- Castle motors are sold in a lot of countries world wide, just because the knock-offs aren't sold in the USA doesn't mean it isn't still hurting Castle.

Bit of a mine field these days really though- there are so many brands of 4 pole motors that are similar to Neus or Castle motors, who's to say which are intentional knockoffs and which are similar by coincidence ( only so many ways to make a 4 pole motor )?...

Interesting news- it seems that Sirius will no longer be sold in the UK at least & Modelsport are not stocking them any more ( when they're gone, they're gone ). One of the mods has stated Sirius lost the legal case over them and hence, Sirius is no more ( for the time being at least ). Good news for some, bad news for others, but there are plenty of other cheap brands to look to for options still...

Well this has been an interesting read for sure. A lot of hate and passion from all involved. All I own is castle products in my RC'S "due to customer service is still existant unlike most companies" but at the same time its labled made in china on the motors. Are they quality? yes, but they could be made in the US and sold for the same price and profits still made. But like every other company they can't resist the cheep border line slave labor over there that stuffs huge profits into a select few pockets. While the actual work force makes less then half a turd split between 4. Thats why they steal and sell castle tech. Just rember castle gave them everything they needed to know....The entire process how to produce it start to finish. It's not right for them to copy and sell the protected plans but hardship pushes people to do messed up things.

. But hey thats what happens these days, we take a great product designed here and have another country make it, so we make more money....Then cry when they sell our plans to competitors... Thats what you get when your mentality is "why work hard thats whats China and Mexico are for". Only a select portion of the castle staff is US based, just enough to get good PR. A 8 hour day engeneering in front of a computer is no different then 8 hours of assembling tiny motors. Each person has to give up 8 hours of thier life for the product to become a reality.

Support free education

How advanced would we be if our children had free access to learn anything they wanted reguardless of how welthy the family they come from is?

Ummmm.... I hate to burst your bubble.

Castle Engineering is based in Kansas. We have over 120 employees in Kansas. We still design and build ALL of our electronics right here in Olathe.

We design the motors in Kansas too, along with assistance from Steve Neu (in California.)

There are reasons we build the motors in China -- mainly supply of rare earths. It's difficult to export rare earth in quantity from China -- the Chinese govt. has a stranglehold on the exports of rare earths.

Also, it would be extremely difficult to build the motors in the USA, and still be able to offer them to OEMs like Traxxas -- the labor time involved in winding a good quality motor precludes us from being able to build the motors in the USA and still offer them at a price which would acceptable.

That's an interesting bit of info. Useless to me but still interesting.

I don't mean to offend but that sounds to me exactly like what C5Quad was saying. Though, I don't assume all companies are killing the pig in these times.

It partially comes down to labor costs. Americans want to get paid upwards of $15/hr yet don't want to pony up to pay more for motors as a result of that added cost.

If motors are made in China for reduced labor (and final product) cost, people complain we are using "slave labor".

If motors are made in the US, people complain prices are too high (due to labor costs). Go back a few years where the only good motors were Neu and LMT, and the prices reflected that quality.

But no, people have to bitch and moan about something. Everyone wants top-shelf quality made in the USA, but don't want to pay for it. Idiots. :diablo:

Dont mind me I was just agrivated at the whole world system and my post had very little to do with this topic........I'm man enough to say sorry as it was just me venting but in the wrong place, on the wrong topic, and far from the right time.

I sounded ignorant because at that point in time I was indeed being ignorant. My head has been removed from my ass.......and the air smells much better now...again sorry for my rant that had nothing good to provide and should have been kept to my self.

It has only caused more anger in other people. Who, if they never saw it would have never had that negetive energy forced into their day.

I hope others learn from my mistake and see how truly infectious negetivity is to those around us. Try to be constructive and aid in good things vs destructive. For we all share this moment in time. It's never to late to change for the better!

And I have to apologize - - I get a little bent sometimes because I know how hard we work to keep our jobs here in the USA.

It's a big priority at Castle.

I had an offer to purchase Castle last year (from a large Chinese model manufacturer...) and I had to turn it down -- they wanted to shut down all our USA operations, and move everything to China. That's just not WHY we are in business -- there are a lot better ways to make money than the RC hobby industry. :wink:

SO... does anyone actually make motors in the US anymore? (besides Neu)

I personally don't know of anyone else besides Steve Neu.

Steve does a LOT of custom motors...

Am I remembering correctly. Didn't neu wind a lot of motors south if the border? That was years ago though.

Novak winds their motors in the U.S.

As far as where the laminations are stamped, plastic components molded, and metal parts machined, they don't say.

That's awesome Patrick. I wish you were in control of some aussie companies that have sold out. Where do I send a case of beer?
Pete

Ok l am more of a plane guy than a truck guy. I have all castle escs in my planes. Cheap knock off don't cut it in a plane. I fly 3d so throttle response is very important. castle is the only escs l have found that has a great response and the features l need and want( plus backed by a great )cs . Now rc cars. My vorza has a mmm and 2200 castle motor in it. My trophy truggy has the hobbywing escs and hobbywing 1950 motor in it. The hobby wing escs is smoother. even with that when the hobbywing escs dies it will be replaced by a castle mmm. I like castles products and castles support. They are a top notch company. I also love that they are here in the USA.

Now as for hand wound motor in the USA if you are a plane guy Ken at subsonic planes does all his in house. He is also in the middle of designing a 60cc gas replacement sized electric motor fully hand built here in the USA by him

its companies like subsonicplanes, castle creations, and rc-monsters that l recommend and like dealing with.

I think if you guys sold out to the chinese I'd give up on this hobby for good. It's hard for a lot of us to pony up the money for your goods but they are worth it! Quality products backed by unmatched customer service. I've toasted a number of ESCs, many I freely admitted fault to, and yet as far as my memory goes back I've only had to pay for one or two. That said I buy a lot of cheap crap from overseas as well, but that's primarily experimentation or batteries. If I toast a $18 motor doing something stupid who cares, if I kill a $200+ motor I'd lose it!

Worth it?! If you buy at the right time (during a sale) castle is not expensive at all.

That's true, but who knows when a sale will come along? I got my last 1717 for $70 and have yet to see a sale like that since. They do a good sale for black friday, but aside from that you just have to watch out for a sale. Usually I need a motor faster than "well a sale will come around eventually."

It is actually hard for us to have a sale because of our contracts with our distributors. Of course we can undercut us but we would not survive without the distributors large orders, there is no money in selling one or two at a time. We simply could not afford to sell 35,000 systems a month. We are a manufacturer not a retailer. Our effort goes into designing and building the most innovative best quality product possible, we let others take care of their actual sales.

Isn't it interesting that as soon as we started making our 2 pole magnet, slotless stator motor design in China suddenly every Chinese company started building and selling them?

As soon as we start making 4 pole magnet, 12 pole slotless stator motors in china every Chinese motor company started selling these.

The owner of a Chinese company was joking about how all he had to do was copy our can, just the outside of our motors, and people would assume they were the same. He also said that of course he couldn't use the same materials or build quality because then his motors would be as or more expensive as ours. Experience building high quality products is worth quite a bit and cannot be bought. Ask BMW.

The more sophisticated a motor is, say 4 pole magnet, 12 pole slotted stator motor compared to a 2 pole slotless, the more important build quality such as consistent air-gap, magnet placement, winding neatness, bearing carrier accuracy and etc is to the efficiency of the motor. This the same for material quality such as magnet gauss and heat resistance, copper purity and coating, stator plate thickness and electrical resistance, bearing quality etc etc. A sloppy 4 pole magnet, 12 pole slotted motor is much worst compared to a good one than a sloppy 2 pole magnet slotless stator motor.

I have always joked that I could make a working motor from junk car parts. However, I could not build a efficient motor that won't burn itself up with the slightest load, even if I wanted to. I couldn't get the parts.

One of the things that makes Castle such a good place to work is that we can justifiably be proud of our inventiveness and the resulting products and how we take care of our customers. It really is true that if Americans set their mind to it we can really make the best products in the world!

Bernie

Amen to that, it's crazy just how many inventions are born in America, then go overseas.

What about Cordova Research brushless?. Just got shown them and they look American made or at least designed

Interesting- never heard of them before. I wonder if they are in anyway related to the now defunct Medusa Research ( I know Neu took over the warranty and production of Medusa models, but I like to wildly speculate sometimes ). Only issue I see is that they are only 36mm diameter motors- my old Medusa 36x74 2000kv was a pretty good motor, but it ran hotter and didn't quite have the same torque as my 39mm ( without fins ) Castle motor does....

cloning
 

not to bring up and old thread but I am going to complain about the eBay companies that are selling Castle electronics, how do I know castle benefits from my purchase, I called for a list of legitimate retailers from castle and they told me they don't have one. sorry just my 2cents .:whistle:

I don't think it is quite so easy - Castle sells to dealers as well as distributors - they would need access to each distributors dealer list, which they don't have rights to(and even then several distributors will have the same accounts, making cross-referencing tricky and cumbersome). I have a dealer account with Castle, but have mostly done my Castle purchases through various distributors.

ok well I just found that out I figure I will purchase the new xlx thru them if i get a discount I am just upset while waiting from a friend response i missed the sale of the month sucks:diablo: