I think all castle escs do not like slow charging the caps.. I wouldnt risk it.. Or at least use a smaller bullet parralleledd with the larger ones.. so the spark can pit them and not your big bullets..

i am feeling a little more than pissed. i just re-wired the whole setup and put on new bullets and this time got the CC BEC Pro all connected. plugged in my battery and still just get one red blink and then nothing. my reciever and the BEC are getting power to them and seem to be fine so i dont know why this esc is givin me so much shi#. i am gonna go look at things one more time right now to see if i can find anything but i think this thing i gone.

plus, what i should have done is just hooked it up to castlelink to see if it would work with the bec instead of doing all the soldering and wasting so much time. because it didnt work on castle link last time that should have been a sign to me that the esc has an issue. or is the bec required to for it to work with casltelink also?

oh, and i didnt rig up the spark eliminator mod. i just set it up just like normal.

i think i may have just figured it out. be right back!

WOOHOOOO!!!! i finally ran the beast! like i have said before, i am not very knowledgeable when it comes to electrical stuff that requires more than plug and play it seems. so the problem was i had the red wire pulled out of the esc connector that goes into the rx. the guys at LHS said to do this and so did the diagram in the bec package. there wasnt any info about leaving the red wire in if the esc doesnt have a bec. holy shi# man! anyway, i found the necessary info online and finally got to run it. its a bit sketchy without brakes right now. so how did it run??

very quiet and smooth. way more quiet than i expected. it is only loud when coasting cuz the dogbones rattle but when on throttle you almost only hear the tires on the road.

its fast but geared too high for sure. i probably hit about 50mph and wasnt quite at full throttle. it is only about 50* F outside but motor hit 85*, esc was 101* and batteries were 73* after 15 minutes of run time. i didnt have any of my fans hooked up or the body on. i think that in the day time and with the body on that esc would be cooking so i might need to gear it down.

with the rampage buggy tires it is like a frickin drift car..except it sounds like a real car drifting. i am not kidding. i could totally drift it just with throttle input and it had great control with the 4wd. it was just "uuurrrrrrrrrrch" screeching around in circles for as long as i wanted. i definitely woke up some neighbors cuz i heard some kids start crying.

so the gearing right now is 15/40. i am gonna run again during day and if needed switch to 12/40 tomorrow. depends on how temps do then. i hope it works out. i know the motor is gonna be fine. its the esc i am worried about.

its got a great smooth, fast punch off the line. no cogging at all.

anyway... enuff said. a picture is worth a thousand words and as promised a video will be coming. but its gonna be a week or so. gotta have the brakes hooked up so i can actually rally it. i have to baby it without brakes right now.

AWESOME! man... glad you finally had the joy to start driving this think, I know it was a long *ss wait for you... Took you long enough to finish it... :lol:, took me less than a week :whistle:... When you try that beast on the track, you will love it. Tried my MT on the track yesterday, and it handled amazingly well.

Awesome, glad you got it running--even if it was at 3:00 AM:lol:

Nice... your neighbours must hate you... :lol:

i know. it has taken me a long time to build this. its been fun though. i love doing the builds. time to go drivin.

so i ran for about 10 minutes today with the same 15/40 gearing. temp is 75* outside. motor was 88* and esc was 120*. i was just running on asphalt and running at moderate speed. what do y'all think about the gearing and temps? i worry the esc is gonna get too hot when i actually run it in dirt and have the body and everything on but 120* isnt bad. just wondering if i should gear it a bit lower.

I think you hit the sweet spot because all your temps are well in check.

I would if dropping to the 12t would be too much reduction tho...

ok so i just tried the 12t pinion and ran moderately for 15 minutes. it is now 85* outside. motor was 110* esc was 130* and one battery was 91* and the other 100*. i didnt like the performance of the 12t as much as the 15t. the motor temps definitely jumped and it seemed the esc was a little cooler. everything just ran hotter now though cuz ambient temp is up and i pushed it a bit harder. i am still worried about that esc though. i know when i get in hills and actually run it hard it would probably hit 175* real quick. next i need to test with the fans on and body on etc. RTR.

what is the danger zone on this hydra esc? i would like to never see it over 150-160* but ideally i want my motor and esc to be in the 120-130* range. also, should i be concerned that one pack was 10* hotter than the other? is that saying something?


i talked with kulangflow from the forum today. he is the HD video master and if weather permits we have scheduled a to film this thursday. i wont have breaks by then so we will find a wide open area hopefully so we can open it up...perhaps a golf course??? hehehe:diablo:

oh, can anyone tell me how else i could get my esc temps lower aside from gearing? i dont have any other gearing options. 40t spur is the largest i can go. i have been looking at a different Neu motor. i am probably going to buy the Neu 2220 2y 550kv. my current motor is 750kv. i know this would make the motor cooler but what about the esc? or would going up to 12s instead of 10s make any difference? i would get a much lower kv motor if i go 12s though. anyway, what else could drive esc temps down?

Ryu: "find a wide open area hopefully so we can open it up...perhaps a golf course??? hehehe"

I can think of NO better use for a well manicured waste of real estate...

Do it up!

I think it'll be ok on the 15/40 gearing. There is only one way to find out though... Try er out with fans and different driving conditions and see how it fares before buying a new motor. I still think it'll be ok...

Seasons are changing too. You'll be great over the winter if you choose to run then.

Sounds like you aren't putting enough load on the motor with the 12T, motor temps with the 15T sounded excellent! That Hydra is meant to be water cooled, I'd run a fan or two on it if you're going to be pushing it hard up in the mountains.

You should test your vehicle the same way with both gearing so you can have an idea of what will work better.