It seems like the component manufacturer skimped and lowered their quality.

From the recall notice:

ESC are made by Castle in their own facility in the US..

Still nothing huh?

It's getting to the point of me being ticked off now. Over a month ago CC received my MXL's and I've received nothing other than a notice that they received them. Where is this fantastic service CC is supposed to be providing to the customer? I sure as heck am not seeing it.

did you call them?

I haven't even received that yet and I dropped mine in the mail the Sunday of the recall. I do however have the receipt USPS sent me of the person who signed for it, with the actual signature. Really working on being patient, will give it another month I think and see.

Patrick,

Any inisight would be appreciated, it seems the answer will most likely be negative however any information is better than a black hole since credibility continues to deteriorate.

I've been in this position myself, the component manufacturer changed tolerances and engineering did not catch the change or was not properly notified of the change.

I was involved with a similar situation where engineering was given an updated data sheet for an IC on a board and didn't catch it so millions of dollars later we had to recall and change everything, in the end it killed a product and cost 5M+, all for a 0.10 cent part.

Yes and it's total BS. I was told that none have been shipped out yet.

To anyone at CC:
At this point, you guys at Castle need to get your act together and man up and let us know what's going on. I've got over $1k in brand new ESC's (4 MXL's) sitting there collecting dust. You guys have my $ held hostage as I have no recourse at this point. I'm extremely disappointed in your service, especially since we were all told it would be a quick 1 day swap for the replacement board. I took your word for that and sent in my brand new ESC's. Now I have nothing to show for it other than being pissed off and not having any information on when they'll actually be returned.

The original quote by Patrick was based on the assumption we would have the replacement control boards available. Unfortunately things do not always go as planned and there have been some hang ups in getting the controller corrected. We had to redesign the control board and source new parts. The redesign took MUCH more work and time that we ever thought it would. We also had some troubles getting the right parts.

We had to initiate the recall immediately because of the risk involved in using the ESC in its current state. Unfortunately at that time we did not have all of the components required to make the modifications to fix the controllers. It has taken much longer than expected to get the correct components and get the new control board design and has led to longer delays than we originally planned.

We also wanted to make sure that the changes being made would take care of the problem completely. We didn't want to have to go through another revision that didn't fix all of the potential issues. We have finalized the design, and all of the components are now in house. The control boards have been completed and the power boards are in production at the beginning of next week. I just talked with the production planner today, and she is hoping to have the first new controllers coming out of testing late next week.

I understand the frustrating part with all of this is because of the expectations we gave initially and since then the complete lack of updates and communication. This is inexcusable and the one thing that was avoidable and could have been fixed easily. Most of the frustration people have expressed to me is not knowing what was going on with their controller. As you can imagine this has been a VERY busy and stressful time for us, but is not a good excuse by any stretch of the imagination.

But rest assured we are working as quickly and as diligently as possible to get controller back to our customers. Everyone has been very understanding and patient with us, but long delays and being left in the dark will start to annoy the most patient person. If you sent in a new ESC, you are guaranteed to get back a new, unused ESC. If you sent in a used ESC, we will replace the control board and if it passes testing, you will get your original controller back; if it fails testing, then it will be replaced with a new controller.

We can't apologize enough for the delays, frustration and lack of communication; but I can tell you we are VERY close to getting the Mamba XL's shipped out. As most of you know this is not how things normally work for us, but this recall is far from normal.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

I really appreciate your response and the included information. Indeed, the lack of communication is the most frustrating part of the ordeal. Thank you for the update.

I've just about had it with this recall. I sent my Hydra HV ESC to the Belgian repair center in the first week of the recall and have heard nothing since then. Not even a confirmation of receipt. This is more than 7 weeks ago. Sending emails to tech support is useless because you only get a reply every 3 emails you send.

I already had to buy another esc to get my boat going.

I would rather just get a refund for the esc, shipping & tax costs.

5 months of waiting...shipped to castle on 18th May 2011.
1 MXL
1 1520
1 bec pro


Today, 18th October 2011 i send another MXL but this time to Belgium.
I also had to buy another esc to get my flux going.


Received mail from Thomas yesterday..
"Right now the average turn around for the Mamba XL is about 6-8 weeks"

Just hoping i receive items this year...

We have just over 700 Mamba XL's coming out of production, we are hoping to have some of the first ones ready to ship by the end of the week. You have the 3rd oldest Mamba XL order pending, so you will get one of the very first ones that is ready for shipment.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Hi,
The listing of Mamba XL on Towerhobby which is indicated as VS2. Are they the latest rev with the modified controller board?