That sucks. But...At least castle is reputable enough where they even fix there mistakes. And i heard they are sending a replacement before they even get your broken one. If that is not a good company i have no idea what is. IMO castle will always right any wrong.

Not even close, but it would be nice :angel:. I'm still learning just like anybody else. There is always something new coming out and there is always a better solution found for many problems every day in our R/C world. Just don't go by what RURC says :rofl:.

Unfortunately, my wife has a pretty good idea what I've spent on RC in the past few years.

I did have to tell her this morning though that I have yet another MMM on the way. Luckily, she was pretty cool with it. Somehow I also managed to not get killed telling her that I have a Slash and E-Revo on pre-order too. My wife must love me or something. :angel:

how many days for the broken one have to arrive cc in case of international order?
Thank you

Lol yeah my Fiancee is the same way. She asked the other day how much i have in all my toys, i just laughed. I have more toys than RC so it is really really hard to tell. I love it all though, dont regret buying any of it one bit.:mdr:

i spent $3,300 last may/june..
i bought my 8T with all new nitro stuff spare clutchs,spre gears, Tires an Rims galor..lol

then i bought lipos and brushless stuff a neu motor new charger an balancer...
(still have my .28 picco & p3 pipe in a box.. lol) an bought some 1/10th scale stuff oh an a new Futaba TX an servos

i could of had my 1990gt vert mustang(building a 427w stroker for it) done and running:(

oooh well rc cars come first..lol
im only 25years old, im still a kid(ok at heart at least)lol

Nice - the funny thing is that you are a "kid" to most of the guys on this forum! :lol:

Oh,:party: to be 25 again:lol:

The wife is cool with my rc "habbit" as long as I don't complain about her shoes and clothes "habbit" :lol:


So wait 15 days to order, then 30 more for them to be in stock, then 15 days shipping? Seems like alot of waiting to me.

Around 2 weeks and that is express :eyes:

Just came accross this

The load from the motor determines how much current is drawn from the batteries. Batteries don’t push current, hence you cannot have too large or too high a discharge battery. The ESC, between the motor and the batteries has two jobs. First, it run the motor by analyzing the motors back EMF then sending commutation pulses to the motor based on its analysis of the motor. This involves much more than knowing the position of the rotor, there are several complex algorithms that, by analyzing the back EMF, set the computation pulse advance to get the most power and efficiency of out any motor is it running.

Its second task is to control the speed of the motor to the users command. It does this with Pulse Width Modulation or PWM. PWM works by turning full throttle current on and off very fast. The portion of the pulse that is 'on' in relation to the part that is 'off' determines how much power the motor sees. I.E 50% on, 50% off the motor sees 50% power. The PWM switching rate is 13,000 times per second (13 khz). DC power sources, in this case batteries, do not like high current being switched on and off, they want to put out steady current. The ESC wants to see square waves, instant full on, instant full off. However, the battery takes time to go to full on and won't switch off immediately. This creates a sloped instead of a square wave. The caps on the ESC are there to get the PWM pulse back closer to a square wave. The reluctance of a battery to put out pulsed current also creates a side affect called 'ripple current.' The caps also control ripple current. The less capable a battery is of keeping up with the current demands of the motor the higher the ripple current. If the capacitor overheats or get completely drained from inadequate batteries the caps will burn or blow up and the ripple current cascades thought the power board burning up the ESC. The other primary cause of ripple current is resistance on the battery side of the circuit. A plug with too much resistance, long or too small battery wires, bad connections etc. will increase ripple current, possibly to catastrophic levels. I cannot prove it but my guess is that more of our ESCS are burned up from inadequate batteries than over current.

The minimum discharge rating for cells used with a Monster Max is 75 amps continuous, burst to 150 amps. This is a minimum to keep ripple current low enough to make sure the batteries don’t damage the ESC, more is better. Also, the more capable the batteries the more torque the motor will produce.

To answer the question of why don’t NiMh batteries damage the ESC is the fact that these cells voltage drop quickly under load then climb back. The drop in voltage protects the system from the motor pulling too much amperage and creating too much ripple current.

With high power electrical systems, the battery is the most important part of the system. Saving money on batteries not only gives lower performance, it puts the ESC at risk. Choose your batteries wisely.

Bernie Wolfard
Supervisor, Product Support
Castle Creations
235 S Kansas Ave.
Olathe, KS 66061

Is there a way of overdoing the discharge of the battery?
They recommend minimum 78A cont. and 150A burst, was just looking at the Thunder Power and their 125A cont. 250A burst

I just got my MMM from Mike today, got her all soldered up, hooked up, armed and away we go, i run a 7XL on 14 GP 3300 just bashing around, geared tall at 24/56 in my mostly stock 3905 maxx, it is awesome, nice job CC. Steve

Overdoing battery discharge? Never, until the weight of the pack negates your increased power. I just got some 30C/50C Polyquest to stack against some 18C and 25C packs. It will be interesting to play with.

Message from Joe Ford

Gents...we are seeing few of these come back versus the number that were sent out. If you're going to have an issue it'll probably be in the first minutes of operation. If ANYONE has this issue, please send the ESC to us and we will put you on RUSH repair service. Fill out the copy of the service request form at the link below and include it with the ESC. This is a very easy issue to fix on the controller. We are sorry for any inconvenience to those of you who experience this issue.

Shipping address is as follows:

Castle Creations
ATTN: Repair Dept/Monster MAx
235 S. Kansas Ave.
Olathe, KS 66061
USA

http://www.castlecreations.com/suppo...quest_Form.pdf

That is super tall gearing. I run a 9xl with 14 gp3300 and run 22/58-62. whats the temps on the motor with that setup.:gasp:

Have you contacted CC yet MTBikerTim? How was it sent?

Is this means this bec problem in MMM just with lipo?
I don't have lipo I will run 16 nimh cells until i buy A123 that recommended by cc.. so I will be in safe side with nimh?

I just sent mine back two day air so it will be there tues. Hopefully I can get it back rapidly. Joe sent a nice email back to me and they are obviously taking this all very seriously. Customer service is still top notch.


No, mine did it with nimh.

So are they still sending out new units to people how have had problems? Or is it all on hold now?

Also, for guys that buy it off ebay (not a store on ebay) are they still covered under warranty? Just looked at the Service Request form and they want a reciept as well as when and where bought?

Temps were fine 98 ESC, 105 batteries, 137 on the 8xl and i ran it without a heatsink clamp. Steve

Nope, doesnt appear they are holding off shipments. A friend, and myself ordered one each from Tower and they will both be here on Monday. I would think if Castle wanted to put a hold on anything they would have contacted the distributers and put a stop on further shipments. I guess the best thing to do is run the crap out of it over a few days period. Honestly from what I've read the first batch was 2500 units, and so far I've read maybe 6-8 failures on tech boards. It would seem most are having great success.

And if they are having success, it is more likely they are running there trucks with it, rather than posting on the forums. Usually if the ESC doesn't work, people would post the problem on the forums...

I sent them an e-mail a few days ago and have not received a reply yet. I'm sure I will in a few days but I just sent the thing back via air mail in the mean time, not express. Honestly couln't be **** spending another $40+ to have it shipped back express. I have to say that the one thing that is a little annoying about castles customer service is that it takes them forever to answer e-mails (probably cause they are just busy). I have called them before but that is a pain as I have to get up stupidly early in the morning and everytime I do the person I am calling for isn't there. Anyway when they get my parcel I'm sure they'll be able to figure out what to do with it.

I agree with that...there have been other hobbies that I have been involved with that only the negative is posted since the involved is so hot under the collar they have to get it out. If I want some positive feedback I will start a post, I have done that on this forum

I have recieved my MMM form tower hobbies and have ran my 4s 5000mah pack all the way to the cut off 3 times now with out a problem with the MMM. I think it was just a few bad ones out there because mine has not given a problem. Even if it does i know castle will make it right.

Mine died this weekend after a total of over 90 minutes of run time. No smoke just shut off & won't turn back on.

Anyone who has issues with a MMM...send it in with a copy of the service request form. We are making these top priority right now. We'll give you the fastest service possible as this is a new product, and you've all waited long enough to have fun.

http://www.castlecreations.com/suppo...quest_Form.pdf

Dang, I already sent mine back w/o any form. Just a note to you or Patrick. I did send him a PM though - does that count for anything? :lol:

Doesn't matter if you sent the form or not. We'll still get you fixed up asap. As long as you put your return addy in there we're good to go.

I figured as much! :party:

I sent it with the form. Make sure you repair mine before sower's since he forgot the form :na:.

I'd just like to say that you Castle guys are doing an awesome job in dealing with these issues. I know it must be a bit of a nightmare, having spent all this time developing a great controller and being let down by defective components! You're being extremely involved (especially being active on the RCM forums) with this situation, and doing your best to rectify it with minimum hassle, so I take my hat off (if I had one on lol) to Pat and Joe. That's what customer service is all about.

I've still got my MMM waiting for a vehicle to go in, so I hope it's a good 'un, but if it isn't then I know I'll get taken care of. LOL that sounded cheesy, but it's true! Nice one guys. :)

For sure +1. Even though mine died, I'm not the least bit upset about it because I'm sure they will take care of it. Just will miss getting to run it that's all. It's too fun this brushless buggy thing.

Nice - that's hilarious :lol:

It will be interesting to see what the cause of the failures has been. After opening mine up and seeing how the wire separated I think that might be a main cause. Like I really know :rofl:

Well, fedex says mine just arrived at CC so whatever happens they better kick both of yours out of the way to fix mine! :diablo::na:



Just kidding, as long as I get it back early next week I will be happy. I want to try the new Medusa out and it looks all lonely just sitting on the floor waiting for a home.

Well, I sent mine yesterday morning USPS Priority so I don't think it will get there until tomorrow. So I think you're safe. :mdr:

Well I called Castle lastweek and they told me that MA batteries are fine to use.The MA 4s2p 6000 battery has a 20c+rating.They ran great in my MM so why should there be a differance.I think that alot of us have MA batteries that just happened to be the batteries that the MMM fails with.Mine failed running 4s2p 6000 and Neu 15151.5/d.Justin from MA told me the same the batteries can handle the MMM.I have a second MMM that I have put in my Losi 8t last nite and its with the same setup so we will see what happens.I will be using a Tekno Neu 1515/1.5D this time so we will see what happens.

Not responding to anyone's post in particular, I was thinking about the seemingly continual controversy about the death of batteries using the MMM. These are the facts as I know them:

#1: Batteries that cannot sustain high currents without substantial voltage drop exhibit higher levels of current ripple. This can mean lesser-quality cells that are rated "optimistically" or cells that simply don't have the C and mAh rating combination. And before anyone chimes in, I'm not talking about MA cells in paticular, but any cell.

#2: The MMM (capable of 200A) probably has less total rdson value than the MM (capable of 100A). OK, this is not a fact, but an assumption.

#3: The MMM seems to be more sensitive to batteries than the MM for the same setup. Again, not a fact, but an observation.

#4: The issue with the UBEC dying is now attributed to a batch of less-than-stellar components. Ok, this isn't really related to the point, but I thought I'd throw that one in just to have a comprehensive list. :smile:

The only conclusion I can come up with for #3 is that the slightly higher rdson value in the MM setup helps to slightly reduce the battery's available current to the motor. Not much, but enough. The MMM is a "larger pipe", so the motor is free to pull as much current as it needs - at least slightly more so than the MM. This higher level of current causes more ripple current and is not good for batteries.

Does this sounds plausible? Does anyone have eagletree graphs of the same setup comparing the current levels using the MM and then the MMM? Would a few more caps to the battery input leads help protect cells like in #1?