Hydra 240 Hv's Dead Batch
 

I just ordered a high end brushless boat 2 months ago complete with hull , hardware , neu 1515 , and a castle hydra 240 hv and according to my boat guy I should have received it a month ago...when I called him last fri to ask what's the hold up he said it was his whole batch of hydra 240 hv's that were bad and had to got back, he told me that they were all dead and wouldnt even calibrate...nothing! Then he proceeds to tell me that he just got his new shippment in and they seem to be fine so my boat would ship asap. I email him telling not to ship if he even has the slightest dought about the control because I don't want to sit here for the rest of the summer starring at my boat in dry dock waiting for warrenty repair, I also told him a passed up a chance to get a marine version of the mgm 160.24 from mike. He tell's me no worrie's at all... we will see. I hope my 2000.00 boat doesnt catch fire!

At least if it does, theres plenty of water near by....

There's no water in my living room and dont these sometimes go durring set up? I remember my boat guy telling me back in the day the barracudas would flame on while I guy started a race..smoke would suddenly start pouring out of the boats and the whole thing would burn down. He has seen them catch fire by just plugging them in. I now have a 450.00 dollar control comming that I dont want and I'm stuck with (who can I sell it to? answer..nobody). If I fry a brand new pair of pq 5s 6000 packs or my whole boat...I'll most likely be kicked off this forum cause I'll leave a post that makes MK351E look like marry poppins.

if your worried so bad about it build some type of box out of sheet metal that the esc can go in. pending on what type of boat it is. im guessing large v or a cat. the metal box just drill some holes in it for the cooling lines,motor wires, and rx wire.

or try to find a small lipo sack. that would probably work better but i dont no how small they come

I guess there's always the possibility of misfortune, but hearing this, I'd probably break it in a little with something not quite as expensive. At least then you'll know if it will die right away...

That's a pretty good idea I have some metal jewelry boxes I could drill some holes in for the wires to come out of. But what if the esc shorts out and cooks my lipos...I'm just going to have to man up and roll the dice.

Yes Brain I will do just that. Instead of two 5s packs in parallel, I'll just use one 4s on one side and a rock (for balance) on the other side.

LOL, the people who had speed controls die on plugin destroyed their motors and ESCs due to bad setups -- first they destroy the motor, and then the ESC dies afterwards, but they don't know that there is a problem because the battery dies right afterwards. Then they plug in a new battery, and poof!

Most boat guys have NO IDEA how many amps they actually pull on their boats. I've seen setups (sent in for us to test) that draw in excess of 2000 amps. They just assume that a faster motor (higher Kv) and larger prop is always a good thing...

And that's why boat guys fry ESCs like popcorn. And also why we don't have the same warranty with boat ESCs as car/airplane ESCs.

So whats the point of this thread? Is it just to badmouth CC? You don't even have the gear to show off, your not asking any questions or advice. As far as I can see your just saying that you heard about some douche who burnt down his boat. And blaming CC for it.

I think this applies to a lot of people with cars and planes as well. I have seen a lot of people on line (not here people know better) and locally completely under estimate the number of amps their setup is pulling. The only way I have any idea is because I have run or seen run almost identical setups with an eagle tree attached. It's really hard to guess the amps thing.

If you're worried, just encase the ESC in ice- Made from deionized/distilled water, of course. :tongue:

Sammus, I was not blaming anybody for anything I was simply making a comment...I'm sure patric appreciates your brown nosing but I don't think my post warrents lynching so please put away your pitch fork. And the point of this thread is to express my concerns about a certin esc and to see if anyone else has ran into any other duds. You are right about one thing though my boat is not here yet but that doesnt mean I dont own one or that a don't know what I'm talking about...I have done plenty of research. By the way while we are on the subject was their a point to your post? Or are you just the forum police?

Patrick, my boat is a 29'' titan mono running a neu 1515/1.5y (1500kv) motor on 5s for 27.750 rpms and the prop is an octura x447. What do you think of this set up? How many amps do you think I'll pull?

i think you should be fine i run a pro boat balckjack 26 with a hydra 120, 1515 1y (2200kv) on 4s with a grim racer 42-55 prop and speed controller temps are around 120 max, motor is about 120-130 and batts about 105. the one thing i suggjest you do is have 2 water pickups for the liquid cooling. most setups have one pickup and the cooling goes thru the motor then to the esc or vice versa. so either way the motor gets warm water off the esc or the esc gets warm water off the motor.

Thanks, I was wondering about that and I will ask my boat guy more about it. The motor will have an aluminum coil but I also got one of those tcs manifolds for extra cooling...it's kinda trick looking and hope it helps with the temps. We also have cool summers about 70deg and very cold water up here in alaska cooling should not be a problem at all. And it doesnt sound like I'll be pulling big amps so i think I'm good...thanks.

i had one of these on my feagio motors and loved it,http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...k-540XL&cat=42

i couldnt find one tho for the new motors so i tried it with out liquid cooling. motor was a solid 150. i forced my son to go to summer school just so he could take the tech class even tho he passed it during school. i needed him to make me one of those cooling jackets for my neu.

did you order that 29 titan from off shore electrics?

this is going to be my next build because i havent done a vee in a while,
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...prod=df-sniper. cc hv 180 on 12s with a neu 1527 2d 1150 kv. 51060 rpm

hopefully after that ill be done with my current major cleaning job and ill get paid for that so i can do this bonzi sports 84 inch apache http://www.bonzisports.com/classic_info.html
with 2 cc hv 240s on 13 s 26 total with 2 neu 2215 1.5y at 1020kv 49062rpm
should make things intresting when im crusing in my buddys 35 ft fountain at 50 with 1-2.5 ft waves and i come flying by at 65+ at 3/4 throttle. that will put a big smile on myface

sorry for going off topic.

Yea right now cris at finedesign says, I cant run the neu water jacket because the diameter is to large and the motor wont fit so I have to use the coil. Anyway I'm running 2 -5s 6000mah packs in parallel for 12000 mah (I'm going for long run times about 45 minutes). I really like the sniper your doing that's a real nice size, and 12s should be a massive amount of power for it (maybe to much) and is 51000 rpm too much? Anyway cris wants to build me a 43'' challanger using a lehner 2280 on 8s and this winter I'll have him build it. As for the apache WOW! That thing is huge! When you build these get pics on this forum or email me some cause I would love to see them. O and I'm glad you changed the topic thanks bro!

51k rpm overkill for the hull yes motor and esc no. that build will most likely take a year once esc's hit 400 + motors 300 and batts 600-1000 things take alot longer. for the apache i gotta see if my dad will team up with me on that because the hull is 1500 motors 500 a piece esc's 500 a piece and batts for the 45 will be maxamps 10000's 6s in series. the apache will be 6s 10000s 4 of them to be exact. and then a 2s 10000 pack will be split between the 2 escs for the 13 cells.

Keep going you will get there, I bought the biggest baddest control I could find for my little titan so that in the future if I wanted to step up to a bigger boat they could share the same control...same with my lipo packs my small boat runs 2 5s packs in parallel and the bigger challanger will run the same packs in series for 10s and that saves me a grand on my next boat! Try buying your packs in sets of 2 same mah, also...Ask for deals or discounts it works...if one guy says no ask another and another (phone calls work best) don't give up, I want to see that apache soon ok..lol.

Sorry mate it just didnt come across like that, and I'm not lynching or brown nosing or claiming you don't know what your talking about or don't own a boat or anything like that. It just pissed me off reading 1000 posts in the MMM threads saying "ooh castle arent perfect, f them, I'm buying an MGM and im letting the whole world know, because I read about someones controller failure" (no im not picking you out here ;) ). Then I saw this thread, the OP didn't seem to express any concern or ask about if anyone else had come across that or heard about it. Instead it basically said: "look everyone, I'm highlighting something else castle did wrong, they shipped a dud batch and even their regular working controllers burst into fireballs for no reason whatsoever, man they suck, I don't want anything to do with anything they make anymore and wish I bought the MGM when I had a chance"

Nothing against you personally, I just don't understand all the castle bashing - I guess it comes down to ones experiences...if it was Losi or HPI then hey, give me my pitchfork back!

And yeah.. it was pretty much back seat forum policing... so sue me :P

PS Did you check out those 6s packs?

Stuff happens and controllers go out. I just had a novak burn itself up on me a couple of weeks ago. doesnt mean anything. The cheapie controllers are even worst. I smoked a couple myself running setups that should have worked. We could have a field day talking about them and videos with lots of cool fireworks to show .Bottom line is when you run these setups at over 40mph and there is 100A + running through these controllers anything can happen.

Seems like a nice boat build but keep in mind a lipo could explode, the controller could melt, a shaft could come flying off and lots of stuff can happen. Theres probably lots of boats at the bottom of these lakes with lots of buried treasure left to be claimed.

Make sure once you get going you have a way to retrieve the boat if something happens. I have had 2 of my boats just stop right in the middle of the lake for no reason. I got lucky both times and the wind helped me out, but I almost lost one 10 feet from shore just as it was sinking and I had to jump in to get it.

I know I myself have owned 2 bad bk warrier 9920 controls. Thanks for the advise but I have expressed my concerns regarding this to my boat guy and he assures me theres enough foam in the boat to prevent sinking, plus I just got a zigzag racer and a little fishing pole with reel...you just hook the line to the zigzag run it out and make a couple passes around your boat and real em both in (this is said to be the fastest way to retrieve). Thanks for the input bro!

my retrive setup fir running at ponds is my old electric hammer with string tied to a custom mount bolted to the hatch. it has a big nut on the end of the string with a bobber that keeps the nut about a inch - an inch and a half under. so i drive out circle the boat and the nut gets caught on the rudder and i drag it back in with the hammer. it has a 12 xl feagio and a hydra 120 in it also so i can turn a good sized prop with alot of pitch to give me good slow speed pulling power. if its upside down i do the same thing because all my boats have a 4-5 inch tall aluminum antenna base that the nut wraps around perfectly. ive done this about 10 times now and the boat stays really dry even tho its being draged upside down. out on a lake i just hop on my sea doo and go get it.

You guys have got some good ideas. I'll have to try them. I always get a bit scared with that much money laying out there that something can happen too. At least with the cars/trucks you just walk over and figure out what happened.
Some guy had an nimh cell turn into a bomb and explode in the boat. I've seen some pretty crazy pictures.

I just got my boat and there is alot of foam in it so there will be no sinking plus it has a custom sealed sub hatch made from clear lexan that's pretty neat...I will be running it on 4s instead of 5s cause it was shipped with a 1515 2d (2050kv) motor. My boat guy tells me it will hit 50-60 no sweat and the speedo works flawlessly. Here's a link to my photobucket if you guy's want to see the set up shots.http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/k...riedfatnhorny/

Nice build. The insides look clean. I think that would put my Supervee to shame. I'm still working on a Top Speed 2 brushless conversion. If I ever get it built I could give you a run for your money. Till then its just eye candy.

I wish mike had a boat section on this forum I'm sure lots of guy's have them. Post pics of your supervee dude. In fact you or I could start a new thread asking everyone to show pictures of their water rockets. These things are cool to the max.

Patrick if you could let me know what you think of my dead speed control I would be eternally grateful.

Its just a stock SV27. Nothing special. I like your idea about a brushless boat forum. I think there are a bunch out there already but heh another one cant hurt.

Yea I agree, I also wouldnt mind seeing one for street cars (road warriors).

Its a shame you have this opinion about CC. I have never had anything but amazing customer service from them. :yes: You may have wanted to consider sending the dud to CC directly instead of through Chris Fine. But sometimes sh!t happens, and the company has no control over it often times. I am sure CC will take care of you if you talk to them directly. :wink:

Just playing devil's advocate here: I just Googled for Hydra 240 bad batch/issues/dead, etc. and nothing shows up. The only thing that popped up that is remotely related is the two threads on here about this.

I smell something fishy here.

Edit: The "boat guy" on the other hand makes for some juicy reading... :whistle:

Id love to see a boat section, lots of boat guys around here (IL) seeing a bunch of them in here I would have to build one. (with as much stuff from Mike as possible)

heres my pond rocket (:lol:)

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/j...ailboat001.jpg

Id wait and see if Cris sends you that new esc before singing his praises, thats guys so full of broken promises he has to buy 2 seats on an airplane. What happened to him sending a tested working unit the 1st time ? Slipped his mind or he just jacked you ? No trying to be a dick, just saying.

Yup. If I built a car/truck/boat/whatever for a customer, I'd make sure it fired up and ran without a hitch and not blame anything on a "bad batch" if it didn't work as planned. The thing is, there have been no other reports of bad Hydra 240's than the ones that Mr. Fine is claiming. That's what's fishy.

No, fishy as in Chris Fine is feeding you a nice long line... I've read more negatives than I'd like about him as a vendor for me to give him my money.

So now you see why Castle doesn't want to send out faulty MMM's right? And why do you not want to buy a MMM from Castle when it is only an isolated Hydra 240 that is bad (notwithstanding what Mr. Fine says about a bad batch)? :neutral:

Like somebody said before, Castle is in a "d@mned if you do, d@mned if you don't" situation. I payed for my MMM pre-order from RC-M back in May and have understood the issues that Castle had with one component from an outside source. Knowing that that problem is now fixed I can't wait to get mine.

To any moderators...please feel free to delete any and all of my threads or posts in this section I'm done. Thank you

Well, I just got done talking with Thomas about this issue, and it seems that only Chris got these "bad" controllers.

We have had issues like this in the past, where a single shipment has problems, and other shipments from the same batch don't have problems.

I have speculated that it might be an issue with the controllers for a particular shipment are exposed to high power Xrays (checking the mail???) during shipment, but I'm not sure exactly why it happens. Usually, we get them back, reprogram the microprocessor, and all is fine. It seems that part of the memory is being erased during the shipment.

Coolrunnings -- sorry about the issue. If you would like to contact us, I'm sure we can get you a replacement out if Chris doesn't resolve the issue.

Patrick