For the love of god
 

I can honestly say I have been Castle fan boy now since forever. All of my cars have had green motors and black speed controllers. Most of my cars get loaded with aftermarket parts then shelved because I don't want to get them dirty . From time to time I will bring them out on a very clean not too hot day for a little spin then bring them in to clean them . I bought a sidewinder 8th because buying a Combo that is worth more than the vehicle is stupider than it sounds to me. I realized it was a budget system but please someone give me some insight on why 4 of 6 speed controllers I have bought have been back for warranty.

This last Sidewinder 8th blew just plugging the battery on the bench. I love Castle so much but i am so damn pissed off at the same time.

I use Nanotech batteries ,Spektrum dx4c, castle esc's ... I have a "Low grade" esc that I have in my daughters X3 GTE and it doesn't Cog or even show any signs of stress. I got that esc in a trade and that was 3 years ago .WTF is happening ?

This isn't a rant . I need some assurance that things are changing .

This is very surprising to hear. We have seen very few problems with the Sidewinder 8th and 1515B motor. It has actually been one of the most successful releases of a new product in recent history.

What exactly is happening to the ESCs? I see that the most recent one burned on plug-in, but was it run previously? What happened to the other ESCs?

What vehicles are these being run with? Please provide some general setup information including gearing, battery connectors and continuous C rating of the batteries.

The Sidewinder 8th cannot be pushed as hard as a Mamba monster 2. It has a lower amperage rating and as such cannot be geared as aggressively, run in as heavy of vehicles vehicles or be driven as hard compared to the Mamba Monster. Please keep this in mind when choosing the Sidewinder 8th over the Mamba Monster 2.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Model
Slash 4x4
Gearing 18/36
MIP X-duty Axles front and rear
Alloy Arms front and rear
Spectrum DX4C w/ avsc
Traxxas connectors
Nanotech 5600 4s Lipo. 25c-50c

It wasn't run for about 3 weeks . The xl-3 was never used and sold for scrap to the highest bidder.

Well...doing some calculations you are geared for 85 - 100 MPH depending on tire diameter (calculated @ 5" - 6"). That motor is going to be pulling a massive amount of amperage. You are most likely overamping the ESC and/or you have excessive ripple voltage. The continuous C rating on your batteries is far too small for such an extreme setup. We recommend a minimum of a 30C continuous discharge for a normal setup and in an extreme setup you want to have a 40C+ continuous discharge.

With this setup you will continue to burn up ESCs because of the extreme nature of the setup (85+ MPH on a vehicle with horrible aerodynamics). These systems will not be covered by the warranty as the failures are due to an extreme setup and inadequate batteries; we should have never covered the ESC replacements under warranty. We do not warranty any high speed setups. Upgrading to the Mamba Monster could help increase the life expectancy, but those batteries will kill a Mamba Monster and the high speed setup will stress the motor and ESC.

A "safer" speed setup would be to run 6s (with the appropriate discharge) with a larger spur and smaller pinion. The higher voltage will help reduce the amp draw, reducing stress on the ESC, motor and batteries. This would still be a non-warranty setup because of the speed, but the lower amp draw may help increase the life expectancy. Also you should only be running for 1 high speed pass, stopping, letting things cool off before running again.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

My badlands on my slash 4x4 are 4.4" tall. I would assume geared like that he is on grp tires also so around a 4" tire. would drop the speed drastically. Not to thread jack but what's up with the xl2 failures when used in a 1/8th car?

I have nothing nice to say here.

I am using grp tires .... As mentioned above.

That would be 65mph calculated with 3.7V per cell and 3.82 inch tire diameter.

Sounds still a little high for 4S, but then the Slash is very lightweight and has a lightweight drivetrain. Also the GRPs are only 350g for a complete set. I guess that car is around 3Kg.

I wouldn't have thought that such a setup would make them die like flies.

Maybe try some extra capacitors and make cables as short as possible and use good quality connectors (if you're not already doing that anyway...)

BBB,

Please seend the units in and let our repair department take a look at them. As I said before we have a very VERY low failure rate on the Sidewinder 8th ESC. So it is very alarming to see 4 units fail and generally points to a setup issue. We will have our repair techs dissect the units and see if we can determine the cause of failure.

The smaller tire diameter does change the setup a bit, but the batteries are still below our recommended minimum C rating; and if the ESCs are being damaged due to high ripple current then then upgrading the batteries or adding extra capacitors is the only viable option in preventing failures.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Unfortunately I have to say that if you have been a Castle fanboy forever and have only just had your first one die on plugin, then you are doing pretty well.

I guess I just liked the brand more than being a fan boy . I have had more than my fair share of warranties . Including both of my version 1 xl-2's. Anyways the xl-2 version 2 are rock solid to this day .I wasn't going to spend 40 dollars shipping a broken speed controller. I bought another 100 amp speed controller for 40 dollars >.< Same setup up hasn't blown yet. Go figure.