mamba xlx questions
 

Ok I have read that the x series has added safety protection and throttles back the high amp draw that was seen with the xl2. Is this correct? A friend of mine has one in a 1/8 scale car and it runs like it is at half throttle. surely they aren't regulated back that much? I hear its because of the warranty issues from people using the xl2 esc incorrectly geared and trying speed runs when they had no clue what they were doing. please enlighten me on if this is true.

Crickets!!!

More info?

There are several things that can cause throttle-back.

Setup and ESC settings would be a good place to start.

Most often it's Lipo related -- the ESC sees Lipo voltage drop to an unsafe level, and throttles back. This is to prevent the Lipos from burning up.

Well the xl2 you can set up current limit to 300a and on xlx its lower right? they just don't run like the xl2 do. setup is all the same. well except for the ability to set amp current higher. The xlx i hear has some new software that prevents it from making the same power as xl2. Is this true?

This is also with no lipo cutoff. so not it. it only happens with the new xlx esc.

Patrick, is that a new feature / has it been changed with the X series compared to XL2 and the previous Mamba Monsters? Can you please explain a bit more on what parameters (Voltage, Current, also ripple?) the ESCs use to determine whether to throttle back, and what the thresholds/limits (V, A, etc?) are at which the safety feature(s) is/are triggered?

Here's a log of 0verkill's 1/8 Truggy geared for 153 mph no-load with a CC1515 and MMX. Log indicates some bad-ass ripple and Voltage dipping to 3.28V Cell, and based on low RPM and relatively (considering the gearing) low peak Current, it seems ESC is holding back, no?

http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/...ps24it44er.jpg

Phill, do you have some of your friend's XLX logs to show how it is holding back?

I believe so. Funny thing is the x series are very limited esc. Mmx too. We can't get a honest answer either.

Yes, the ripple voltage was bad on that over geared run. Phil, what's your ripple voltage on your passes?

Here is a video rawsteel just put out.. check it out he talks about the problems we are seeing with these esc that castle won't comment on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foiRZU5UVTA

Thanks for posting Phil, curious what's going on here. If it's really a deliberate firmware restriction, I'm hoping Castle will end up adding a Tesla-like "use at own risk" ludicrous, or berserko mode.

Yes it has to be too many people with the same problem. There was a write up on facebook i'll post here also confirming whats going on. I have witnessed the mmx doing this myself. seems limited to a certain current. on data log 3s pulled 152, went to 4s same setup amps only climbed to 159 . it should have shot up much higher.

Facebook write up:
"Ok guys, I've got some bad news for some of you. I talked to Castle today and they confirmed that they have implemented a much more aggressive current limiting strategy in ALL their ESCs in firmware versions 1.26 and later to reduce their failure rate. That means that Castle ESCs will no longer surge to ~2X their rated continuous power for speedrun applications. You will still probably get short peeks of higher current, but the long 4-5 second surges we have grown used to may be a thing of the past. The good news is that in-run Voltage sag will probably be lower, so the “average” power you get over a run may end up being a little higher (I still need to work through the math to confirm this, though)

Continuous ratings for the current crop of Castle ESCs are listed below.
Sidewinder 1/10 Scale: 70 Amps
Sidewinder 8th Scale: 90 Amps
Mamba Max Pro 1/10 Scale: 100 Amps
Mamba Monster 1/2/X: 120 Amps
Mamba Monster XL2: 150 Amps
Mamba Monster XLX: 160 Amps

Don’t shoot the messenger. ;-)

Castle Creations Inc.Bashers United "

Interesting post Phil, thanks for sharing here; from your experience and 0verkill's it seems the MMX is limited to around 150A though? Which on 6S is still enough to get to 100+mph in an 1/8 scale, ...just with less ludicrous acceleration. For most that might not be such a bad thing after all. For you hard-core speedrun guys pursuing those epic 130+mph speeds, 150A probably isn't enough though...

Apart from that, what I think is weird in rawsteele's video, is that acceleration on 6S is lower than 3S..., that means Current is limited more at 6S than at 3S. If current was limited to same level, acceleration would be equal, but 6S would pull that acceleration longer, resulting in higher top... So something doesn't make sense. Maybe something did get screwed in the firmware somehow - if so, that should be fixable. And who knows, maybe they will throw in a Nic Case mode :).

maybe its watts its limited or when a burst current is hit. I'm not sure never ran my mmx on 6s. I'm going back with a mmm,or mm2 instead of mmx in my current car. see the difference then.

From the video, it looks like as soon as 6s is plugged in the esc cuts power. Maybe it does limit but amperage but it sure looks like it's tied to input voltage as well.