Which ESC?
 

I'm getting a little nervous over the heat issues people are having with the Quark - I'll be using 5s LiPo - probably with a Neu 1515. I just want to know if by spending some more money I'll be able to get an ESC that won't have any of these issues?

FYI The truck is a pretty heavy FLM-based E-maxx basher.

I use 5s apachee 18.5v 2 paks in parallel in my emaxx. On pavement I never had any heat issues. w/ 8xl. In heavier off road I did ,sand. Since then I added the monster heatsink & 2 fans & geared down, also using 9xl . There are no heat issuse now, for now.

Get the heat sink and you should be fine. I ran 5s on mine with a 9 and 10xl, it was fine with temps. I used dual 30mm 5v fans. They hummed like you wouldn't believe!

The quark is a very smooth esc. No cogging, or weird braking issues that I have had with other controllers. Even with the slight cooling issue its still the best of the bunch IMO. If you add a heatsink to the back of it you will not have any thermal problems. Fans arent even necessary in many applications. But do keep it even cooler.

Since going with neu. You can get a mgm. The bk won't work with the neu.

I just bought a Quark... haven't ran it yet but i hear that its the best?!

Maybe ppl are complaining about the Quark because of its rating, and they don't expect it to thermal ever, cuz i've always hear other with every other controller out there and they have thermals lots.

I would recommend the Quark 125B though, it's the most versatile one, and best performance. It can run the Neu 4-pole motors, it's in a nice case.

Go quark man and just get the heatsink and you will be fine. -By the way guys if you were to get only a heatsink and no fans would it still run cool enough or would you absolutly need the fans for good operation-

Depends on your setup. But, I have run mine with just a heatsink and no fan and it ran fine. A few degrees hotter than no fan, but no thermaling problems. Fan will help if you are really pushing it with your setup though.

Yeah, there are several reports of thermal issues, but you have to remember many people only post the bad stuff. There are tons out there that work great but those people don't rush out here to post "Hey guys, the ESC is working". As with ANYTHING, there will always be a few instances of issues, but that's par for the course. That's what the warranty is for. And from the few reports I've seen, Quarks customer service is very good. So, it's not like you bought a no-name device from an electronics liquidation fair with no warranty and hope it works...

The only weakness that I have seen is the overheating and the trouble running at 6s. I've never actually had it thermal even before I did the cooling mod - I just did it because I like my electronics to run as cool as possible. And I only plan to run at 5s max, so that's not a problem for me. I'm just glad Quark provided a nice flat area to mount an external heatsink. Most ESCs have a small finned one already mounted that you can't remove, so the only way to cool better is to use a fan.

Just looking at the internals, you can see the Quarks are built well. Everything is laid out neatly and it makes sense (from an electronics perspective).

Yah, i agree with BrianG, like i already said. I've heard alot more problems with other controllers...

See, what i did was bought a really good controller (Quark), and a decent motor 540C-7XL to get started, next year i would like to get a better motor (either a Neu or a Lehner). The Quark can run the Neu motors also, one of the few. I'd rather have a good controller and a 'lower end' motor than having a 'lower end' controller and a really good motor. The setup is only as good as the controller really.

I have a pletten MAximum with the heatsink and no fan on a 1/8 buggy. If I run the car hard, it still thermos. I just asked Mike in an email about the "NEW" MGM controller. GD what is the braking concern on the MGM controller that you refered about?

The MGM120 that I have has the issue where it applies brakes to slow the car when you let off throttle, rather than just letting the car coast...

If you go from throttle immediately to neutral, it doesn't apply brake. BUT, if you go from say full throttle to half throttle... it uses full brake to slow the car to that speed.

That's retarded and makes racing impossible. Maybe they will fix/replace it for me but I havent bothered with it yet.

It's supposed to be fixed as far as I know, but they also said it was fixed when I got mine. Obvioulsy it wasnt.

It should be a simple software tweak so I can believe that it's been fixed by now.

Other than that it's a pretty smooth controller... zero cogging and throttle feels ok. Nothing awesome, but very drivable. Also it has not let the smoke out even with a few thermals etc. I think 120A is overrated though.

GD, I think the coasting/braking issue was resolved a while ago. The 12012 that I got back from repair a long time ago doesn't have this issue.

That would sure be nice... I should contact them and see if they will update/replace mine.