You can run them w/o the lipo sack, just set your cut off voltage at 3.2v a cell. 3s for 11.1v with a cut off of 9.6v or 6s for 22.2v with a cut off of 19.2v. But really they are a little small. I've ran two 1800 3s in parallel (3s2p=11.1v) in my rustler, but they acted a little undersized for my setup. What motor do you have on it? IDK either about the minimum voltage.
If my reciever is not putting out a neutral signal (as in it's not on), my Castle controllers will not initialize. They will give you the first few tones, and maybe count cells, but won't do the final ready to go tones. The fan will keep running until the controller finishes initialization.