New Castle Products: X

[Dragonfueled]

Maybe it's me but wow the start up is really smooth. My old monsters would kinda leap forward from a start. This one has a nice slow almost sensored like start.
Torque control works better to. Old monster had a weird delay in power where this one is consistent . So far I really like the small improvements Over the old monster.

Is there a way to know what number torque control I'm using when using the aux wire to control it? will the controller remember what setting it was on when I plug into my laptop?

[Lizard]

What firmware where you running on the old Mamba Monster, dragonfueled?

From my experience, v1.24 is quite smooth, between 1.24 and 1.45 it was cogging pretty bad, from 1.45 on it got a lot better but still not as smooth as the v1.24. If it's as smooth as the old v1.24 that would be really cool.


Dr.T: Yeah, it arrived pretty quickly.
Have also seen the 32V in the log and hoped for 7s. But there is no throttle applied during that time, maybe that is for a reason.

Really cool that Castle seems to do a benchtest on every ESC before selling it.

[Lizard]

Just tried the HPI Vorza ESC tray for the old Mamba Monster: It also works with the X. Hole spacing for the switch is different, but that's no big problem I guess ...

[Thomas Porfert]

What you are seeing is the testing done to the controller during the production process. After the board is populated and the wires attached it goes to "first test". We run the motor in reverse with no load and then forward on a 50 amp load for at least 5 seconds.

After the case and labels are attached and the ESC is potted (waterproofed) it goes in for "second test". We apply 20 then 30 volts and then run the same power test as before.

The last test is the low voltage cut-off test. You can see in the 3rd session where the voltage slowly steps down and then cuts off.

This is done to every single ESC that we manufacture.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Originally Posted by Lizard

There is some logged data on the brand new ESC already. Is that some kind of testrun on a bench? Looks interesting.

[Arct1k]

Impressive 2min cycle testing time is quite a lot. What's the actual test failure rate dare I ask?

[Lizard]

Torque Control Adjustment
The controller's torque limit is controlled by the AUX wire signal. The torque control is scaled from 0.1 at 1.1ms signal received on the AUX wire to 5.0 at 1.9ms. Torque control is disabled when the input exceeds 1.9ms. If the AUX wire becomes disconnected, the controller will use the torque limit set in Castle Link.

Could you make this adjustable, Patrick? I have a Traxxas TQi radio that doesn't have any endpoint or trim settings for the third channel. It only has fixed 1.040ms, 1.500ms and 1.960ms. So if I understand the above correctly, for the 1.040ms signal I get Torque Control 0.1? Or disabled? It's below 1.1ms. For 1.500ms I get something between 0.1 and 5.0 and for 1.960ms (above 1.9ms) I get Torque Control disabled.

Perfect would be IMHO, if one could define a table with Torque control value and associated ms value (But I guess that would be quite some work).

But maybe it's possible to make just the endpoints adjustable in the ESC? If it could be set to a range between let's say 0.5ms and 2.5ms, the three possible ms values of the TQi's third channel would correspond to three usable Torque control settings (I realize 0.5ms and 2.5ms is outside of normal signal range, it's just to be able to adjust the range of usable Torque control values).

[Dragonfueled]

I would just love to know what the actual torque control is. Like a way to know what your setting is on when using the third channel.

[Lizard]

Yeah, that would be nice. Like the castle link software already shows the ms-values of the throttle calibration maybe it would be possible to make the ESC also save the last-seen ms-value of the extra channel so that it can be displayed in the castle link software.

[Dragonfueled]

That would be cool it's nice to know where it was just for fine tuning and getting back to the setting you liked

[Lizard]

Just an idea: Would it be possible to use a servotester with a small display that shows the ms-value, permanently attach it to the aux wire (and positive/negative of course) and leave it on the car? That would do exactly what we want, or? Just not remote-controlled, but that's okay for me ...

[Pdelcast]

Originally Posted by Lizard

Just an idea: Would it be possible to use a servotester with a small display that shows the ms-value, permanently attach it to the aux wire (and positive/negative of course) and leave it on the car? That would do exactly what we want, or? Just not remote-controlled, but that's okay for me ...

Yes, that would work... But really kind of defeats the purpose of the aux wire.

[Lizard]

You mean the purpose of being controlled by the remote? Yeah, well, the alternative would be to connect a laptop everytime to make adjustments, so an onboard torque control knob is a big improvement for me. Great that it should work with a servotester, I'll try that out :)

BTW: Is there anything planned with bluetooth and smartphones? Using a laptop on the field is annoying and the field link card only supports the basic options ...

[mwe-maxxowner]

Originally Posted by Lizard

You mean the purpose of being controlled by the remote? Yeah, well, the alternative would be to connect a laptop everytime to make adjustments, so an onboard torque control knob is a big improvement for me. Great that it should work with a servotester, I'll try that out :)

BTW: Is there anything planned with bluetooth and smartphones? Using a laptop on the field is annoying and the field link card only supports the basic options ...

Adjusting things via Castle Link over bluetooth would be AWESOME! Or for me through traxxas's remote and my phone.

[crazyjr]

Originally Posted by Lizard

Could you make this adjustable, Patrick? I have a Traxxas TQi radio that doesn't have any endpoint or trim settings for the third channel. It only has fixed 1.040ms, 1.500ms and 1.960ms. So if I understand the above correctly, for the 1.040ms signal I get Torque Control 0.1? Or disabled? It's below 1.1ms. For 1.500ms I get something between 0.1 and 5.0 and for 1.960ms (above 1.9ms) I get Torque Control disabled.

Perfect would be IMHO, if one could define a table with Torque control value and associated ms value (But I guess that would be quite some work).

But maybe it's possible to make just the endpoints adjustable in the ESC? If it could be set to a range between let's say 0.5ms and 2.5ms, the three possible ms values of the TQi's third channel would correspond to three usable Torque control settings (I realize 0.5ms and 2.5ms is outside of normal signal range, it's just to be able to adjust the range of usable Torque control values).

You could replace the 3rd channel switch, with a potentionmer, similar to the ones used for trims on channels 1 and 2 on older radio's. Just need to drill a hole where it won't cross out anything else.

[Lizard]

I think that doesn't work with my TQi :( There are three pins inside, with nothing connected I get 1500us, with a jumper lead from the left to the middle pin I get 1000us, with the right one 2000us. Also tried with several different resistor values, always the same.