novak and castle

[kaneohecrawler]

Anyone ever run a novak sensored brushless motor with a mamba max esc. Looking to do this with the novak 18.5 ballistic crawler motor. If so can you run 4s on it comfortably? I couldn find the max volt. Specs for the motor. Any help would be greatly appreciated thx.

[TexasSP]

The mamba max will run novak motors just fine, you will just be sensorless unless you use the mamba pro. 4s will also be fine on that motor, just watch your gearing and temps. I have run 5s on the 21.5 with no issues.

[kaneohecrawler]

Thx I use the pro version btw the sensor is the whole reason I wanna use this motor

[concretejungle]

That's what i run right now. It's been great! I am getting a little warm on motor temps but that could be from my pinion gear size, not sure. But it's silky smooth, powerful and has been very reliable. I would suggest this combo to anyone. Here is my take so far on this combo with my Losi CC: 2cell=very smooth and controllable crawling power, not a lot of wheel speed and no jumping gaps, 3cell=a lot more wheel speed, gap jumping ability (not large gaps) and plenty of power. Almost too much power at times. After a 1300 mah pack i wait about 10-15 minutes to cool before running another pack. 4cell=sick power. Gap jumps are fun, wheel stand are fun, broken axles and driveshafts are not fun.

I'm going to get the castle motor fan to help with motor temps before i go to a smaller pinion (that's what Erik Delux suggests).

[kaneohecrawler]

Originally Posted by concretejungle

That's what i run right now. It's been great! I am getting a little warm on motor temps but that could be from my pinion gear size, not sure. But it's silky smooth, powerful and has been very reliable. I would suggest this combo to anyone. Here is my take so far on this combo with my Losi CC: 2cell=very smooth and controllable crawling power, not a lot of wheel speed and no jumping gaps, 3cell=a lot more wheel speed, gap jumping ability (not large gaps) and plenty of power. Almost too much power at times. After a 1300 mah pack i wait about 10-15 minutes to cool before running another pack. 4cell=sick power. Gap jumps are fun, wheel stand are fun, broken axles and drive.

I got the motor all wired up. Only thing is the motor even with the sensor hooked up still loads like a sensorless motor.. jus not as dramatic... like the low end throttle and start up is not very smooth at all... what settings did you do in the mamba max pro via castle link. I tried a few combos so far and nothing has helped out. Even in brushless smart sence mode.. do I need to adjust my throttle curve? Its just thedefault curve. Any help would be fantastic.

[concretejungle]

hmmmm something isn't right then. Make sure your sensor wire is fully seated in the plug.

I kept mine at stock, linear throttle curve, just adjusted the auto lipo cutoff. When i had my goat 3s, start-up was really shaky. Turned out the ESC had a bad mofset (still don't know what that is). When i swapped out with the MMP it was smooth as silk and still is.

Just checking but you are running a BEC right?

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by concretejungle

hmmmm something isn't right then. Make sure your sensor wire is fully seated in the plug.

I kept mine at stock, linear throttle curve, just adjusted the auto lipo cutoff. When i had my goat 3s, start-up was really shaky. Turned out the ESC had a bad mofset (still don't know what that is). When i swapped out with the MMP it was smooth as silk and still is.

Just checking but you are running a BEC right?

A MOSFET is a high power solid state switch, basically. Much better than SCR's in this application.
The MOSFET is probably the biggest thing that allowed ESC's to take off many many years ago. I still have/run some of my early Novak MOSFET ESC's.

[kaneohecrawler]

Originally Posted by concretejungle

hmmmm something isn't right then. Make sure your sensor wire is fully seated in the plug.

I kept mine at stock, linear throttle curve, just adjusted the auto lipo cutoff. When i had my goat 3s, start-up was really shaky. Turned out the ESC had a bad mofset (still don't know what that is). When i swapped out with the MMP it was smooth as silk and still is.

Just checking but you are running a BEC right?

internal bec for the reciever and external dedicated to the servo.

ill check some of the setting today when i finish work and see if i have better luck. thx for the help.

if anyone else has ideas feel free to butt in..... thx guys

[indiana mudcat]

Setup a LNC with MMP, 18.5 ballistic and 6s over a year ago. We geared low for a long time but in the last few months have went up about four pinion teeth and heat is still in check, with a 14 it would only get warm ( never even close to hot) when bound up enough to blow the trans gears apart. Pretty sure I set it for Sensored Only, added quite a bit of expo and normal Losi settings for brake and reverse (no brake, no drag, no reverse delay and 100% reverse power), you'll need drag of course.

[kaneohecrawler]

Originally Posted by indiana mudcat

Setup a LNC with MMP, 18.5 ballistic and 6s over a year ago. We geared low for a long time but in the last few months have went up about four pinion teeth and heat is still in check, with a 14 it would only get warm ( never even close to hot) when bound up enough to blow the trans gears apart. Pretty sure I set it for Sensored Only, added quite a bit of expo and normal Losi settings for brake and reverse (no brake, no drag, no reverse delay and 100% reverse power), you'll need drag of course.

my radio is at 100% fwd expo.. always has been.. never really messed with it and to be quite honest not really sure exactly what it does.. lol

messed with the throttle curve to give it more power at the start and that helped a lot. also set to sensored only. im running 32p gears so a 14 is more like a stock 20. i dont see having no brake changing anything for the start up. is it the diff in timing thats causeing a slightly glitchy start up and low end? if so should i reduce or advance the timing on the motor?

[concretejungle]

yea that is one more thing i did forget to mention... my MMP is set at sensored only mode.

also, what are you running this in? Reason i ask is i hear a lot of talk of how brushless doesn't work as well on an axial setup, but works perfect on a losi with the worm drive. Maybe we are seeing what a brushless motor does on an axial?? Which, i don't understand.... it must be above my paygrade as to why brushless will cog with a ring and pinion setup verses being buttery smooth on a worm drive.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by concretejungle

yea that is one more thing i did forget to mention... my MMP is set at sensored only mode.

also, what are you running this in? Reason i ask is i hear a lot of talk of how brushless doesn't work as well on an axial setup, but works perfect on a losi with the worm drive. Maybe we are seeing what a brushless motor does on an axial?? Which, i don't understand.... it must be above my paygrade as to why brushless will cog with a ring and pinion setup verses being buttery smooth on a worm drive.

The biggest issue is the worm drive EATS brushed motors, not so much the cogging issue.

[kaneohecrawler]

My brother in law is running exact same motor on his axial like I am. Yet his is butter smooth. Only diff is the esc. He is using the supplied goat 3s and I'm using mmp.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by kaneohecrawler

My brother in law is running exact same motor on his axial like I am. Yet his is butter smooth. Only diff is the esc. He is using the supplied goat 3s and I'm using mmp.

I like the MM firmware 1.24 and I alter the throttle & brake curves a bit. I also have a Castle Link since we have a number of Castle ESC's & BEC's.

[kaneohecrawler]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

I like the MM firmware 1.24 and I alter the throttle & brake curves a bit. I also have a Castle Link since we have a number of Castle ESC's & BEC's.

I may try that firmware and see if that helps.. I also use castle link.. thx for everyones input.