Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Initial impressions of controller.

Case:
It's a smoked gray plastic and you can see through it slightly. The decal is wrapped around the side and on one side it shows where fan and sensor go

Wires:
Very nice 14awg silicon wires. Feel smooth and nice. Didn't melt when soldering so that's a plus. They are soldered in the through board style like most motors these days. It's clean and looks nice

Initial startup:
You need to calibrate it first thing. I plugged it into a receiver that I knew was already setup and working. You hold the button on the switch lead and turn it on to enter calibration mode and it begins beeping like crazy telling you it's in setup mode.

How to Calibrate:
1. Connect motor, battery and ESC
2. Radio channel 2 should be setup like Futaba (so reverse on FlySky and Traxxas)
3. Turn on radio
4. Press red button and turn on ESC
5. It should be beeping a whole mess now to tell you it's in setup mode
6. Keep the trigger in neutral
7. Press red button on switch, you'll hear 1 beep confirming neutral
8. Full forward throttle
9. Press red button on switch, you'll hear 2 beeps confirming forward
10. Full reverse
11. Press red button on switch, you'll hear 3 beeps confirming reverse
12. Turn off receiver and you're done

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I initially hooked it up to my Castle 3800kv 4 pole motor to test and it seemed to work pretty good. Startup was smoother than my ESC that came with the motor and brakes feel strong (with default program). One thing I noticed is I think I need to increase the dead band because when I go from forward to reverse for brake, it will brake initially then it starts to go into reverse. I'm wondering if he set it for me before shipping. I'll figure it out when I get the program for PC setup installed and see what the settings actually are.

Then I tried it with a Speed Passion Crawler Master motor. That one is sensored. I hooked up the sensor wire and ABC accordingly and it worked. I did unplug the sensor and it seemed to work the same. Though, I had the motors sitting on the bench so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't see much of a difference anyway. I'll have to put the motor in my Wraith and see how it runs. 1000kv is pretty slow though. May need to get one of those fancy higher KV sensored motors and see how that runs.

So, right now I'm waiting for the pictures to upload then I'll post a few to show you guys what the stuff actually looks like.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

The esc's come shipped in ROAR spec mode, which means no timing, no boost. This is done to keep the kids with the 100000000000kv motors from blowing things up by jacking up the timing right off the bat.

Sensored mode is waaaaaay smoother than non-sensored. You won't see more power, just better throttle resolution. I can get my sc truck with a sensored 17.5t motor creep across the driveway just as slow and smooth as I could one of my crawlers.

If you haven't gotten an email from Stan yet with the download info for the programming, let him know and he should get it right out to you. He's a busy guy.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I'll have to play with the sensored motor more. I only had it on the bench not hooked to anything so there wasn't any load on it. I've also never used it before so I don't even know if it's any good or not.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Pictures as promised:

Initial packaging - did I mention it only took 2 days to get here?
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3532.jpg

Unboxing (I am not going to do an unboxing video, don't worry):
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3533.jpg

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3534.jpg

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Let's get to soldering:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3541.jpg
Safety first! Always wear eye protection when soldering!!!!

Insert waiting room music here ...

Done:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3546.jpg

Shrink tube installed. I like to do it a little longer then trim it off with a hobby knife:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3549.jpg

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Let's stick some wires on this motor while we have it out:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3550.jpg

Finished ESC:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...C/DSC_3553.jpg

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

If you don't already have one, pick up a 3-4 foot usb extension cable. It makes the programming process much easier.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Can you use a regular extension or do you need one of the fancy ones with the amplifier built in? I have a 10' one that has the amplifier in it, but it is fished behind my desk for an extra keyboard and mouse. I could pull it out easy enough though.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Any old extension will do. I've got an el-cheapo from Wally World I bought for $3 or something.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I have this ESC and love it. Haven't tried it in a crawler but will at some point. For a Wraith with a sensored motor I think it would be good.
I use it in my EXO with a Tenshock 4000KV sensored and it rocks. Like Duuuuude says, it will move along slow and controlled better than any of my Castle or Traxxas stuff, and when punched.....it rips. I plan on getting one for my Wraith next.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I'm wondering if the sensored motor I have is messed up because it doesn't run any smoother when the sensor cable is hooked up (either the cable that came with the ESC or the one that came with the motor). So, either the cables are bad or the sensor board in the motor is bad. Is there any way to test other than what I've already done? Should you get a certain impedance or resistance when checking the 6 pins that go to the 3 sensors?

I've also been playing a little with instant reverse mode. Initially there was no drag brake turned on and it was in "crawler mode" and you'd go from forward to reverse and it would hit the brakes, pause, then start reverse. I need to turn on the drag brake and see if that improves the transition and shortens the time and the slight delay. My initial thought is the ESC needs to see zero before it reverses and thus the pause. I'll play more later today.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Sounds like it could be the motor...really the only way to test it would be to hook up a known good sensored motor and see how it acts. Testing on the bench with no load won't tell you much though, it really should be installed in a rig.

Did you adjust the deadband on the radio? That could cause some creep...

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I did recalibrate to the radio and it's a bit more confident feeling. I am getting another receiver for my other radio so when I install that I'll be able to fully set it up and not just have the esc hanging off my MERV while I mess around with it. Hopefully it will be in this week.

I didn't get any testing done today because my wife and son surprised me with a brand new Craftsman 41" roller base and new top chest. 23 drawers to fill up and swap over from my old 3 boxes.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Managed to run it for a bit tonight and all I can say is wow it's smooth!

I ran it in the 1/16 drift car with the Castle 1410 3800kv 4 pole motor. That motor is a beast in a 4x4 Stampede and it was totally controllable in the little car. I even let my 3 year old son drive it and he managed to drift it around the garage and do donuts without any issue.

The weirdest part is it doesn't make the high pitch whine that my other ESC's do before they pull away. It makes a little noise and then the motor just gets rolling nice and smooth

The program I had set was normal forward/brake/reverse (double pump) with 10% drag brake. I also had start power set to 2 but I'm not sure if lower is higher start power or higher numbers is more start power. I'll have to play more.

Next test is Speed Passion Crawler Master L (sensored) and Castle 3800 in the Wraith. I want to see how smooth and how much power I can get out of the 3800 (for beach sand runs) and then see how much I can get out of that 1000kv crawler motor.

All in all, I'm extrememly impressed with this ESC so far.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I'm not entirely sure myself. I've messed with those parameters and never really noticed much of a change, if there was a change at all. It may just be a fine tuning thing that isn't meant to have wild swings of engagement.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I just ordered one on Duuuuuuudes recommendation.....do you make a commission ?? lol

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Yup. .0000000000000000000001% of every 637th penny he makes goes directly to me. Minus taxes and interest, of course.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

I'd definitely say at this point that I can recommend the ESC for regular cars. This week I'll get it setup in the Wraith and comment on rock crawling application.

I still need to get a sensored motor that I know is good to use as reference.

Re: Anyone Use Brushless Hobbies 120A ESC?
 

Ran the heck out of the ESC last night in the drift car (I know, it's not a crawler) and performance was very nice. I ran one pack through with my Castle 3800 4 pole motor and ESC didn't get past room temp. Motor was just a touch warm after 1 1800mAh pack. The 3800 can pull some serious amps but I'm not sure what they are without looking them up.

Put in a Tacon 2848-540xl 3900kv 2 pole in and ran the heck out of that too. Motor barely got warm and ESC was still ice cold. This motor only pulls about 40-50a max so that's nothing for the ESC. My 25c 1800 packs would probably be the weak part of the chain there.

I'll run the 3800 4 pole in the Wraith this weekend with the 1000kv sensored motor to see what that does.

I like how the ESC is super quiet and the loudest thing you actually hear is the fan on the ESC.