Axial AE-2 good?

[arctichorse]

Is the Axial AE-2 any good? It seems like it's everything I'm asking for, for an alright price.

I'm looking for an ESC with a drag brake on it that can take 2s mainly or 3s. I have a Tekin FX-R and I'm not happy with it at all, I've driven it a handful of times. A lot of the time it will run normally but like today I decided to take it out in the yard and the drag brake cuts out in reverse but not in forward, so I checked the ESC in quick program and the drag brake is at full strength with anti drag brake off, and then the drag brake cuts out in forward but not reverse, what the heck, some times when I give it throttle it just sits there and then all of a sudden lurches forward at full speed only and then goes to the speed at which I have the trigger pulled, so I swapped out controllers thinking the controller went bad and still does that. I am not satisfied with the Tekin FX-R at all, bought it brand new and get problems like this shortly after.

[TRUBLE]

I run a ae-2 in both of my crawlers and they work great. I also use a cc bec and I run both of them on 3 cell. I have never had a problem with them. I would definitely buy another. Hope this helps.

[WHITE-TRASH]

I have a castle sv-2 in my main rig and an ae2 in the spare parts rig and there is such little performance difference I'd definitely recommend grabbing an ae2. I run both on 3s with external bec's.

[monkeymagic9]

I agree with truble.

Best bet is to pick one up used.. shouldn't have to pay more than $40.

[zuki_dan]

I think they are a good esc for brushed motors rated for 20turn motor. They do have a weak built in 2 amp BEC. When I ran my SCX10 with stock steering servo it would brown out on 3S lipo, it was fine on 2S. If you have a high torque servo put an external 10 amp castle BEC and that takes care of the problem.

[SMR 510RR]

Originally Posted by arctichorse

Is the Axial AE-2 any good? It seems like it's everything I'm asking for, for an alright price.

I'm looking for an ESC with a drag brake on it that can take 2s mainly or 3s. I have a Tekin FX-R and I'm not happy with it at all, I've driven it a handful of times. A lot of the time it will run normally but like today I decided to take it out in the yard and the drag brake cuts out in reverse but not in forward, so I checked the ESC in quick program and the drag brake is at full strength with anti drag brake off, and then the drag brake cuts out in forward but not reverse, what the heck, some times when I give it throttle it just sits there and then all of a sudden lurches forward at full speed only and then goes to the speed at which I have the trigger pulled, so I swapped out controllers thinking the controller went bad and still does that. I am not satisfied with the Tekin FX-R at all, bought it brand new and get problems like this shortly after.

Sounds like your issues are due to a bad or non existent calibration of the ESC to the radio signal. I would try that before throwing away a $100 ESC that is well liked here for a cheaper ESC that most people end up replacing with a FXR or BR-XL.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by SMR 510RR

Sounds like your issues are due to a bad or non existent calibration of the ESC to the radio signal. I would try that before throwing away a $100 ESC that is well liked here for a cheaper ESC that most people end up replacing with a FXR or BR-XL.

+1.


Quite a few times, when ANY ESC does "stupid stuff" I suggest doing a recalibration of the ESC to the RX.


The other thing could be that the motor needs some TLC since it appears (from your description) that it's the only "common thing" when swapping things around.

[arctichorse]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

+1.


Quite a few times, when ANY ESC does "stupid stuff" I suggest doing a recalibration of the ESC to the RX.


The other thing could be that the motor needs some TLC since it appears (from your description) that it's the only "common thing" when swapping things around.

Oh I did, a lot, I even calibrated the receiver and controller just to eliminate any variables. I calibrated it to the first controller and had the problems, so on the second receiver I said screw it, and it ended up losing some of the glitches but drag brakes and reverse started to disappear at random times, today I almost rolled into a river because the drag brake failed and started to go in reverse into the river with no throttle, calibrated it, and that problem went away but I lost the drag brake in reverse. This ESC is driving me nuts.

BUT.....I absolutely LOVE the Tekin 35 turn motor that came with it.

Ok, I'll look into the AE-2 now, Castle makes some very good products, haven't had problems with past Castle ESC's and motors.

[PSYCHO-JLO]

I love having extra AE2's in the parts box, they have all the basic essentials necessary for a crawler..

[89lxmorepower]

I got an ae2 esc its great i love the adjustability of things lipo cut off drag brake percent instant forward to reverse or a delay between and few other things

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by monkeymagic9

I agree with truble.

Best bet is to pick one up used.. shouldn't have to pay more than $40.

X2. If you're patient, you can usally find new ones on eBay for about the same price. I picked one up last week for $36.00 plus a couple of dollars for shipping.

[ik632]

The Castle Sidewinder V1 is also a good option. I think there are still some left in the Castle garage sale (click the link on their front page). It's essentially the same as the AE-2. One of those or a used AE-2 will do what you need and you'll be quite happy. I have 2 SV1's and an AE-2 sitting on my bench as backups right now.

[RootBreaker]

took ae1 out and put an ae2 in... love it....

[Erbing]

AE-2 with a bec and no problems on 3s. best bang for the buck imo!

[C*H*U*D]

The only thing I didn't like about the AE-2 was the lack of adjustment to the throttle curve, and a weaker drag brake compared to a BR-XL. Other than that I had no complaints.