OK, I hear ya about external BECs...

[Naughty Dawg]

...I'm still a newb, so I gotta ask. I just ordered a bunch of stuff for the build of my second rig. The ESC that I chose is the Holmes Torquemaster BR-XL waterproof. It has an onboard switched 6v 5a BEC. So do I still need an external BEC, or am I good to go? I'll be running a Savox 1210SG waterproof servo.

[Whiplashdjs]

If the servo is over 300 oz it will help, under 300 probably don't need a bec because it won't draw the amps too badly from the esc and rx. If you do have glitches without bec, try a adding a capacitor somewhere, either on the rx or esc

[tgh117]

With running a savox servo you will probably almost definitely need one. From my experience they are thirsty for power, and cause brown outs in more instances then most other similar servos. You could wait and see, or you could just wire it all up at once and be done with it.

I have as much fun tinkering with my stuff on the work bench as I actually do driving it, so I would probably do it the hard way.

[winnerone23]

Yes, you Need a bec. As stated, specially with a savox.
Always a external bec.
John Holmes has a sticky at the top of the page that even says so.
other then that, great choice of ESC!

[Naughty Dawg]

Thanks guys. I did read the sticky, and this was what prompted my question. In the sticky (ca. 2012), John Holmes mainly just linked a ca. 2009 thread by The Violator. And in that thread, the writer references a new Holmes BEC that was coming out that may alleviate the need for an external BEC. Since the ESC I bought has the onboard BEC, I assumed it was the one The Violator mention in the 2009 thread.

Thanks for the input!

[John82601]

With the Savox only being a 277oz/in servo, I'd certainly run the BR-Xl first and see if you have a problem. Savox servos are power hungry but Holmes products tend to over-deliver also. As stated above, if you still get some glitching or brown-outs, try adding a capacitor on your rx.

[redsawacs]

It has been reported through manufacturers that normal servo operations will consume 2-3 amps. With crawlers and trail rigs, that goes up exponentially. when you stall a servo while driving over and on obstacles, you can VERY easily max out an internal BEC with only 5amps of available amperage. It has been reported via hitec, you can see as high as 10 amps or more when you stall a servo.

I dont know why people bother with Internal BECs with "crawler" or "trail" ESCs if they arent going to be up to 10 amps.....except to market their ESC for other uses and other surface RCs.

[Meatwad]

Not to mention steering without the rolling motion of a sticky tire versus steering while moving similar to go fast applications.

[Naughty Dawg]

To close the loop on this, I went ahead and ordered the Castle Link BEC from Holmes, programmed for 6v.

[Master Basher]

Put it higher than 6v and get more torque from ur servo. I have mine set at 7.4v. Many run higher than that.