New blue castle crawler motors

[mikemcE]

Thanks Jato !


Hang up and Drive

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by calcagno45

He has bragged about the AUX wire and the new rock racer mode...

Yes, I am a big fan of the AUX wire if that's what you mean! It's one of the best ESC innovations to come our way in a long time. I haven't tried the rock racer mode in the new firmware, yet.

Originally Posted by robert@castle

He was the first person to contact me with that idea, but he is also the only person I told on R/C tech that I worked for castle. On my personal account I kept it on the DL, but I contacted him to run some beta software when he was having issues with a firmware version of the Monster X.

So in reality, you could say that it is his fault that I am on here.

As promised, I never shared your RC Tech username.

I didn't know I was the first with the idea even though I took credit for this idea on this forum, tongue in cheek, of course. I'm really glad to see this feature though! I passed along that same idea to the Castle rep I was dealing with before you. He said he'd relay the info to the software guys. Apparently that never happened...

You were a big help to me and the only reason I stuck with the MMX. The road before you was full of dead ends. I appreciate your help in resolving the issue so thanks again!

Originally Posted by mikemcE

Thanks Jato !


Hang up and Drive

See I'm good for something.

[MattySlimz1987]

Waiting for reveiw and/or video from whitrzac..

[robert@castle]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

As promised, I never shared your RC Tech username.

At the time I was worried about being bombarded with tech support questions. Now that I have this account on both sites, I've fully embraced taking tech support questions.

I didn't know I was the first with the idea even though I took credit for this idea on this forum, tongue in cheek, of course. I'm really glad to see this feature though! I passed along that same idea to the Castle rep I was dealing with before you. He said he'd relay the info to the software guys. Apparently that never happened...

I can't say 100% that you were the first one. Someone might have told someone in tech support, but it might not have gotten relayed down here. They try to filter what gets sent to us because if we were told of every feature request, we woulnd't ever get anything done.

You were a big help to me and the only reason I stuck with the MMX. The road before you was full of dead ends. I appreciate your help in resolving the issue so thanks again!

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by MattySlimz1987

Waiting for reveiw and/or video from whitrzac..

Anything specific I should try? Going to a comp tomorrow.

[calcagno45]

Try to break it... 6s would be a start haha!

[MattySlimz1987]

^^ What he said!! Lol
But seriously, and besides the show and tell to the other jealous competition, a reveiw of its normal operation noise level, drag brake, torque etc.

[JohnRobHolmes]

Originally Posted by robert@castle

He was the first person to contact me with that idea, but he is also the only person I told on R/C tech that I worked for castle. On my personal account I kept it on the DL, but I contacted him to run some beta software when he was having issues with a firmware version of the Monster X.

So in reality, you could say that it is his fault that I am on here.

Maybe you weren't at the meeting, but I asked for the AUX channel switch during my first OEM meeting with castle in 2008. The micro that was used in the sidewinder (was in proto) , BRXL (to be developed), and mamba max didn't have enough pins I was told. This was also when I was shown the original Sensored X proto that was 4 boards stacked in a little brick. It has been on all submitted product requests from Holmes Hobbies, and denied every single time. Even denied after the X line was released. Of course y'all just got back to me this month about offering the feature in an OEM product. I forget if you were there for the conference call a few months back. I mostly talked with Linda and Patrick.

Super happy customer here, really fantastic service. Glad to know y'all have been paying attention.

[whitrzac]

First event is done. Motor performed flawlessly. Drag brake is on par with my tekin pro4, it would still creep on steep inclines, a 2pole 17.5 would not. Im not sure if its a function of a 4pole vs 2pole or the difference in kv. Pictures/more info later when I get home.

Took 1st place.

[Hardcoretam]

Congratulations on first place!
Interested to hear the rest of your thoughts on it.

[mikemcE]

What 17.5 ?


Hang up and Drive

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by mikemcE

What 17.5 ?


Hang up and Drive

D3.5 and novak ss17.5. Stock rotors in both.

[mikemcE]

I have a Tekin gen3 17.5
Also a 2 pole

Hang up and Drive

[robert@castle]

Originally Posted by JohnRobHolmes

Maybe you weren't at the meeting, but I asked for the AUX channel switch during my first OEM meeting with castle in 2008. The micro that was used in the sidewinder (was in proto) , BRXL (to be developed), and mamba max didn't have enough pins I was told. This was also when I was shown the original Sensored X proto that was 4 boards stacked in a little brick. It has been on all submitted product requests from Holmes Hobbies, and denied every single time. Even denied after the X line was released. Of course y'all just got back to me this month about offering the feature in an OEM product. I forget if you were there for the conference call a few months back. I mostly talked with Linda and Patrick.

Super happy customer here, really fantastic service. Glad to know y'all have been paying attention.

2008 was about 4 years before I started at Castle.

I'm not involved in the hardware or design of new products. Mainly I write internal software for keeping the business working. Production line, sales, purchasing, and shipping all use my software to improve workflow and reduce paperwork. I do discuss design decisions and make my voice heard on new designs because I have more experience with actually being in the hobby than most of the engineers. I raced offroad for many years, worked at a hobbyshop for a while, and helped out with a local track, so I have more experience knowing our customers.

I have heard from Linda that you came to us with the AUX wire idea many years ago. The actual development of that was kinda interesting because we didn't even realize what we were doing until it was already done. Originally when we started with it, it was only going to be used for RPM out on our air controllers for external governors, and then one of our engineers just kept adding features to it. Then when we looked at it we realized it was pretty much what you had asked for.

Pins on the processor is always a problem. We are about 4 pins short on the processor used in the Mamba X and Monster X so we have to run the LEDs and BEC through a shift register, and the AUX wire and motor temp share a processor pin. The next size up in our current QFN package only gains 8 pins and uses almost twice as much board space(49 vs 25 square mm). We probably are going to have to upgrade to BGA processors for future products to gain enough pins to do what we want to do, but that involves buying an xray inspection machine.

[robert@castle]

Originally Posted by whitrzac

First event is done. Motor performed flawlessly. Drag brake is on par with my tekin pro4, it would still creep on steep inclines, a 2pole 17.5 would not. Im not sure if its a function of a 4pole vs 2pole or the difference in kv. Pictures/more info later when I get home.

Took 1st place.

Congrats. Glad to hear it worked well for you.

Low speed is always going to be better on a 4 pole motor because the rotor has to move half as far to get to the next coil. At minimum throttle, KV has very little to do with the minimum speed that it was spin smoothly.

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by robert@castle

2008 was about 4 years before I started at Castle.

I'm not involved in the hardware or design of new products. Mainly I write internal software for keeping the business working. Production line, sales, purchasing, and shipping all use my software to improve workflow and reduce paperwork. I do discuss design decisions and make my voice heard on new designs because I have more experience with actually being in the hobby than most of the engineers. I raced offroad for many years, worked at a hobbyshop for a while, and helped out with a local track, so I have more experience knowing our customers.

I have heard from Linda that you came to us with the AUX wire idea many years ago. The actual development of that was kinda interesting because we didn't even realize what we were doing until it was already done. Originally when we started with it, it was only going to be used for RPM out on our air controllers for external governors, and then one of our engineers just kept adding features to it. Then when we looked at it we realized it was pretty much what you had asked for.

Pins on the processor is always a problem. We are about 4 pins short on the processor used in the Mamba X and Monster X so we have to run the LEDs and BEC through a shift register, and the AUX wire and motor temp share a processor pin. The next size up in our current QFN package only gains 8 pins and uses almost twice as much board space(49 vs 25 square mm). We probably are going to have to upgrade to BGA processors for future products to gain enough pins to do what we want to do, but that involves buying an xray inspection machine.

In my years repairing pcbs on portable pro audio equipmet, bga failure was the #1 reason why a board was scrapped. It was more of an issue than water damage.

A less feature rich controler that works is more desierable than one thats not working.


To finish first...

[JohnRobHolmes]

Thanks for reading and giving some insight Robert. I've always had a pretty tight relationship with Castle until the past few years. Considering that I know why it's been scant communication, maybe I still have a pretty tight relationship considering how large y'all have grown.

Keep up the hard work, some attention to crawling from the big boys is nice to see even if it puts my small company into peril. Kinda hard to go up against against a company with "departments" , but it's good motivation to continue learning and developing

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by MattySlimz1987

^^ What he said!! Lol
But seriously, and besides the show and tell to the other jealous competition, a review of its normal operation noise level, drag brake, torque etc.

The most important thing. It's a motor, it spins forward, it spins backwards. It works for what it was designed to do. It does it while costing almost 50% less than the competition.

Esc: Micro X v2.02
Batts: 2x 2200mah 3s/ 5200mah 4s
Gearing: 10/56 32p
scx102 axles, old style 3 gear trans.

Motors: 2280kv(ran on 3s) and 1400kv pro4(ran on 4s)


I've never been super picky about motor/power setups so this is a bit general.

Overall power is on par with the pro4, although I haven't found a motor lacking power when run on 3s.

Super low end startup seems to be better than the pro4. It's hard to test without hooking the truck up to a ton of weight. When running with sensors nether motor cogs.

It seems quieter than the pro4.

Drag brake is equal to the pro4.

Sensorless operation is slightly worst than the pro4.
Sensors actually stayed working after running the truck through water. The pro4 motor lost the sensors about 20min after first getting wet.

Ran for ~5hrs on 2x2200mah 3s in parelel. Batteries are at 3.77v/cell. Runtime is a non issue.


Side note: Upgrading to an X series esc would be my priority over a new motor. If you have any BL motor on a different ESC spend the $$$ on an X series before a new motor. I am continually amazed a what the 2.02 software can do, even without running sensors.

[whitrzac]

Solder tabs are spoon shaped and have to be 3+mm thick. They can be a bit of a PIA to solder different wires too.

[MattySlimz1987]

Originally Posted by whitrzac

Solder tabs are spoon shaped and have to be 3+mm thick. They can be a bit of a PIA to solder different wires too.

Thats really awesome news whitrzac! Congratulations on the win. Hopefully you'll put the prize items to good use, the new Boom tires look like they may perform well.
Sounds like I will try one of these new motors out. I'll probably get the same kV as you, 2850.

Yes the Mamba X would definitley be an upgrade, the sensor harness thats external allows me to put di-electric grease around the pins to protect it from water, I've submarined my MX equipped 10.2 a couple times and no issues so far. The 8 amp bec pushs high torque servos with no problems so far either.

(Off topic a bit) but what the hell, Crazy I saw this from a notification on my phone the same time I read this post. Its a Pizza Planet Hilux but in TF2 form...just thought I'd share.