ESC - can I have it all!

[Crawler Cads]

So, after scanning the interweb for what feels like decades and not coming to a conclusion I'd like to get some opinions,.although I feel like I know what the answers going to be; get a mamba X...

I bought a used Bomber a month or so ago. Few upgrades done already, all good. Slapped on the finishing touches myself and robbed a Castle 1410-3800kv off another rig and paired that with a HW 10bl120 as it was available from my spares drawer.
Had one good blast with the rig and it's an absolute beast as is. Crawls really well and has more than enough wheel speed,.so much so I've moved down to a 10t pinion to keep it in check.
My issue now is the ESC. I really like the hobbywing range, got a few running on different rigs and I'm really happy with them. However, they're on dedicated rigs, either crawler or racer. Now I've got a bomber I want the best of both worlds as this rig,.in my opinion, is good at both, crawling and bashing.
The ESC has been tampered with by me quite a lot to tune it so I get a drag brake, AND usefulness for racing. Unfortunately we don't see eye to eye. If I have a good drag brake I end up end over end if I light it up and then release the throttle to neutral. I appreciate what the drag does but I'm really after something more intuitive. I want the world on a plate, moon on a stick type thing.
So, can I get the best of both worlds, racer and crawler out of one ESC, other than a mamba X!!?
Has anyone managed to tweak a HW to cope in this scenario? Is Mr Holmes going to release a new ESC in the next month which is going to blow me away,.or do I have to suck it up and grab the X!?
I have no issues with castle whatsoever but I'm OCD and really want to make sure I'm not missing anything, at all!
For those on the X already, is it really noisy!? I'm quite concerned about noise hence desperate for jrh to release something, or perhaps the BLE does all this already?
Thanks for reading this far and I really appreciate your feedback [emoji106]


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[Jim85IROC]

uh... get a Mamba X.

I know you don't want to hear that, but it does EXACTLY what you want, and it's the only one that will. Nobody else offers on the fly drag brake adjustment. Your only option with any other ESC is to try and find a drag brake setting somewhere in between that you can live with. I run the Mamba X in my Bomber and I never noticed any more noise than any other ESC. I have a second one for a Yeti but I haven't used it yet.

Another option is to just get used to having a drag brake. A little bit of practice will retrain your brain to ease off on the throttle slowly instead of coming completely off and expecting it to coast.

A lot of the brushed ESCs, especially the Hobbywing ESCs, have a drag brake that's configurable based on external jumpers, and this is a decent solution for something that you want to change occasionally without needing to reprogram the ESC. I'm not aware of any brushless ESCs that do this though.

Unless you want to deal with reprogramming your ESC every time you plan to use the truck differently, I think you're stuck with a Mamba X. Considering how much of a bitch it is to get to the receiver on a Bomber, reprogramming the ESC every time you want to use it differently is never going to happen.

 

[MasteroFlego]

Plus with an X you can use the castle quick connect, so no need to open the rx box.

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[Greatscott]

uh... get a Mamba X. .

Plus with an X you can use the castle quick connect, so no need to open the rx box.

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Yup. That aux wire allows you to change modes on the fly. And, to one-up this, if you throw a B-Link in there as well you literally do not have to touch your truck to make any adjustments the ESC's programming, all can be done from your phone, no computer/Link card needed, no need to open up the receiver.

One thing about the B-Link though, you cannot change setting on the fly. But, otherwise it is very handy!

 

[Crawler Cads]

Would the link remove the aux functionality then?

Yup. That aux wire allows you to change modes on the fly. And, to one-up this, if you throw a B-Link in there as well you literally do not have to touch your truck to make any adjustments the ESC's programming, all can be done from your phone, no computer/Link card needed, no need to open up the receiver.

One thing about the B-Link though, you cannot change setting on the fly. But, otherwise it is very handy!

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[MasteroFlego]

Would the link remove the aux functionality then?




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Aux wire functionality is not affected by any of the other features of the X (provided you don't disable it), the quick connect and b link just let you reprogram the ESC without opening the receiver box.

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[Voodoobrew]

What if you just turned up the throttle trim on your reciever when you go bashing. That will trick the esc into not applying the drag brake when you let off the throttle because your not in neutral.

I don't know if this will cause heat in the motor and/or esc but it Basicaly shuts off that drag brake on most esc's. And it's free. So your car will coast to a stop. Just a little throttle trim not enough to move the car but enough that the esc is out of neutral.

Maybe don't let it set to long like this. Or do it and monitor the temperature for ten minuts.

But it won't matter as long as your actively driving the vehicle.

 

[Crawler Cads]

Good shout voodoo, hadn't considered that trick at all. Will definitely try that before spending!
Many thanks

What if you just turned up the throttle trim on your reciever when you go bashing. That will trick the esc into not applying the drag brake when you let off the throttle because your not in neutral.

I don't know if this will cause heat in the motor and/or esc but it Basicaly shuts off that drag brake on most esc's. And it's free. So your car will coast to a stop. Just a little throttle trim not enough to move the car but enough that the esc is out of neutral.

Maybe don't let it set to long like this. Or do it and monitor the temperature for ten minuts.

But it won't matter as long as your actively driving the vehicle.

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[HumboldtEF]

If you can be patient JRH has mentioned that now that Holmes Hobbies and Castle Creations have a better working relationship that the next revision of HH ESC's will have a Aux function.

I'm pumped to get one of these as I absolutely love the silent mode option, combine that with an Aux wire and its gonna be awesome!


The Mamba X is kind of loud with one of my Brushed setups and even louder on my brushless rig (maybe I'm imagining it though).

 

[Steve g]

What if you just turned up the throttle trim on your reciever when you go bashing. That will trick the esc into not applying the drag brake when you let off the throttle because your not in neutral.

I don't know if this will cause heat in the motor and/or esc but it Basicaly shuts off that drag brake on most esc's. And it's free. So your car will coast to a stop. Just a little throttle trim not enough to move the car but enough that the esc is out of neutral.

Maybe don't let it set to long like this. Or do it and monitor the temperature for ten minuts.

But it won't matter as long as your actively driving the vehicle.

It's what I do with my wraith. It's brushed though. Haven't noticed any extra heat or any issues. And I've left it like that for multiple packs when I go snow bashing

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[Highmark]

An AX2 might be another solution. They have a pretty tall second gear and a short first gear and the result can be a totally different rig depending on what gear you're in. But yeah, I would go Mamba X and never look back.

 

[WHITE-TRASH]

An AX2 might be another solution. They have a pretty tall second gear and a short first gear and the result can be a totally different rig depending on what gear you're in. But yeah, I would go Mamba X and never look back.

My bomber has an ax2 and a mamba x but a 3300 pro 4.

My solution is to leave the drag brake set to kill mode and use finger control to pump the brakes like hillbilly abs.

I rarely use first gear but it is nice to have when I want it.

 

[Crawler Cads]

If you can be patient JRH has mentioned that now that Holmes Hobbies and Castle Creations have a better working relationship that the next revision of HH ESC's will have a Aux function.

I'm pumped to get one of these as I absolutely love the silent mode option, combine that with an Aux wire and its gonna be awesome!


The Mamba X is kind of loud with one of my Brushed setups and even louder on my brushless rig (maybe I'm imagining it though).

If this is what he's got in the pipeline then I'll certainly wait as I'm a big supporter of his work. The promise of near silent crawling with an aux mode is absolutely what I want. I've spent an age getting meshes and trans (almost) perfect that you can just about hear them purr away is a real feel good factor and I don't want to jeapordise that for a whiney ESC! I know it sounds nuts but it's a big factor for me and certainly where I crawl means a lot. I don't comp, cause there isn't any over here with the exception of once a year recon so it's all 'leisure'!
Thanks for all your input, exactly what I was after [emoji106]

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[Crawler Cads]

My bomber has an ax2 and a mamba x but a 3300 pro 4.

My solution is to leave the drag brake set to kill mode and use finger control to pump the brakes like hillbilly abs.

I rarely use first gear but it is nice to have when I want it.

Thought I could cope with this method as well but I just don't have the sensitivity required! Too many years being ham fisted on 1:1 arctics! Worked aok with brushed but a 3800 is just too lively. Unfortunately for me I love the wheel speed too much to drop it down any.
As the title suggests, I want it all!

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[Ditchrat]

Yup. That aux wire allows you to change modes on the fly. !

I read the instructions, but really have no clue how to set my hacked flysky to do this. Any chance you might elaborate?

 

[Teng]

Didn’t the Castle Creations will stop supplying ESC to Holmes Hobbies? Means they ( HH ) won’t be able to get any newesr ESC from CC. As CC wants to retain his own market? If I remember correctly. But I could be wrong here. Anyway good luck for your search. Cheers;-)"thumbsup"

 

[Voodoobrew]

Didn’t the Castle Creations will stop supplying ESC to Holmes Hobbies? Means they ( HH ) won’t be able to get any newesr ESC from CC. As CC wants to retain his own market? If I remember correctly. But I could be wrong here. Anyway good luck for your search. Cheers;-)"thumbsup"

That's what I thought, but I've been searching and can't find the reference.

 

[HumboldtEF]

Ok after much digging I found the post

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/tools-procedures/394447-shop-holmes-23.html#post5851692

There have been some communication issues with Castle that strained our OEM relationship, but we have redefined things and are back to good communication now. Might be getting an Aux wire function on a future ESC, who knows



Just wanted to pop in for a random update though. I have 7 3d printers now, three of them work pretty hard. Need to clean off the mill for some custom motor work in the aerospace community. The motor production equipment has been holding up well the past year, although I did some work to the resistance brazer that made it operate a lot smoother. Have two motor winding stations now too. One for my full time winder and one for me to make Magnums on.



Today is winding magnum armatures, 38 turn three slots. The extra diameter really gives them a lot of punch.



Business has been holding up. This year will be another reduction of sales, but only because the first 4 months of 2017 were balling hard. We have been steady state since I cut down employees.

 

[Voodoobrew]

HumboldtEF; That's what I keep seeing, and I think maybe I misread it when I first saw it. Unless there was something in the hobbywing xerun axe thread

 

[Hal]

So maybe you are going about this in the wrong way. I have a Mamba x in my Bomber and pro 3800. I love it. The way mine is set up I use the throttle trim set up on the lever on my Mt4 pro to dial in the brake. The Mt4 has a lever I use for my MOA to dial in frong to rear bias dig. I have the same lever set as a second throttle trim on my Bomber. I also have the 2 speed and use as needed. This rig is a great all around trail rig. It is very fast and is a very capable crawler. I just use the lever like a switch. I have the end point set to just trim enough to turn off the drag brake. I have never noticed it getting warm at all using it this way and I run 3s all the time. So if you can set up a switch, button or lever on your radio it is a quick flick of a button and the brake is off. The only problem I do have with my bomber is blowing the tires off the beadlocks at high speed. I also have never noticed any noise from it except the fan. My Hitec 7990 servo is a noise maker though. It makes a lot of noise trying to center itself."thumbsup"