[GSMnow]

chewie...
Are you using any punch control? I had it totally smooth with great acceleration by using 30% punch control, until we added bigger jumps that is. I found I was not able to control the attitude in the air with the punch control set. I had to resort back to zero punch control, and deal with the trigger being "sensitive". I have start power on low but timing on medium. The one very odd thing I did, that helped me in the 4WD, (didn't try it in the 2WD) is a reverse curve in the throttle. I found that from 0 to 20% trigger it was not too bad to control, and it pretty much stayed over that speed at all times, so the first little bit of trigger was never used. So I have the curve go up very steep so 0 to 10% trigger is going from 0 to 25% power. This makes the remaining 90% of trigger travel only change the output 75% making it a little less touchy in that range. That also helped with the nose lift on the jumps. Punch control does not slow the brakng effect, so I can always slam the nose down with a brake flick. My braking is currently at just 50% and drag brake is very low, probablky 5 or 10% now, I would have to connect to check it. I found too much drag brake would also dip the nose a lot off of jumps. I like some in the 2WD truck, it helps turn in without looping it like when trying to tap a little brake. In the 4WD though, I found drag brake to make it push more than a coast into the turn. On a very fast corner entry, I can hit brakes in the 4WD, and then get off to let the car roll in the curve.

I will certainly try lowering the timing, I don't need any top end power increase.

[chewie]

the 25 percent drag brake is perfect in all aplications cause its barely there. i use no punch control only a slight curve. from zero to 50 percent throttle. to help with low speed corners. ive had guys drive my setup and not even know it was sensorless.

[party_wagon]

What settings should I be using w/ a 2s 8kmah lipo & a novak velo 6.5r? I am having trouble w/ the motor cogging. From what I had heard I thought the motor would run fine, is this not the case?

[chewie]

Try timing low and start power high also try a little positive curve at the start 0-10 percent throttle

[party_wagon]

I'll give that a try. I normally have problems when I give it a big wad of throtle & yet my battery is rated to dish out 240 amp bursts so there shouldn't be any issues.

[sixshootertexan]

Originally Posted by GSMnow

I will agree with the last few replies. A Mamba Max will certainly run a smaller motor without a problem. Thought why would you want to lug around the extra weight? Not sure if the super high KV's on 3S that some 1/18 guys run may be an issue with startup and such, but current and temp should never be an issue. The original Mamba system was only rated for 25 amps, the Mamba Max is rated for over 100 amps.

I have a project I'm working on that will only allow a 1/18 scale size motor. I have the MM from my drag cars and a friend is going to loan me a motor. I just want to test the car before I purchase a system to better evaluate which setup I want to run.

[porra]

GSMnow,

If you really want something that controls the throttle limit amount, please look here:

http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/show...=1#post2374567

You can fine tune the percent of throttle you need in the ESC via the program box option 6.

[chewie]

Cmon dude. I have nothing against your escs but that is just blatent spamming this is a cc mamba max thread not porras esc thread

[porra]

Originally Posted by chewie

Cmon dude. I have nothing against your escs but that is just blatent spamming this is a cc mamba max thread not porras esc thread

Just pointing out what GSMnow is asking for because he's not getting it from his Mamba.

Edit: I would also like to point out that the man who started this thread (Which FIY, no longer works for Castle), I no longer respect. He left Castle and made a fool of himself at his current company. He has made false specs of a particular product and some bad decisions that could've hurt a good company.

[GSMnow]

Originally Posted by porra

GSMnow,

If you really want something that controls the throttle limit amount, please look here:

http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/show...=1#post2374567

You can fine tune the percent of throttle you need in the ESC via the program box option 6.

From how it is labled, it just limits the max throttle setting, that is not the same thing. In my case, any time the car is going more than 10% slower than the new commanded speed, I am almost assured wheel spin. So even if I set a throttle limit of 60%, and I pulle the trigger too fast from 10 mph the tires would spool up to 24 mph instead of the 40 mph that I am geared for. This might make it a little easier, but the loss of top speed is way too much as I am hitting 35 to 40 depending on track layout. I am topping out with the current dropping below 10 amps at full throttle before I get to the sweeper.

I think it was Chewie that made the point about the motor being heated longer when you have less torque, and that is a very good point to keep in mind. On Castles web page about the Mamba Monster, they talk about seeing 5000 watts during acceleration. That must be a very heavy truck with great traction. I am only seeing 400 to 500 watts in the 1/10 buggy, and expect to see 700 to 1200 watts in the 1/8. Even at 1200 watts, I am only going to see 85 amps on 4S, and the 3300 Medusa is rated at 75 amps constant and 90 amps for 30 seconds. I expect to see this for about 10 seconds per 25 second lap. On my buggy, My peak power was 60 amps, 40 with wheels spinning, and long term average only 18 amps. With double the voltage and double the weight, I expect only a small increase in the actual currents. On the 8S setup, I would expect even lower currents.

I am still holding off a little as I have not heard back from Medusa on the e-mail I sent them. If they totally shoot down my currents and torque numbers for the 50mm motor, I will re-think it a bit.

[porra]

Finger control will be your best bet then.

[chewie]

x2 i use just a very slight startup curve and the rest is linear there is no fix for having a lead finger

[miata_speed85]

So here's a fun one. Has anyone had this happen to them? All I was doing was driving around in the dirt, not really gettin on it to hard. Gearing was 19/90 on a 7700 motor with a 2s 4000 mAh MaxAmps Pack. It wasn't even my bigboy 5000 TP pack.

I'm debating if i want to take it apart as Castle turn around takes a bit and I'm deployed. I have a 5700 C4 Big Stick motor that has a bad solder connection and I might just cannibalized that to keep running my 7700. Otherwise I have 2 new brushless motors in the mail. An Orion and some other off-brand 6800 motor. If i send it to Castle for repairs, that means a week shipped to them, and a week back to me. If the turn around at CC is over 6 weeks I'll be on my way home before it gets here and I'll still be out a motor. If anyone from Castle reads this, can I specify a separate shipping address so it can be returned to my home and be waiting for me?

[GSMnow]

Sorry about your motor shaft, but looking at that pic, it looks like your set screw may have come loose and the shaft was spinning inside the gear. See the fine metalic dust and the bluish tinge on the shaft surface? Maybe if you call Castle, you can get them to just send you a rotor, not sure how they will handle that if it is in or out of warranty.

[GSMnow]

Now I have a question for anyone pushing a Mamba Max hard...
In my 1/8 conversion with a Medusa 36x50 3300 motor on 4S, I have now had it happen twice. The motor fails to start turning from a dead stop when I pull the trigger, and itmakes a lower note hum. As soon as I let off the trigger and pull again it seems to go fine again, but it did pul a very high current and the ESC warmed up from it. I started with low start power and it would buck a little if I tried a very slow start, so I went to medium start power and now it has done this false start twice. Should I go back to low start power? Up to high? any other suggestions? I certainly don't want to fry an ESC from this issue.

[miata_speed85]

My motor system is only a few months old so warranty shouldn't be an issue.

If you're worried about pushing your max to hard maybe you should ok into the monster. RCPlanet.com has them at $169 for the ESC alone, and they have the combo listed for 225 i believe. Also that it is now the holidays they offer free shipping.

[tireshredder]

Yes,
Loose pinion gear.
That does suck! Even looks like the gear scraped the endbell.
With great power comes great responsibility, maybe a touch of blue Loctite on the setscrew next time.
Later,

Originally Posted by miata_speed85

So here's a fun one. Has anyone had this happen to them? All I was doing was driving around in the dirt, not really gettin on it to hard. Gearing was 19/90 on a 7700 motor with a 2s 4000 mAh MaxAmps Pack. It wasn't even my bigboy 5000 TP pack.

I'm debating if i want to take it apart as Castle turn around takes a bit and I'm deployed. I have a 5700 C4 Big Stick motor that has a bad solder connection and I might just cannibalized that to keep running my 7700. Otherwise I have 2 new brushless motors in the mail. An Orion and some other off-brand 6800 motor. If i send it to Castle for repairs, that means a week shipped to them, and a week back to me. If the turn around at CC is over 6 weeks I'll be on my way home before it gets here and I'll still be out a motor. If anyone from Castle reads this, can I specify a separate shipping address so it can be returned to my home and be waiting for me?

[GSMnow]

I did think about a Monster Mamba. I sorta ended up with an extra Mamba Max when I hurt mine and sent it for repair and had to buy another to get back on track in my 1/10. So when the "fixed" one came back (it is a new one) I ran the numbers and power wise it is fine on 4S to push the power I need. I am having no issues at all except for the "false start" thing. Like I said, it has only done it twice in about 30 minutes of driving time. It only happens from a dead stop, so it should not happen in a race unless I mess up bad. The thing that worries me the most is that I will be racing with nitros and I will not hear the low hum if this happens, so I will really have to watch the car on the starts. If it does not roll, I need to get off the trigger fast to not create a ton of ESC heat. I wil probably send off a latter to Castle about this. It is odd that some of the early failures on the Monster Max were due to poor starting on some motors causing excessive curent through the FET's. Hmmm?? Is this a slotted stator issue, or a 4S issue??

[chewie]

Welcome to the wonderful world of cogging all I can say is go down a tooth on the pinion and put start power on high.

[chewie]

Oh btw is your mamba updated it should energize the windings and make a beep noise every 10 seconds or so it also is a lot smoother and less cogging

[GSMnow]

chewie...
I have the 1.17 firmware in both of my Mamba Max ESC's. The beep on my old one at 2S is every 20 seconds, it does seem faster than that on the one running 4S, don't know if that means anything, but I will actually time them to see if there is a difference.

The new Medusa setup running 4S is flat out UNDER geared right now as it is pulling only 40 amps and runs cold except when it did the false start. I have had "cogging" before, and this is different. On the Mamba Max motor, if I hold it back so it can't go, it will jerk and shake, but it never does this low frequency hum without turning the shaft. And I never had it heat up the ESC like this. If it was a mechanically stalled motor, it should be about the same as they have the same DC resistance and the Medusa has more inductance due to the stator stack, but I am running a higher voltage so that could offsett it. I will try to write something to Castle tomorrow, maybe the firmware change they made for the monster could be adapted to help.

[chewie]

Also shoot medusa. But the whole system will be more efficient on 4s than 2 s. So if your seeing 40 amps cont on 4s that's preety impressive and something may be wrong cause I think my neu 1512 1.5d/f. Doesn't even pull that constant on 4s in my rc8

[GSMnow]

40 amps is not constant, that is close to the max current right now. Below about 15 mph with good traction and full trigger. As the speed climbs the current falls down into the mid 20 amp range fairly quickly. After a 3 second full throttle pass, the current has fallen to just 12 amps. Just a hair more than my 2S 1/10 4WD. The average current from the datalogger, grabbing a fairly constant area of acceleration, sustained speed and some slowing into corners, is just 10.8 amps. I grabbed an area that looked like a fair chunk of hard driving. This would work out to a run time of 18 minutes on the little 3000 packs. So I think my gearing is light and my goal of 15 minutes on the 5000's should be no problem. Yes, 4S is much more efficient than 2S, especially when pushing 8 pound around.

I grabbed a 70 second chunk of the run, that even included the cogging problem. That gave a peak current of 81 amps, but the average was still just 10.15 amps. Average volts held 14.14, but the minimum during the cogging lockup was yanked down to 6.91 volts!!! And this is a big concern as the LVC is set at 12. This has to be an error in the Mamba Max code.

I was also thinking, could the extreme voltage drop rate have caused a glitch in the mamba max's mcu?? The voltage did drop from 13.78 to 6.91 in 0.2 seconds, the sample between them was 9.37 volts. 6.9 volts is still high enough for the linear regulator in the MM to keep powering the internal electronics at 5.0 volts, and the RX didn't seem to have an issues as the Spektrum one takes a while to re-link and I never noticed any loss of control. The 81 amp peak showed for just a single sample, dropping to 21 amps in 0.4 seconds, and all the way to zero as I got off the trigger in just 0.2 more seconds. The total event from pulling the trigger until I was totally off of it was only one second. That is what makes the 40 degree rise in temp so scary.

Grabbing another section of 21 seconds where I was practically on power the whole time as well as braking it into tight turns etc., it shows a max current of 50.5 amps in a peak right at a start from dead stopped, and then rolling down to 34 amps where the batteries are still dragged to 12 volts and the LVC does seem to be limiting current. Than as speed climbs the current rolls down further to below 30 amps as the voltage starts to rise back above the 12 volt LVC (wow, these packs are beat). This section shows about the highest average current for real driving at 11.3 amps with the battery holding 14.3 volts average. This section also shows several hard braking spots. The voltage spikes up with a current spike. It is interesting that it shows this as a positive current, the same as driving, but if it was drive current the voltage would fall, not rise. I think this has a little to do with the higher average current, I think it is adding brake current into the loaded current average. From a battery heating point of view, this may be correct.

[chewie]

Sounds to me that your packs are too weak to be running that setup and its cauusong the voltage to drop so low that it can't do anything with itself so its kind of super cogging

[GSMnow]

I still don't have my battery trays finnished yet, but I have the 5000's on charge and will try using servo tape to hold them on the car for a quick test run. I will be very careful not to toss a pack with just straight acceleration runs.

My old Max Amps 2S 3000's were a super bargain at just $55 each. I got MORE than my money's worth out of them. When new they launched my MM5700 powered XXX-t with no problem at all, but as they aged, they did start running hotter and hotter. When they hit 165F a couple times, I knew they were basically done. I paired them into a 2S2P 7.4 6000 and used them a bit more with no serious heating issues as they would not top 140F with the LVC at 6.4 volts. Performance wise that setup matched the new 5000's. I decided to use them for this testing just because they are small and light and easy to stick on with a strip of servo tape. Thanks to the 4S voltage, they do work fairly well, and the performance would be acceptable, but the internal resistance is certainly letting the voltage fall too far to fast under load. As bad as they are now, they still didn't top 110F even when the super COG heated the ESC to 150F. I will try the same ESC seting with the 5000's just for comparison purposes. I will post the result under my budget 1/8 brushless conversion thread.