Castle Creations marine esc's discontinued....

Looks like Castle is pulling thier marine line of esc's...

---> http://www.castlecreations.com/products/products_boat.html

Crap looks like were sending in too many for warranty. Is this going to be permanent? Or another product line? Tower has some left in inventory.

Mic

Just got of the phone with a lady at Castle.

They dumped the boat line because it is a business decision.

They cannot get parts to make them according to what she told me.

She also told me that if I was to buy a new one they would honor the warranty as long as they have parts to do the repairs.

So, I'm not going to spend 300$ on an esc that I will not be able to get fixed or repaired if breaks or blows up...

Mic, looks like it is permanent with no plan for another marine line...

Looks like when Tower and other shops run out of the marine controllers (which are still in stock at most places) the airplane version Castle 200 and 240 will be the "go to" which some are running right now anyways (with cooling plate/tubes and conformal coating mods....plus some radios will require a "pistix" for the pistol radio to work with the airplane type controller....

sure hope HobbyWing/Turnigy step up there offerings to fill this void...there 180 amp has worked flawlessly for me....if they could put out a 240 amp 6-10S as good, they could be the go too...

Been using Castle Ice, Edge and Talon ESC's with water cooling plates for almost a year. No problems yet.....

This kind of thing sucks. I just bought a 200hv a month ago. I haven't even finished setup and install. Oh well.

I've been running a 200 amp aircraft Castle ESC a long time. Water cooling allows over 250 amps but you may not need it for 100 amp applications like the P limited classes. As mentioned, a Pistix may be needed.

Lohring Miller

someone that knows what they are doing could make up a batch and make a few bucks on these ac to marine esc's

I also posted this on the OSE forum and while this is a PIA it's not the end of the world, we'll just need to convert the air ESCs to water cooling. I understand why Castle did this but the reason they gave is a bunch of hoooey. The parts inside basically aren't any different they just added water cooling on the outside. This is a money move and you really can't blame them as I've heard the return rate on the Castle marine ESCs vs. the air versions was well over 20 to 1. The only thing I will say is Castle should have done what Etti does on their marine ESCs- include the extra cap bank and tell people to use them! Sure there are some who can get it done without the extra caps but to Mike Luszcz's point many of the torched Castle's were guys running them without extra caps and guys using added caps are running mostly trouble free. Word from the grapevine was Castle didn't want to add extra caps on the ESCs themselves because the "look" was unappealing. The boats put a far more unstable and erratic load on the ESCs and we need to take the extra steps to deal with it. I'm going to still run mine with extra caps and see how it goes. Sure doesn't seem all that difficult to water cool a Phoenix down the road if the need arises.

Ok, water cooling not rocket science and can be adapted. What specific "air" esc's would be recommended to equal 200 & 240 amps we now are using.

Mic

Mic, looks like there are two 200A air esc's to use...

---> http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDBBB&P=SM

---> http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDBBH&P=SM

Not sure if there is any way to combine two 120A boards together to make a 240A (like the older Hydra 240's were put together w/two sets of wires)...does anybody know how to do this?

Looks like nothing comparable to the Ice 240.

We'll make due but it's a shame we've lost two of the top ESC manufacturers in a little over two years. Don't expect any warranty service from Castle if you modify or use the air controller for anything other than it's intended use.

Chilli said:

Looks like nothing comparable to the Ice 240.

We'll make due but it's a shame we've lost two of the top ESC manufacturers in a little over two years. Don't expect any warranty service from Castle if you modify or use the air controller for anything other than it's intended use.

Click to expand...

Warranties, well lets see what Tommy Boy says about warranties....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEB7WbTTlu4



Seriously, you guys like Castle esc's not because they were so much better than Chinese esc's but, because of the warranties and when numbers like 20:1 failure rate come up, are they really that more reliable than a Chinese esc with little or no support but, 1/2 to 1/3 the price?

The quoted 20:1 failure rate has been due in a large part, to lack of knowledge and abuse on the part of the users.... granted there have been lack of foresight errors on the part of the CC design team, but then they used that as a learning curve.

Was once told by a CC tech that they used the marine line of products to determine design parameters and would then know what not to do when designing their real money makers. They obviously knew that marine products would be the real proving ground. Of course, this is not an excuse or explanation for the large numbers of "plug in and smoke" failures experienced by boaters... maybe they can be associated with manufacturing or design experiments.....

Had anybody used a Rc car 1/8 scale speed control with cooling plates etc.????

Some have tried the Mamba Monster 2 "waterproof" esc's in boats with the factory cooling fan, though I'm not aware of anyone adding water cooling plates. With the fan, CC rates them to 120 amps continuous..... more than enough for spec racing.

Yes I think a cooling plate on top of heat sinks would be perfect!!!

Chilli said:

Looks like nothing comparable to the Ice 240....

Click to expand...

Actually the ICE 200s are identical to the 240s, just derated due to less efficient cooling. Strapping on a small computer fan does not void the warranty and works well in hulls with enough air volume.

.

This will make 6S and higher cell classes more difficult to grow. Some may not be willing to "modify" an air controller for fear of voiding their warranties when they do.