ESC burnt up

[Don Ferrette]

You guys are so PC sometimes. Walt's a smart guy. Just tell him. hahaha

A 1515/1y is way to hot for a 6s boat. Unless you're making SAW passes with a SAW friendly boat. Not many passes in a row either. It's going to heat quickly.

If Andy's speed calculation is close (sounds about right to me) the UL1 will take flight. It's not going to be real happy past 60. At 80+?.................upon re-connection with earths surface it will become 1000 tiny little pieces.

Terry,

I know the 15151y is to much motor for the UL 1 but have used it for the last year with 3Sin parallel and can run about 52 -55 mph was just trying to faster as we race Electric boats in our condo's small pond and so far I have only been beat by a Traxxas v Hull running 3S in series once, and if I can get about 5mph I will win again, O by the way there are no rules, race what you bring, but no nitro or gas because of the noise. It is a drivers race course because the pond is not very big, I can open up the boat on the front and back of the course. We race the last Fri of every month but can practice anytime, the whole park turns out for this party, and betting is allowed, every time I win the guy who has won the money gives me a bottle of GOOD wine.

Walt Barney

P S You are correct about the boat breaking up when it crashes as it now is held togather with epoxy and tape with about 2 oz of lead on the tip of each sponson, I also have a back up U L 1 when this one can no longer stay togather.

Walt I should loan you my 10S rigger. LOL!!

Seriously though ditch the UL-1, you've exceeded it's capabilities. You like to build with wood right? Get one of Mike's (ML Boatworks) sport hydros- http://mlboatworksrc.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_42&products_id=140

I built one for Shelly and it's a little rocket and corners like it's on rails. These kits go together SUPER easy, the hardest part is waiting for the epoxy to cure.

 

[Grimracer]

Chilli.. 100 amps.. for 10 Min.. Temp came into play too..(I cannot remember what that was or all the details).....the deans performed THE SAME as castle 5.5s to a tee... AS long as you did not put shrink wrap over the solder joints.. (TRUE).. the 5.5s would also fail shrink covered.

yes.. the solder joint would fail if shrunk..

Again.... took me awhile to swallow it too.. (I had to have the guys repeat the test a few times.. lol.. I was working on new 6mm cons at the time....

Its true.. I know.. I know.. most Poo Poo it.. and I get that.. but....

Grim

 

[Chilli]

I don't poo poo anyone as long as they've done the testing and I appreciate you taking the time to do that. Doesnt mean I'm gonna change over to Deans though. LOL

 

[T.S.Davis]

Chilli.. 100 amps.. for 10 Min..

Walt's setup is no where near a 100 amps. More like 180 amps. Really need 6mm+.

Having turned more than my fair share of Deans into puddles of goo you'll be hard pressed to convince me they are just as good as 5.5mm. The problem with Deans is that it's difficult to get the perfect solder joint. On small wires it's not so bad but on a higher amp setup with 10 gauge wire it's nearly impossible to do well. Plus the power flows through one side of the wire into the connector whereas bullets are attached to the entire surface of the wire. Smoother flow of power into our fragile ESC's. IDK Maybe I'm overthink'n it.

I never use shrink anymore. I use 500 degree silicone wrap.

 

[John Finch]

What is the issue with shrink wrap on the connectors. Never had that problem.

John

 

[JSCARPINO]

Hello Walt

It is awesome that you have come over to the dark side.

FE is it.

Don't give up on the Castle ESC.

I have been using Phoenix Ice 200 amp controller for a while now and

for the money they are still pretty hard to beat at $127.50

They can handle up to 8s which gives you a little headroom.

They are air controllers so you need to add cooling. (attached photos)

Go to Castle Creations Site and click on the Garage Sale and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

This is at least another option for an ESC......

 

[Don Ferrette]

I will second running the converted Castle ESCs, I've been running then with great success. One thing I will recommend is add extra capacitors!! The Castle ESCs will live much longer with additional caps and in my opinion was why the marine ones would burn up so easy, they only had 2 caps from the factory.

 

[JSCARPINO]

Hey Don you are right....

I added the Castle CAP Pack to the one shown above...

It is a must.

Joe

 

[RaceMechaniX]

All,

The marine were the same as the air versions, just different housings. All came with 4 caps, two on the inside and two near the battery leads. The stock caps are not a quality item. Replacing them with a higher quality Rubycon ZL cap makes them very reliable. It can be a little tricky removing the stock caps as you have to remove the conformal coating on the marine versions and the silicone they use to keep them in place. Hence the reason why a lot of us liked converting the ICE Lite 200 which had no silicone or conformal coating to begin with making the conversion easier.

TG

 

[HTV Boats]

Tyler brings up a good point. Do caps need replacing or will just adding capacity (extra caps) do the same job? Side note been running an XL2 on 6 & 8S -1527 1Y with no water cooling, just the fan in a cat which has plenty of air space and temps rise to 180-190 after 3-4 hard laps.

Mic

 

[Chilli]

The conversions are great but it sucks having to modify a brand new device voiding the warranty. Then again, Castle's liberal warranty policy is probably the reason they don't offer marine esc's any more. Including proper caps would have been nice though. Etti does with their 220 HV. Then again I probably screwed up one of my Etti's modifying the cooling plates because the stock nipples are too close to the board. Pickings are slim for good HV controllers. sigh..........

 

[Don Ferrette]

Tyler brings up a good point. Do caps need replacing or will just adding capacity (extra caps) do the same job? Side note been running an XL2 on 6 & 8S -1527 1Y with no water cooling, just the fan in a cat which has plenty of air space and temps rise to 180-190 after 3-4 hard laps.

Mic

Mic I have added extra caps leaving the OE caps in place with no issues. My 10S rigger and 1/8th scale are both done this way.

 

[JimZaremski]

Chilli.. 100 amps.. for 10 Min..

Walt's setup is no where near a 100 amps. More like 180 amps. Really need 6mm+.

Having turned more than my fair share of Deans into puddles of goo you'll be hard pressed to convince me they are just as good as 5.5mm. The problem with Deans is that it's difficult to get the perfect solder joint. On small wires it's not so bad but on a higher amp setup with 10 gauge wire it's nearly impossible to do well. Plus the power flows through one side of the wire into the connector whereas bullets are attached to the entire surface of the wire. Smoother flow of power into our fragile ESC's. IDK Maybe I'm overthink'n it.

I never use shrink anymore. I use 500 degree silicone wrap.

at those current levels, wouldn't it be better to have a firm, gas-tight crimp instead of soldering?

 

[RaceMechaniX]

Jim,

The answer is yes, crimping would be preferred over solder joints. However I don't think the hobby market is willing to shell out $200+ for a good crimper that would be necessary for terminals.

Mic,

Caps do bad. Sometimes it is visible when the burst panel blows on the end of the caps and other times they simply loose their ability to dampen ripple. Good caps like the Rubycon ZL's will have a service life between 1000-5000 hours depending on the frequency they operate at and other conditions. Cheap caps will last only hours sometimes.

Ideally you want the caps as close to the DC bus as possible and use the shortest legs possible on the caps. So this means replacing the stock caps is the best possible position. The next best position is as close to the board as possible on the battery leads.

TG

 

[T.S.Davis]

Tyler, is there a down side to using a cap with higher of a voltage rating? If you buy a 50v Rubycon and drop it on a say a Seaking that's only good to 6s will it cause a problem?

Please excuse my ignorance in this regard.

 

[JimZaremski]

Tyler, is there a down side to using a cap with higher of a voltage rating? If you buy a 50v Rubycon and drop it on a say a Seaking that's only good to 6s will it cause a problem?

Please excuse my ignorance in this regard.

only that the cap is going to be larger for the same µF rating.

 

[RaceMechaniX]

Terry,

Ideally you would use caps that are maybe 10V above the maximum voltage you will run to get the most efficiency from a cap and to leave headroom for the ripple voltage. So a 6S system as 24V would use 35V caps. Using 50V caps on a T180 is just not as efficient as using 35V caps assuming you use the same size body. If you used 35v 1000uF caps and compared against 50V 1000uF caps there would only be an immeasurable difference. The body size is greater though.

TG

 

[jeff baham]

well guys, can you guys come back to the future with this electric stuff, I too have a ul-1 and would like to know of a good esc-motor-battery set-up,up to the 6s range without getting a second job lol.

 

[T.S.Davis]

Best bang for the buck on a 6s friendly ESC right now are Turnigy 180's. Those and the Seakings are both made by Hobbywing. Opinions vary on this of course. We've run this in Q Sport without issue.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__74074__Turnigy_Marine_180A_BEC_Waterproof_Speed_Controller_with_Water_Cooling.html

Many are converting the Castle ICE. The advantage there is the data logging. So you end up converting an air ESC that's twice the price to get to the data logger.

The UL1 will be okay on 6s but only if your using the additional voltage to run less amps. So same watts to the prop. You can do this with a multitude of motors. Lately I'm having a love affair with the TP motors. Nice dollar to power ratio. For 6s I might try a TP 4060/4y.......ish. There may be a smarter 4050 option. There are still cheaper options out there. The motor mount in the UL likely wouldn't hold that motor up. The TP is a LOT more motor. You would need tail support on the motor.

Passing 50 with a UL1 gets sketchy pretty quick. The tendency of most is to throw 6s in the boat and try to run 65+ mph. The boat will punish for your folly at those speeds.

 

[jeff baham]

ok thanks T.S. maybe I need to re think the 6s on the ul-1 and put it in a rigger