OK, I have all kinds of problems with speed controls for my warship. I have tried BC speed controls which sometimes go into full reverse and no forward sometime during battle or just quit. Hobby Kings just quit some time during battle. and the old Viper (I burnt up 5 in a row on the bench). What do other people use for Brushed motors up to 30 amps with instant reverse?
Marty, check out the Spark controller. Loic over at Field of Armor Tanks has been shipping these with his 1:6 tank kits for a while now. Their built for robot combat so are more durable than any hobby controller. Rated for 60A (100A burst) and up to 24v. http://www.revrobotics.com/rev-11-1200/
Mtroniks. When in properly rated setup I’ve never seen one fail, including my own. I have a friend who has used the same one for over a decade and dozens of sinks. http://www.mtroniks.net/prod/Boat-Speed-Controls/Viper-Marine-40-pnp.htm
What brushed motors are you using that take up 30 amps? Jeff and I have used Banebots for a long time.. I still have 4 that are at least 6+ years old and still work, but sadly no longer in production. Jeff has been using the wasp for a while now and you just put one on each motor. At least if they blow you still have 1 motor working. A Y connector for power to esc and a Y connector on receiver and you are in business. The wasp does need to be heat-sinked, waterproofed, and placed near the pump or where it will get some water to cool it and it will do more than the rated amps. If you are running standard 6v motors then these will work fine.
Wasp is good. I have one running two 555's in my Atlanta. The Spark has a better price to amp ratio though.
I ordered one Spark to try, it looks sealed, is it waterproof? To Others: I had a wasp once but never used it (looked too dinky). Mtroniks I did blow one with miss wiring, but 4 others blew on their own (properly wired), send back to Strike for postmortem but never got an answer on that. BC ESC - I seem to be the only one have problems with them but they are really weird in my ships. In the middle of battle suddenly going in to full reverse (Full up on the transmitter is neutral and full down is really full reverse). Seems that the ESC has reset itself base upon the stick postion (full forward at the time. Some might have noticed my problems at Nats as I sank myself driving a foot under the water in reverse due to this.
And size to go with it.. Personally I like smaller units.. The spark with plastic cover is almost 3 inches long and 1.5 wide. The wasp will provide higher rated amps when heat-sinked and water cooled. I learned from experimenting with electronics.. and Kessler... a 40amp rated IC will not do 40 amps with no thermal management. It seems thermal management is very key and AS important as the rating on the esc. I am not suggesting that the Wasp will do 60amps.. but according to the designer 30amps continuous is within its limits when utilizing good thermal management (heat sink, size of heat sink, water cooling, etc.) But we all know that right!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
The Spark is not sealed. It's easy to open up and conformal coat with E6000. Here's a vid of the inside.
Give the Wasp or Spark a shot, however it doesn't sound like the root cause is with the ESC. It sounds like something in your boat's electrical system is fugazi. If you think the ESC is resetting mid battle that suggests a power issue of some sort, could be a loose connection, corrosion somewhere, a bad solder joint, batteries dropping voltage under load, etc. Find and fix the root cause and you'll probably have better results from the ESCs. (Probably be a lot cheaper than smoking a bunch of hardware too.)
