Hi All, Its been about 7 years since I did any boat stuff at all and I need some more ESCs. So, for brushed, reversible ESCs, which do you recommend, Hobby Wing or Mtroniks? 6V, SLA battery powered, 550 motors with gearbox. Building Mogami next and then either Fuso or Westfalen. Thanks, J
I can’t say I’ve had much experience with Mtroniks but my Invincible operated this past year with the Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 brushed. Over the course of 28 sorties and two sinks I only had one failure and I’m almost positive it was a thermal shutdown protection because once I got home from the lake the ESC worked fine. That ESC is still in my boat and that failure was probably a dozen sorties ago. Also, that particular ESC had a previous life in another boat which sunk in 7 feet of water and It took me about 20 minutes to get it. That was 3 years ago. For reference my Invincible runs 550 brushed motors with the Traxxas Villan gear boxes to 1.5” props on a 6v 12ah SLA. As a side note I swapped out the Molex or whatever plug it came with for an XT-60 and left the bullet connectors for the motor output. Hopefully someone can chime in with some Mtroniks experience.
Hobbywing seems to be most common among active battlers in the IRC. Most common 'issue' is improper setup for selecting the voltage cutoff value (Must select nimh setting) For $23 at BC it is very reasonable compared to historic ESC prices, but like any electronic component it is prudent to keep a spare in the box ready to go http://battlersconnection.com/hobbywing-60-amp-brushed/ I've seen some good mtronics smoke generators in the past few years if 'out of control and on fire' is how you prefer to battle
I have never seen an mtroniks go up in smoke that was runnings motors that pulled less amperage when stalled than the esc was rated for. First one I ever installed is still running ~14yrs later. I sold the boat to a friend and it gets used regularly in a weed infested pond. Using too “small” of an esc is frequent in this hobby. E.g. Multiple times I have heard a 40 amp ESC recommended for a pair of 500 sized motors. However, many of those motors pull over 70A when stalled. Weed up one shaft and pop goes the esc.
After the Mtroniks were redesigned a few years back, they are not the same as they were, Don, Rick and I tried the new ones, and had nothing but failures, put the old one back in Ricks same boat and it's run so far for another 3 tears, on top of the 10 previous.
I have 2 in Scharnhorst, never had a problem with them. I just wondered if the BC ones were ok since they were so inexpensive. J
We just priced them as low as we can, our goal at BC is not to get rich, but to try and make the hobby grow, by making it as affordable as possible. Every penny of profit goes back into new stock, and new parts development. I told Charlie and Rick that I did not want to make a profit, I did not want to have to pay more taxes. We really like sinking you guys, lol.
Vipers SUCK. They changed the programming with the Viper name. I have several to sell (viper) if anyone is interested . No returns.
I gotta say, I am glad I asked. I used Vipers for years and loved them, but that was 7 - 8 years ago. Sounds like the new ones are not the same. J
Plus when at a event good luck with help for a Mtronics ESC. At least with a BC marketed product you would get help from many different battlers that use HobbyWing, Charley will generally bend over backwards to help customers with technical issues.
I got some good help with my mtronics esc the last Nats I come too. Sure it was removing it,throwing it in the garbage and then soldering new connectors on a hobby King esc, but still, I got help with my issue!