Kraton Castle Mamba Monster X/1515-2200Kv motor combo

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bicketybam

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Arrma RC's
  1. BigRock 4x4
  2. Granite
  3. Infraction
  4. Kraton 8S
  5. Kraton 6s
  6. Kraton 4s
  7. Mojave
  8. Notorious
  9. Talion
  10. Typhon 6s
I went and got this combo today from a LHS. They matched the price Castle is selling it for on their website,which I thought was cool. I only had a few issues with installation. First I couldn't get the 14t pinion off the stock BLX motor. I have a pinion puller but I couldn't use it because of my HR channel motor mount. The grub scew stripped and it was just a nightmare. I finally got it off just as I remembered that I have a 14t pinion from my Typhon, lol. So I went and used that. Another issue was the sensor harness. It doesn't come installed on the MMX, which is just freaking stupid. There are no directions and no obvious place to plug the harness in. I finally googled up something to help me out and I got it on there. Once I has everything installed I took it out and forward and reverse were reversed. Since I am using it sensored I couldn't just swap motor wires. I had all the motor wires in the proper places, so I tried reversing the throttle in the transmitter. Bad idea. I went forward at half speed and when I hit the brakes I did front flip, lol. So I knew it had to be something else. Again I went to Google and saw there was a setting in the ESC to reverse the motor direction. I changed that and went back out to test. All was good.

Running the same 14t pinion I had on my stock BLX motor resulted in very difficult to control power. Based on the Bolospeed calculator, I should only be picking up 5 mph by going to a 2200 kv motor, but man it sure seemed like a lot more. Insane torque too. I had set the Castle Punch to 50% which is like a 4 or 5 on the BLX. Definitely not enough. The Proline Trenchers don't help either as they really balloon. I took it back inside and put a 13t pinion on it. Again, according to the Bolospeed calculator 13t and 2200Kv is basically identical to 2050 an 14t. I also set the punch to 60% which is like the BLX 3 or 4. This combo tamed it a bit, but it still it super wheelie happy.I am running 500k in the center diff too. The Castle motor is just super punchy. I am very happy with it so far. I ran a full 6s battery combo through it and the motor temp maxed at 177 according to the log. My handheld could only find a max of 161. The ESC was warm but not hot, yet the log showed a max temp of 228. I find that hard to believe as my handheld was showing 140. Max amp draw was 226.3 but I can't find it on the graph. The highest I can see is 190.4.

Anyway here are a few pictures:

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I have the same thing in my savage flux hp. I have my punch set at 90% limited. Castle does it backwards from everyone else, the higher the percentage, the weaker the punch. Anything less than 90% and I end up on my roof constantly.

I also found out the ABC for the motor wires is super important on a sensored motor. I had mine all installed, I didn't see the letters on the back of the motor, so I just plugged the wires in and figured I could switch 2 if it ran backwards. Plugged packs in, powered it up, applied throttle, and it sounded like a bunch of steroid juiced bees getting ready to attack. Was an awful sound and the wheels wouldn't even rotate. Googled for a while and didn't find anything telling me what was wrong. I looked at the manual again, step by step and noticed ABC was noted very clearly and that it was important. As I was staring at it I shined a light down on the sensor plug to make sure it was like hanging half out (not overly visible in a savage flux tucked down in the tvp's with the butt of the motor up near the rear bulk) and I noticed ABC on the back of the motor and ESC... duh. Plugged the wires in proper and it was working. Was spinning backwards, but I updated that via the field program card on my PC.
 
Some video of my Kraton running the new combo. At the end, after the failed front flip, I lost everything. ESC was beeping "radio glitch." Took it home and it took me a while to find the problem. The wire that runs from the ESC to the receiver pulled out of the ESC.

 
I just ordered a Notorious today, which will be my first Arrma. I currently have a Traxxas Stampede 4x4 and Slash 4x4. The Slash 4x4 has the Castle 1518 (2650 kv) motor and MMX esc combo. I'm kind of fed up with Traxxas which is one of the reasons why I ordered a Notorious instead of a E-revo 2.0. My understanding is that the stock motor and ESC in the Kraton (same as Notorious/Outcast) are very capable of powering the car with stock gearing at 6s (around 50 MPH top speed). Is my understanding wrong, or is there another reason why you decided to get the Castle system over the stock system? I know the castle system is more programmable and sensored but those are not huge advantages for $250. The reason I have the Castle system in my Slash is because the stock VXL system on the 1/10 scale Traxxas vehicles are not capable of powering the cars with stock gearing at 3s without major heat issues (even with added fans and heatsink).
 
I just ordered a Notorious today, which will be my first Arrma. I currently have a Traxxas Stampede 4x4 and Slash 4x4. The Slash 4x4 has the Castle 1518 (2650 kv) motor and MMX esc combo. I'm kind of fed up with Traxxas which is one of the reasons why I ordered a Notorious instead of a E-revo 2.0. My understanding is that the stock motor and ESC in the Kraton (same as Notorious/Outcast) are very capable of powering the car with stock gearing at 6s (around 50 MPH top speed). Is my understanding wrong, or is there another reason why you decided to get the Castle system over the stock system? I know the castle system is more programmable and sensored but those are not huge advantages for $250. The reason I have the Castle system in my Slash is because the stock VXL system on the 1/10 scale Traxxas vehicles are not capable of powering the cars with stock gearing at 3s without major heat issues (even with added fans and heatsink).

I damaged the stock ESC and the BLX 185 costs as much as the MMX. I like all the features of the MMX over the BLX185. I figured since I was getting a sensored ESC then I should go ahead and get a sensored motor. I am moving this set up to my Typhon and putting the BLX system back into the Kraton. I had no issues with the stock system.
 
I went and got this combo today from a LHS. They matched the price Castle is selling it for on their website,which I thought was cool. I only had a few issues with installation. First I couldn't get the 14t pinion off the stock BLX motor. I have a pinion puller but I couldn't use it because of my HR channel motor mount. The grub scew stripped and it was just a nightmare. I finally got it off just as I remembered that I have a 14t pinion from my Typhon, lol. So I went and used that. Another issue was the sensor harness. It doesn't come installed on the MMX, which is just freaking stupid. There are no directions and no obvious place to plug the harness in. I finally googled up something to help me out and I got it on there. Once I has everything installed I took it out and forward and reverse were reversed. Since I am using it sensored I couldn't just swap motor wires. I had all the motor wires in the proper places, so I tried reversing the throttle in the transmitter. Bad idea. I went forward at half speed and when I hit the brakes I did front flip, lol. So I knew it had to be something else. Again I went to Google and saw there was a setting in the ESC to reverse the motor direction. I changed that and went back out to test. All was good.

Running the same 14t pinion I had on my stock BLX motor resulted in very difficult to control power. Based on the Bolospeed calculator, I should only be picking up 5 mph by going to a 2200 kv motor, but man it sure seemed like a lot more. Insane torque too. I had set the Castle Punch to 50% which is like a 4 or 5 on the BLX. Definitely not enough. The Proline Trenchers don't help either as they really balloon. I took it back inside and put a 13t pinion on it. Again, according to the Bolospeed calculator 13t and 2200Kv is basically identical to 2050 an 14t. I also set the punch to 60% which is like the BLX 3 or 4. This combo tamed it a bit, but it still it super wheelie happy.I am running 500k in the center diff too. The Castle motor is just super punchy. I am very happy with it so far. I ran a full 6s battery combo through it and the motor temp maxed at 177 according to the log. My handheld could only find a max of 161. The ESC was warm but not hot, yet the log showed a max temp of 228. I find that hard to believe as my handheld was showing 140. Max amp draw was 226.3 but I can't find it on the graph. The highest I can see is 190.4.

Anyway here are a few pictures:

View attachment 22214View attachment 22213View attachment 22212View attachment 22211
I have the same setup in my MT410 and it runs hot. Average is 150 degrees on 4s with a 17t pinion. I couldn’t imagine if I put it in my Kraton and ran 6s it would probably melt.
I run the Tekno with punch set to zero. Standing backflips are the norm. Double backflips jumps are easy too.
 
I have the same setup in my MT410 and it runs hot. Average is 150 degrees on 4s with a 17t pinion. I couldn’t imagine if I put it in my Kraton and ran 6s it would probably melt.
I run the Tekno with punch set to zero. Standing backflips are the norm. Double backflips jumps are easy too.
I do not envy your diffs. lol!
 
I have the same setup in my MT410 and it runs hot. Average is 150 degrees on 4s with a 17t pinion. I couldn’t imagine if I put it in my Kraton and ran 6s it would probably melt.
I run the Tekno with punch set to zero. Standing backflips are the norm. Double backflips jumps are easy too.

I'm moving it to my Typhon.
 
Why? Didn't work out how you wanted?

No. It was actually running fine. Motor temps were within acceptable range. I just figured that a 2200kv motor would be better suited for the lighter Typhon.
 

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Your really going to like it in your typhon! I put a tekin set up in my typhon and really love the sensored feature. It is super controllable and smooth as silk. My only downfall is that the tekin was not waterproof from the factory... fixed that with some YouTube knowledge. If anybody wonders why people put sensored setups in their vehicles.... it's way better for racing. Not as clunky and noisy as stock.
 
Your really going to like it in your typhon! I put a tekin set up in my typhon and really love the sensored feature. It is super controllable and smooth as silk. My only downfall is that the tekin was not waterproof from the factory... fixed that with some YouTube knowledge. If anybody wonders why people put sensored setups in their vehicles.... it's way better for racing. Not as clunky and noisy as stock.
The castle motor's are pretty smooth even in unsensored form. I noticed the smaller 3800kv in my 1/10 trucks are pretty smooth as well as the 2200kv in my ERBE. The sensored is kind of pointless, but I have it in my fluxHP. I was on the fence between getting the MMv2 or the MMX. Figured I'd try the MMX with the 2200kv sensored. Kind of a waste of a few $ IMHO. At least on an MT.
 
Yeah I wouldn't know on an MT. In the buggy however I like the extra handling capability that it gives me. Especially on the track.
 
I have the MMX and 1512 (2650) in my Slash 4x4. The sensored feature makes a obvious difference when driving very slow (not something I do alot) but for me the biggest benefit of the sensor is I don't have to worry about my motor overheating because the ESC will shut off if the motor gets too hot, and you can configure what too hot is. I set mine to shutoff if the motor reaches 180. Note that the 180F motor reading is from a sensor inside of the motor and its going to read hotter than an external measurement (180F internal is typically less than 170F on the outside of the motor).

@bicketybam you wrote:
ran a full 6s battery combo through it and the motor temp maxed at 177 according to the log. My handheld could only find a max of 161

What motor temp did you get with the BLX 185 system when doing the same kind of run and geared for the same top speed?
 
I have the MMX and 1512 (2650) in my Slash 4x4. The sensored feature makes a obvious difference when driving very slow (not something I do alot) but for me the biggest benefit of the sensor is I don't have to worry about my motor overheating because the ESC will shut off if the motor gets too hot, and you can configure what too hot is. I set mine to shutoff if the motor reaches 180. Note that the 180F motor reading is from a sensor inside of the motor and its going to read hotter than an external measurement (180F internal is typically less than 170F on the outside of the motor).

@bicketybam you wrote:


What motor temp did you get with the BLX 185 system when doing the same kind of run and geared for the same top speed?

I never checked.
 
I’m kind of a noob just got into the hobby. Does the motor fit directly into the 6s Arrma motor mount without fabrication?
 
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