Castle XLX 2 and 1100kv motor issues. Or XLX2 faulty anyone?

[Moirae]

In stock? I just bought 2 of them, plenty around.

He's trying to get warranty replaced by castle, but they claim they have no xlx2 stock when plenty of other shops have it lol.

 

[Armarookie43]

In stock? I just bought 2 of them, plenty around.

From where? Directly from Castle?

 

[jkflow]

Actually Amazon but Castle has stock as well, if you want to spend more money

 

[Armarookie43]

Actually Amazon but Castle has stock as well, if you want to spend more money




View attachment 218473

I'll have to give them a a call then.

 

[Armarookie43]

Actually Amazon but Castle has stock as well, if you want to spend more money




View attachment 218473

Nevermind. Castle just sent me the $172 invoice for the replacement XLX2 and the other one is going to be warranty.

 

[Armarookie43]

OK, so since Castle said that my soldering sucks, I had my friend solder the connections in both my batteries and ESC since he has a solder iron that gets much hotter than mine. It looks good to me. I'll keep the gearing on my Outcast 8s to 35/47 and will be checking for temperature, logs, voltage spikes etc. I'll be using the Duratrax lockups for the pavement and will try the 4.3 Trenchers on grass. I'll be comparing this set up to the K8S running the Max 5 and 1100kv Castle motor. The Max 5 system is running 30/47 gearing, which I think it will work better for bashing due to the giant tires (I'll be using the trenchers for off road on that one too). The Max 5 did come from the seller with the QS8s already soldered. I might swap between the batteries that I soldered the connectors myself to see if there's a difference if any. Stay tuned for speed runs, bashing etc between these two. It should be interesting.

 

[Armarookie43]

On a side note, I've been running my heavy Xmaxx with the Max 5 and 1100kv 5687 with my crappy soldering job for over two years with no issues (just fans breaking and the power switch that fell apart). Huge countless jumps, countless crashes (really bad ones) etc. I truly believe that the HW Max 5 is so much more durable than the XLX2. And nowadays we have the toaster looking Max 4, which should be just as durable for hardcore bashing.

 

[Armarookie43]

OK, I went out today with both rigs. Outcast 8s XLX2, castle 1100kv motor, 35/47 GEARING, 4.3 TRENCHERS. Top speed was 52 MPH on grass. ESC and motor didn't get too hot (motor got up to around 160F). I almost ran it non stop, but I had to pause because it was 90F ambient temp and very humid. That, combined with the gearing and huge tires, made my batteries reach around 144F. I felt that was way too hot and would probably damage my batteries if I kept going (PowerHobby 4s graphene 8000mah 120C HV). So I think that 35/47 gearing with my favorite tires for bashing (proline trenchers 4.3) is putting a strain on the batteries when it's hot outside.

Next : K8S EXB, Max 5, Castle 1100kv motor, same tires, 30/47 gearing, Same batteries. Top speed was 50 MPH on grass. This time the batteries didn't feel as hot (I think they were around 130F),but that is still a bit too hot. I tried not to push it too hard because of the extreme weather (heat at 90F). I did have to stop due to a broken ESC fan (even though somehow the Max 5 didn't thermal, but it started to get very hot), and a loose diff ring gear in the rear diff (common problem). I did replace the ESC fan with the powerhobby fan meant for the XLX2, but the diff got too noisy.

Conclusion : after one run (HW vs Castle): 30/47 gearing is pushing it as a far as my batteries go, so 35/47 for me is out of the question. For what? 2 more MPH? So I already went to 30/47 on the Outcast 8s too. I did some screen shots of the logs (at leat the first part) on the XLX2. 700W maximum power? That sounds crazy to me. Now, for bashing with smaller gearing, I would take the Max 5 over the XLX2. But the XLX2 would run even 30/39 gearing with no thermally shut down. The Max 5 couldn't do that. And the BEC voltage on the XLX2 goes higher than the Max 5. Hard decision right there.

 

[jkflow]

Controller temp 80F?? Seems a bit odd at 90F ambient.
Is your 2nd set batteries non-graphene? Heard that graphene does not dissipate the heat very well and stays hot longer.
144F is hot but done that to mine during the hot days. Just be warned, that above 150F you are getting into the gray zone of potential thermal runaway and a fiery death. Typically above 160F its almost a guarantee. Good call on stopping ahead of time.

 

[Armarookie43]

Controller temp 80F?? Seems a bit odd at 90F ambient.
Is your 2nd set batteries non-graphene? Heard that graphene does not dissipate the heat very well and stays hot longer.
144F is hot but done that to mine during the hot days. Just be warned, that above 150F you are getting into the gray zone of potential thermal runaway and a fiery death. Typically above 160F its almost a guarantee. Good call on stopping ahead of time.

I ran the same batteries throughout the run. All Graphene. What do you think about the battery ripple? I believe that the tech told me that my numbers were off the chart pertaining to battery ripple and amp draws.

 

[jkflow]

Ripple at 0.2V is stellar. Can't be improved. I bet he got fooled by the scale and read 15V, which would be crazy high.
Honestly I don't quite understand how your voltage is lower at startup and goes up during the run 12V vs 15V. One is 3S and the other is 4S?

 

[Armarookie43]

Ripple at 0.2V is stellar. Can't be improved. I bet he got fooled by the scale and read 15V, which would be crazy high.
Honestly I don't quite understand how your voltage is lower at startup and goes up during the run 12V vs 15V. One is 3S and the other is 4S?

I probably screwed up what I took a screen shot of or something. I'm new to this log thing. I only took a screenshot of the first 9 minutes I believe. There were like 9 more slots after the one I took screen shot of. I'll try to do a better job at it next time. It was all 4s (8s total) power.
OK, so after one run comparison between the O8S with the XLX2 and 1100kv 35/47 gearing and the EXB K8S with the Max 5 30/47 gearing, I'm beginning to think that 30/47 gearing is more acceptable when it's like 92F outside. Check it out :

 

[jkflow]

None of your screen shots are from an 8S run.

 

[Armarookie43]

None of your screen shots are from an 8S run.

I don't know what to tell you then. Those screen shots came from the brand new XLX2 that was running in my video on 8s
On a side note, someone mentioned that they have the 9000MAH 120C powerhobby batteries and that they hit 140F within 5 minutes on their regular geared DBXLE? They think that my gearing is not a problem, but the batteries themselves are not that good . It was very hot and that day though

 

[jkflow]

Just with the respect to the data you are showing above, I bet this is one of your indoor trials or the factory test.
It shows a 3S and then a 4S lipo connected, and the entire run was 9 seconds.

You should be in the 200A range which would explain the lipos warming up.
Select a different 'session', maybe that is what the issue is. Not familiar with that interface just yet.

The Lipo temps are about the max I would like them to be at the end of my runs. Have similar weather.
Purist will tell you to stay below 110F or thereabouts, impossible in my neighborhood. Instead of Lipos lasting 7 years they will only last 2 years, big deal.

 

[Armarookie43]

Just with the respect to the data you are showing above, I bet this is one of your indoor trials or the factory test.
It shows a 3S and then a 4S lipo connected, and the entire run was 9 seconds.

You should be in the 200A range which would explain the lipos warming up.
Select a different 'session', maybe that is what the issue is. Not familiar with that interface just yet.

Yeah I think I messed up. I have to learn how to use the data

 

[Armarookie43]

I went out today and decided to do a test run with the Outcast 8s XLX2 and 30/47 gearing. Just as before, after a few minutes (maybe 10) of running, my powerhobby 8000mah 120C HV graphene batteries hit over 140F. ESC and motor were not an issue (160F for the motor with fans). So that's that. It was 96F ambient temp with high humidity. I took my X-Maxx with the Max 5 and 1100kv 5687 motor with 25/35 gearing for comparison. The O8S 30/47 gearing got 54 MPH and the Xmaxx with 25/35 gearing got 55 MPH (both on dirt/grass) I think that those same batteries didn't get too hot on the Xmaxx (not sure), but I didn't run it for too long because a lost a hinge pin, fixed that, then my spur gear came loose from the shaft (so a short run in other words). The O8S run got cut short too because there's a radio glitch (I'm changing out that junk SLT3 radio anyways since the range SUCKS). So for now, my biggest problem is my batteries getting too hot. Is it the weather or the batteries themselves? I've ran this set up when it's not that hot outside and I don't remember these batteries getting so hot. I'll say this : even on my smaller rigs and very hot weather, my batteries are getting pretty hot too. So I believe it's got a to do more with the extreme heat than the batteries themselves. I just have to run two rigs at the same time and take pauses, so I can give my poor batteries a rest. I'll try and see what I can do with the data this time, since I took the wrong screenshots . Video coming.

XMAXX speed :

O8S speed :

 

[Armarookie43]

Video comparison of O8S with XLX2 vs Xmaxx with Max 5 :

 

[Armarookie43]

This time I took screeshots of the correct data. I decided to show the longest one in terms of time. Everything looks OK to me. Not sure about battery ripple. Maybe someone can enlighten me on that one. Motor and ESC didn't get too hot. Just the batteries. I think I saw 300+ amps of draw, which doesn't look bad to me, or is that too much?
Check it out :

 

[jkflow]

Ripple looks very good, anything below 10% of applied voltage is ok, below 5% is good. Lower than that makes little difference, but people feel better about it.
Just a reality check, at 8000W you are in the 10HP range. In case you ever wonder why poop breaks, 10 horses will do it.

The last picture shows that you are under the cut-off voltage, you should lower that value.

I'd dial power back to 90%, those amp spikes will kill your lipos rather quickly. Motor temp is too high as well, you should stay below 160F.
Will probably lower top speed by a little, but still a bullet on wheels.

What were your Lipo temps and which ones are you using?