XLX2 sucks -_-

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I've had 3 esc warrantied. 2 xlx2 including the one this thread is about and 1 mmx8s that I paid to have upgraded so they didn't cover it for free, I never even asked them to cover it as I sent it in under the 2nd tier warranty or whatever it's called.

This 2nd XLX2 was a replacement for the one that caught on fire, and it died on the very first pack within the very first 10 minutes of me running the rig moderately light.

Funny enough I just saw a video on youtube of a guy having the same exact problem with the same exact rig. XLX2 just died mid run same as mine but the video is from a couple months ago :ROFLMAO:

It actually makes all of this even worse tbh. Castle has to know the XLX2 has a problem with randomly just blowing up or dying. I don't even know how you can ignore the problem and just act like it's the customer every time they send in a replacement. I'm definitely not buying another XLX2 for a 1/5th scale rig again and I'd be selling the replacement if it wasn't for my limitless v1 since I took the esc from that to put in the dbxl.
I read this time and time again about these. Does Castle give you a hard time about warrantying them?
 
Oh no! Sorry to hear this.. :oops:
 
I read this time and time again about these. Does Castle give you a hard time about warrantying them?
They didn't for the first XLX2 but this second one dude was basically like "I'll send you a replacement for this one, but I can't keep sending out xlx2's"

When he told me I should gear down FROM STOCK GEARING I had to use all my will power to just keep my cool and not say anything lol. Who the **** buys an xlx2 to run stock gearing on anything? let alone lower than stock gearing. I don't even know how he could tell me that with a straight face.

Yea let me just spend 260$ on your premium ESC so i can gear my rc lower than what the stock esc can handle! lol literally that is their response if you have any problems with the XLX2

Gear down.

Beyond insulting when we're spending all this money.
 
They didn't for the first XLX2 but this second one dude was basically like "I'll send you a replacement for this one, but I can't keep sending out xlx2's"

When he told me I should gear down FROM STOCK GEARING I had to use all my will power to just keep my cool and not say anything lol. Who the **** buys an xlx2 to run stock gearing on anything? let alone lower than stock gearing. I don't even know how he could tell me that with a straight face.

Yea let me just spend 260$ on your premium ESC so i can gear my rc lower than what the stock esc can handle! lol literally that is their response if you have any problems with the XLX2

Gear down.

Beyond insulting when we're spending all this money.
That's not right. They should stand by their product. It's a premium esc.

Clearly there is something wrong with them. I see similar posts on Facebook all the time. Do any castle representatives visit the forums?

I really wanted one for a limitless build, I haven't pulled the trigger after seeing these types of posts.

Keeping the max5 for now.
 
That's not right. They should stand by their product. It's a premium esc.

Clearly there is something wrong with them. I see similar posts on Facebook all the time. Do any castle representatives visit the forums?

I really wanted one for a limitless build, I haven't pulled the trigger after seeing these types of posts.

Keeping the max5 for now.
It really depends on how fast you intend to go. The Max6 and Max5 are probably good for around 120mph tops. If your intent is speed running in earnest...there's really only one ESC (that's affordable) that's up to the task. MGM is probably the only other ESC for serious endeavors, but those will run you around $700 and that's just a non-starter for me.

Most of the problems people have with XLX2s seem to be concentrated on the off-road bashing side of the hobby. That's not to say that it can't or won't happen speed running, but the cases are much fewer and further between. I have three XLX2s. I had an issue with one of them that just kind of stopped working for no apparent reason on the second or third outing. It still turned on and lit up, but it wouldn't complete the startup sequence and wouldn't get up and go. I RMA'd it through the hobby shop I bought it from and Castle replaced it without issue. Aside from that, the ESC has been nothing but a stellar performer. I've pushed it to 630A so far and I know there's still another 20-80A of headroom...possibly a little more.

Just ensure that all of your solder joints are perfect and abide by the speed runner's codex: One pass, bring it home at 50% and let everything cool off before your next pass and you're golden in 99% of cases.
 
I'm really starting to think 2028 1100kv + xlx2 = ticking time bomb. My first xlx2 worked perfectly for 8 months on a tp motor and the second time I take it out with the 2028 it blows up. 2nd xlx2 dies after 5-10 mins of light usage, also on a castle 2028 but a totally different one!

All my other xlx2 have been perfectly fine and they're all paired with tp motors. All my RC problems started when I bought those castle 2028 motors. :eek::mad::ROFLMAO:
 
Just ensure that all of your solder joints are perfect and abide by the speed runner's codex: One pass, bring it home at 50% and let everything cool off before your next pass and you're golden in 99% of cases.
What do you mean by 50%?
 
What do you mean by 50%?
Sorry...I meant at 50% power, max. Full power is for the pass only. I have my 7PXR set up so I can switch between two configs at the touch of a button. One I call "taxi mode" where D/R is at 100% and max throttle around 40% for driving to the starting point, a turning radius tight enough to pull U-ie inside 1-1.5 lanes and driving back to home base while minimizing (or eliminating) the possibility of accidentally giving it a 100% throttle bump...just generally minimizing the possibility of putting it off the road and in a ditch. And then, when I'm staged, hit the button and switch over to "VM mode" (VM is is an abbreviation for....lol..."full carrot" (Volle Möhre) in German) with D/R around 26-32%, max throttle at "full carrot" and the brake rate set so they don't lock up under full braking. Once I've slowed down, back to taxi mode.
 
Sorry...I meant at 50% power, max. Full power is for the pass only. I have my 7PXR set up so I can switch between two configs at the touch of a button. One I call "taxi mode" where D/R is at 100% and max throttle around 40% for driving to the starting point, a turning radius tight enough to pull U-ie inside 1-1.5 lanes and driving back to home base while minimizing (or eliminating) the possibility of accidentally giving it a 100% throttle bump...just generally minimizing the possibility of putting it off the road and in a ditch. And then, when I'm staged, hit the button and switch over to "VM mode" (VM is is an abbreviation for....lol..."full carrot" (Volle Möhre) in German) with D/R around 26-32%, max throttle at "full carrot" and the brake rate set so they don't lock up under full braking. Once I've slowed down, back to taxi mode.
Makes sense. Thanks.
 
I'd love to know what the issue is with XLX2s, I've had 3 replacements before I got one that runs properly.
The fortunate side is that as I live in the UK, I can bypass Castle entirely and contact my local supplier who doesn't treat you like mud on their shoes.

I've run the XLX2 in 1/8th and 1/5th cars and I never "bash" them , I've only ever jumped my MGM 1/5th.
Also for what it's worth, I've only ever run 2028 cans on my ESCs (MGM included, 800kv 2028 12s), though I have recently hit a bout of dead sensors on these motors, my luck has ran dry I guess.
 
I'd love to know what the issue is with XLX2s, I've had 3 replacements before I got one that runs properly.
The fortunate side is that as I live in the UK, I can bypass Castle entirely and contact my local supplier who doesn't treat you like mud on their shoes.

I've run the XLX2 in 1/8th and 1/5th cars and I never "bash" them , I've only ever jumped my MGM 1/5th.
Also for what it's worth, I've only ever run 2028 cans on my ESCs (MGM included, 800kv 2028 12s), though I have recently hit a bout of dead sensors on these motors, my luck has ran dry I guess.
Yeah, a bit of consistency wouldn't be a totally terrible thing, would it? Though I can't really complain myself. So far the XLX2 has been good to me. I'm in the same boat as you. If the ESC goes wrong and it's less than two years after purchase, I can return it to where I bought it and they can deal with Castle. German customer protection regulations are pretty solid. Unless it's really obvious that I've beat the snot out of it...getting it exchanged shouldn't be a problem.

You're the first person I've heard that's used MGM ESCs. How are they comparatively? I mean, not just power wise, how are they for day to day use? Are they easy to work with, intuitive? How's programming them? I only have castle as a frame of reference and I've always found MGM a bit alluring, I just can't really see dropping 500-700 quid on an ESC.
 
Yeah, a bit of consistency wouldn't be a totally terrible thing, would it? Though I can't really complain myself. So far the XLX2 has been good to me. I'm in the same boat as you. If the ESC goes wrong and it's less than two years after purchase, I can return it to where I bought it and they can deal with Castle. German customer protection regulations are pretty solid. Unless it's really obvious that I've beat the snot out of it...getting it exchanged shouldn't be a problem.

You're the first person I've heard that's used MGM ESCs. How are they comparatively? I mean, not just power wise, how are they for day to day use? Are they easy to work with, intuitive? How's programming them? I only have castle as a frame of reference and I've always found MGM a bit alluring, I just can't really see dropping 500-700 quid on an ESC.
It has to be said the MGM is a pig to program, the software is not intuitive at all and quite often settings are not what you interpret them to be.
There's also no waterproofing available for the bigger units (400a-800a), they can offer an extra few layers of conformal coating if you want extra protection though (naturally this comes at a cost)
Mounting it is also a pain because of the size as well as the lack of mounting options, I ended up drilling into the heatsink and using a rivet nut to give me some meat to thread into.

No surprises here but the power poses a problem too, my MGM 400A + 2028 800kV setup on 12S was obliterating ball drive cups on my 1/5th Baja, eventually it destroyed the Baja diffs despite being blackbone upgrades. Nothing quite put a smile on my face like the Baja popping wheelies at 70mph though.
In the end I had to put the setup in an MCD XR5 (gorgeous car, I wish I had forked out for one earlier instead of the Baja/DBXL-E)

I'd say the MGM is infinitely more reliable than Castle, but with ease of use there is no comparison, MGM seriously needs to update their software.

-Edit- I should note when purchasing an MGM esc you get sent a ton of documents which contain lots of information pertaining to the setup and description of settings, unfortunately the English is far from fluent but it will get you running.
I will say however that their customer service thus far has been great, I've had no issue with the product itself but I had very lengthy discussions with one of their employees and they were very helpful.
 
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I'd love to know what the issue is with XLX2s, I've had 3 replacements before I got one that runs properly.
The fortunate side is that as I live in the UK, I can bypass Castle entirely and contact my local supplier who doesn't treat you like mud on their shoes.

I've run the XLX2 in 1/8th and 1/5th cars and I never "bash" them , I've only ever jumped my MGM 1/5th.
Also for what it's worth, I've only ever run 2028 cans on my ESCs (MGM included, 800kv 2028 12s), though I have recently hit a bout of dead sensors on these motors, my luck has ran dry I guess.

I didn't even get to bash it before it died. 🤣 Literally 30 mph up the street and it never turned on again.








I also forgot to mention that after I told the tech I replaced the xlx2 with another and it's been fine since. He wanted me to send him the logs from that esc. I check the logs and max amps were like 250A lol. I sent it to him and told him that I was actually geared even higher than stock on this log and driving the rig harder than the day the other xlx2 died on me.

I also told him that I have at least 20+ castle escs and I'm not a novice that just goes around blowing stuff up. I really wish I would have said something about all the other people having these issues as well and it's literally just a google search away.

Waiting on his response.
 
I didn't even get to bash it before it died. 🤣 Literally 30 mph up the street and it never turned on again.



I also forgot to mention that after I told the tech I replaced the xlx2 with another and it's been fine since. He wanted me to send him the logs from that esc. I check the logs and max amps were like 250A lol. I sent it to him and told him that I was actually geared even higher than stock on this log and driving the rig harder than the day the other xlx2 died on me.

I also told him that I have at least 20+ castle escs and I'm not a novice that just goes around blowing stuff up. I really wish I would have said something about all the other people having these issues as well and it's literally just a google search away.

Waiting on his response.
Honestly I wish you the best of luck, anyone based in the US probably doesn't have much of a choice when it comes to returns with Castle.
My brother spoiled me in showing just how much power Castle ESCs provide, so I've only ever bought Castle and prior to the XL X and XLX2, I've had no issues.
I recall Castle asked me for ~£140 to repair the XL X that blew a phase, I could've damn near bought a new one for that... It was well within warranty too. Meticulously packaged it and paid out my ass to send it to the US to be told that, months later they sent me an invoice asking if I want it fixed lol.

It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the potential of Chernobyl v2 occuring in your rig...
 
It has to be said the MGM is a pig to program, the software is not intuitive at all and quite often settings are not what you interpret them to be.
There's also no waterproofing available for the bigger units (400a-800a), they can offer an extra few layers of conformal coating if you want extra protection though (naturally this comes at a cost)
Mounting it is also a pain because of the size as well as the lack of mounting options, I ended up drilling into the heatsink and using a rivet nut to give me some meat to thread into.

No surprises here but the power poses a problem too, my MGM 400A + 2028 800kV setup on 12S was obliterating ball drive cups on my 1/5th Baja, eventually it destroyed the Baja diffs despite being blackbone upgrades. Nothing quite put a smile on my face like the Baja popping wheelies at 70mph though.
In the end I had to put the setup in an MCD XR5 (gorgeous car, I wish I had forked out for one earlier instead of the Baja/DBXL-E)

I'd say the MGM is infinitely more reliable than Castle, but with ease of use there is no comparison, MGM seriously needs to update their software.
Yeah, they kinda come across as the electrical engineer's ESC. By the sound of the mounting options, perhaps it's the mechanical engineer's ESC too? :LOL:

So it's a bit of give and take with MGM. Yeah, makes sense. As for reliability...at those prices, that's the one thing I'd insist on, otherwise...what's the point? Depending on the application, I'm sure you're more than willing to put up with a bit of technical dyslexia and cumbersome handling if you're getting reliability in return.

I've never touched one, but I've always reckoned that 12S systems are mental in terms of power, and you're confirming what I suspected. To my mind 8S is a retarded amount of power. I mean yes, it's all going to depend on what kind of vehicle it's going in. I can imagine that 8S might be a bit asthmatic in a big and heavy 1/5 or 1/4 scale car. But for 1/8 or 1/7 scale vehicles...8S is a stupid amount of power. I've gotten into the mid 120s on 3S and 8S just seems insane to me currently. Perhaps I'll be ready to re-asses that by next summer but for the time being, 4S and 6S seem to have far more than adequate amounts of power.

MCD makes some nice kit. I'm not sure if I'll move to 1/5 scale at any point, but they make some really tidy chassis.

It's good to hear that you're at least buying good technical support for the money. It's nice if a company is willing to spend time n the phone with you, as much as needed until your issue is resolved. I mean, I get why semi mass produced ESCs from a small outfit in suburbia Kansas can't offer the same, but from everything I hear from others, it really sounds like they need to step up their game and break into that next level of manufacturer. No, they don't cost $1000, but for how much they cost and I suspect they sell quite a lot of them, they could stand to imporve their customer service and put in the effort to create better optics facing outwards. But what do I know. I'm just a pleb.
 
Yea you guys are lucky you can deal with the hobby shop. I think if I ever run into warranty problems, I'm just going to have my girl do it or something. Hopefully they don't pay attention to the address.
 
Yeah, they kinda come across as the electrical engineer's ESC. By the sound of the mounting options, perhaps it's the mechanical engineer's ESC too? :LOL:

So it's a bit of give and take with MGM. Yeah, makes sense. As for reliability...at those prices, that's the one thing I'd insist on, otherwise...what's the point? Depending on the application, I'm sure you're more than willing to put up with a bit of technical dyslexia and cumbersome handling if you're getting reliability in return.

I've never touched one, but I've always reckoned that 12S systems are mental in terms of power, and you're confirming what I suspected. To my mind 8S is a retarded amount of power. I mean yes, it's all going to depend on what kind of vehicle it's going in. I can imagine that 8S might be a bit asthmatic in a big and heavy 1/5 or 1/4 scale car. But for 1/8 or 1/7 scale vehicles...8S is a stupid amount of power. I've gotten into the mid 120s on 3S and 8S just seems insane to me currently. Perhaps I'll be ready to re-asses that by next summer but for the time being, 4S and 6S seem to have far more than adequate amounts of power.

MCD makes some nice kit. I'm not sure if I'll move to 1/5 scale at any point, but they make some really tidy chassis.

It's good to hear that you're at least buying good technical support for the money. It's nice if a company is willing to spend time n the phone with you, as much as needed until your issue is resolved. I mean, I get why semi mass produced ESCs from a small outfit in suburbia Kansas can't offer the same, but from everything I hear from others, it really sounds like they need to step up their game and break into that next level of manufacturer. No, they don't cost $1000, but for how much they cost and I suspect they sell quite a lot of them, they could stand to imporve their customer service and put in the effort to create better optics facing outwards. But what do I know. I'm just a pleb.
Truthfully I think a (functioning lol) XLX2 actually runs a 1/5th quite well, my DBXL-E has an XLX2 + 1100kV 2028 on 8S and it ran beautifully (until the sensor died) - You still hit roadblocks on 8S though, I was fighting exploding tyres for a while till I found TaylorRC Genesis super spikes. I did snap a CVD on the DBXL-E but I can't rule out whether the MGM had something to do with that, the MGM was passed from rig to rig until I found one that survived it.

This is why I tend not to bash my cars, I almost always have drivetrain problems :whistle:
 
Truthfully I think a (functioning lol) XLX2 actually runs a 1/5th quite well, my DBXL-E has an XLX2 + 1100kV 2028 on 8S and it ran beautifully (until the sensor died) - You still hit roadblocks on 8S though, I was fighting exploding tyres for a while till I found TaylorRC Genesis super spikes. I did snap a CVD on the DBXL-E but I can't rule out whether the MGM had something to do with that, the MGM was passed from rig to rig until I found one that survived it.

This is why I tend not to bash my cars, I almost always have drivetrain problems :whistle:
Holy balls those TaylorRC wheels/tires are some serious coin. However, if they manage to stay in once piece where others fail...wheels are just really one of those mission critical components without which you're really not doing any business. I mean, the cars they go on aren't cheap altogether so it's important to see the big picture. They look sharp as hell too.
 
Holy balls those TaylorRC wheels/tires are some serious coin. However, if they manage to stay in once piece where others fail...wheels are just really one of those mission critical components without which you're really not doing any business. I mean, the cars they go on aren't cheap altogether so it's important to see the big picture. They look sharp as hell too.
Unfortunately these problems typically result in lots of trial and error, TaylorRC's Genesis series was the solution I eventually found, prior to those I tried UberRC Viper Super Spikes which are completely banded, unfortunately despite their amazing grip the banding split and once again the foams exploded.
Then came the biggest mistake of my life when I bought BRPs, just shy of £400 for a set of 4 and they require adapters, ultimately they didn't explode but had I ran them longer it would've been inevitable (they were really unbalanced too).

If 1/5th scale has a problem, it's wheels and tyres, I must've spent more on them than I have on 1/8th as a whole.
I best stop taking this thread off-topic :censored:
 
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