Yeah I had an MMX8S crap out for no reason. No puff of smoke. It still turned on but no longer did the whole start-up beeping thing. I sent it in to Castle and I guess that, for whatever reason, they classified it as a tier II replacement so they charged me $150 for it. In a rotten bit of bad luck they sent me an XLX2 instead.
Hell the way they advertise the data logging you would think they could look back and see if it was run hot. I put a tester on mine every time I ran it and it never ran hot. I hooked the fan lead to a light and ran my fans constant . Heat didn’t have anything to do with it. I will definitely send it back but they won’t get more of my money. I should have went with The Max5 to start with I just don’t like having to cut the truck to cram it in. Castle has always been less reliable.
No one's saying that it was heat and, to be fair, there are more variables than heat when it comes to what might kill an ESC.
Well, to be fair, KTs XLX2 didn't catch fire because he turned it on, the ESC just wasn't happy about something when he tried to run a 3200KV motor on 8S. It couldn't have been current draw as there was no pinion on the motor so he wasn't really experiencing much load so I'm not exactly sure what the actual cause was. The ESC just didn't like that combo for some reason or another.
The XLX2 can be a little fickle. I've read enough guys having problems with them bashing. I suspect that part of the problem is the weight of the the wires yanking on the power connectors as there really isn't much other than the solder and a little epoxy holding them in. Unless you're zip tying the wires to the ESC, even a couple of inches of 8AWG wire will pull with some considerable force during crashes, rolls, full sends, etc. That's my best guess anyways. They seem to fare better on the road.
I know I and a few others have had max 4's go BOOM but I haven't heard anything about max 5 g2's.
Dude - it kinda did. There was nothing stating that motors higher than 2000kv were going to be - shall we say - 'problematic'.
I'm pretty sure that was just their reaction back then when they weren't sure what exactly was going on and also because KT has such a huge sub count. I can state unequivocally that the XLX2 handles Delta wound motors over 2000KV (even over 4000KV) without issues. KT was over volting the motor. Whether or not that played a role I can't say for certain.
Kev was using 8S I believe. XLX2 is supposed to be able handle 8S.
but this was not an isolated incident.
F$&@?Kev was using 8S I believe. XLX2 is supposed to be able handle 8S.
KT is hardly a shining beacon of sensible use
In 2024, still we're hearing similar stories.
So, XLX2'S are definitely still catching fire and from what you're saying, we can take what Castle are saying with a large pinch of salt?
;$ck Castle. I really thought they had worked out some of the issues they were having when it first came out. Judging by what is being said and their responses they haven’t bothered to do anything and don’t plan to.
Yes, the ESC can handle 8S. But that TP 4070-CM 3200KV motor is only rated for up to 23V (i.e. 6S). That's why I said he was over-volting the motor. I don't know how much of a role that might have played in the thing catching fire but I can't rule it out either.Kev was using 8S I believe. XLX2 is supposed to be able handle 8S.
KT is hardly a shining beacon of sensible use
In 2024, still we're hearing similar stories.
So, XLX2'S are definitely still catching fire and from what you're saying, we can take what Castle are saying with a large pinch of salt?
Erm, yeah - over-volting motors may not be a good idea. But I'm trying to wrap my head around how this could have cremated the XLX2, given it was off the ground - just being blipped.
'Footage'.
That's not entirely true. From my understanding there was an issue with early batches of XLX2s catching fire due to insufficient insulation between the PCB and the case which resulted in dead shorts inside the case when something on the PCB made contact with the case which, it is my understanding, they addressed and rectified in subsequent batches. I know that for a while it was said that there was an issue with the firmware and that was somehow causing issues with Delta motors (they even put out a revision that supposedly addressed this "issue") but, I'm unconvinced this was the case since the current WR holder James McCoy runs a much older FW on his XLX2s and I know for certain that he's run plenty of Delta winds through them without any of the aforementioned problems.F$&@?
Priorities son, priorities!!Erm, yeah - over-volting motors may not be a good idea. But I'm trying to wrap my head around how this could have cremated the XLX2, given it was off the ground - just being blipped.
View attachment 352511
Boom!
Flames licking at his hand, buggy was thrown out of the shop.
Obviously, the first thing KT reaches for is the camera.
Followed by the fire extinguisher.
Wa wa wa Wa wa wa wa. Castle stinks I could care less about D winds and their 60-70 employees. If they keep ripping people off they ain’t gonna have a job.That's not entirely true. From my understanding there was an issue with early batches of XLX2s catching fire due to insufficient insulation between the PCB and the case which resulted in dead shorts inside the case when something on the PCB made contact with the case which, it is my understanding, they addressed and rectified in subsequent batches. I know that for a while it was said that there was an issue with the firmware and that was somehow causing issues with Delta motors (they even put out a revision that supposedly addressed this "issue") but, I'm unconvinced this was the case since the current WR holder James McCoy runs a much older FW on his XLX2s and I know for certain that he's run plenty of Delta winds through them without any of the aforementioned problems.
Now, just to be clear, I'm not saying that Castle didn't make any tweaks to their FW or that they, in good faith, believed it to have improved the XLX2s compatibility with D-winds. But the problem with an intermittent problem such as it was, it is entirely conceivable (this is just conjecture on my part) that they wrote the new FW, installed it on 10 or 20 ESCs and tested D-wind motors on them for a week or two. When no ESC blew up, the issue was resolved in their eyes. But what if they just happened to install it on 20 ESCs that were fine, that wouldn't have had any issues even without the FW update? Then the problem would have remained unresolved. The question is, how much testing can we expect them to do before declaring a known issue resolved? If this were a full sized car with people on board, my answer would be, "Until the problem has been identified with 100% certainty and tested for the equivalent of 1,000,000 miles" or something to that effect. But for an RC vehicle ESC...I don't think that Castle is a huge company or has a gigantic budget for testing stuff like this. I think they have like 60 or 70 employees so I try to keep my expectations realistic. Is that ideal? No. Is there an alternative that's as good or better at the same price point? No, not even remotely.
What also isn't known is: how many XLX2s are actually out in the wild and in service and how many functioning ESCs are there per failure? But since they're not a publicly traded company, we probably never will either.
These things aren't quite so black and white. While I have my own gripes with Castle, they currently make the best ESC for speed running and that's kinda end of story (for me...YMMV). There are inherent risks involved. The only thing we can do is our best to ensure that everything is as neat & tidy as possible and then let the chips fall where they may.
Priorities son, priorities!!
That's a good point, well made.Wa wa wa Wa wa wa wa. Castle stinks I could care less about D winds and their 60-70 employees. If they keep ripping people off they ain’t gonna have a job.
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