Seems like there are alot of people asking questions about some of the Castle ESC's. I have been running em exclusively for well over 5 years now. I only do the brushless a little on the go fast, so I am not an expert there. But in the crawlers, I can certainly help.
As of this post(and for as long as I can see) I run 2 mamba micro pros on 4S lipo. The mamba max and sidewinder can take 4S also. Castle does not advertise this, or warranty it. But I have been running 4S on my trucks for about 2 years now with no problems.
First and foremost. Calibration:
Make sure your radio has the throttle trim is centered, and not in reverse. Once you have done this, you turn on your radio, and hold full throttle(forward). Plug in/turn on your ESC. It will chime, pause, then beep steadily. Hit full reverse after 3 steady beeps. It will do the same chime, pause, steady beeping. Let go to neutral and it will chime/beep again, then chime that it is armed(same as when you turn on the truck). If you did it right, you're ready to rock.
This is always the first thing I do when I install one of their ESC's on a different radio or re-bind a new RX. If you're having some problems with the ESC arming, or it arms when you give it a little throttle/reverse, then re-calibrate. Just make sure all your throttle trims and settings on the TX are centered and factory. You need to re-calibrate even if you install a used ESC you bought from someone.
ESC settings in the castle link:
Below is a pic of what you should have your stuff set at. There are more settings you can play with, but this is all I use. Also, your lipo cutoff will depend on how many cells you run. Otherwise, all the rest should be the same(in my opinion).
Make sure you dont update past firmware v1.24. I have tested this on the sidewinder and micro pro. Haven't tried on the mamba max, but it should be the same firmware version. You just don't want to install the firmware that has the "Crawler Reverse" option under the "brake/reverse type". You want the latest firmware that has the "213% Crawler full-on" option under the "Drag brake" settings.
The reason for this, is that the crawler reverse blows. It limits reverse throttle, and makes the brake softer. This may work for some. But I think the instant reverse in the settings above, is way better. If you have the firmware past v1.24, all you have to do is go into the software tab, and select v1.24, then hit update.
Side note. If there is a setting you're looking at, and don't know what it effects, the click the little blue circled question mark on the top right of every option. It will open a prompt that will explain every option. Pretty handy.
I have also learned that screwing with the throttle curves doesn't really help much. I always go back to the linear curve. If you want to know more about this, I can explain.
Hope this helps some of you. Post up if you have anymore questions. I would be happy to do my best to help. Get a castle link of you don't already have one. Well worth the $25"thumbsup"
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