Question about Castle Ice 200HV, and outrunners

[nichismo]

Hey everyone,

Im going to be undertaking my first boats maiden voyage soon, and ive also got practically zero experience driving RC boats of any kind, so im a little bit nervous all things considered.

Ive soaked up alot of information with this first project of mine, and albeit I think I have everything covered, its still a little unnerving trying to juggle all the little ins and outs going into this first run, especially with electrics and all. Its been about 6 months since I first started building this boat, and the whole time I figured I should buy an RTR of some sort just to get the general jist of things, however I could never bring myself to spend the money on that rather than the actual project once I had started it.

So the main concern I have is the ESC and Motor setup I have, and the amps I may draw. I recently made an impulse buy, and even more foolishly, sold the other ESC I had thinking I didnt need it now. I know that my setup will be comfortable for the most part in the average power drawn over the course of the driving, but im worried about the startup and surges I may have.

The boat is a 1/8 scale hydroplane, about 18lbs RTR. I have both 8s and 10s lipo setups, and I want to start with 8s, as im worried about my lack of driving experience being an issue with the 10s setup.

heres the rest of my parts:

Hyperion 4035 - 800kv outrunner
Castle Hydra Ice 200HV (I have the extra cap bank installed)
start with 8s2p
Octura x450/2 blade

I didnt realize that the Castle ESC is rated for 200amps, period. I figured that was a continuous rating and there was a much higher surge rating, like most ESCs (I had a Swordfish 240 before) I would imagine that a 10s setup will draw less amps, however the motor obviously isnt designed for boats and im worried about the heat generated with the higher RPMs. I do have a NEU 1527 1.5Y which is a highly touted setup for these boats and much more efficient as well, but I was not intending to use it on this boat and have it already have it custom mounted in another boat.

Would I maybe be safe just giving a lap or two on this setup and checking everything after? or does a fried ESC occur suddenly?

any help appreciated, thanks guys!

[Fluid]

I have used that motor in a 20 lb cat on 10s and got good performance with an x455/3 prop, but I would recommend running on 8S and using a larger prop. The big boats like big props and the lower voltage allows you to run a larger prop. On 8S you can probably go up to an x457 or x460 safely, some experienced boaters who use this motor prefer 8S, even for formal racing. Your boat will probably not even plane off with that tiny x450 prop.

When running a big boat it is important to keep the boat on plane the entire run. It takes a lot of power to get them on step, which creates heat. As long as you have a large enough pond to allow wide turns and you keep on the throttle you should be fine. Use a timer and bring the boat in after one minute to check temps.

The Castle is rated for 200 amps continuous, it will take higher spike draws safely. Not sure where you heard differently. The motor is the fuse, officially rated for 100 amps they will take more...but not 200 continuous. What kills motors and ESCs is heat, not amps (but of course they are closely related). Set the timing at 15 degrees advance.



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[nichismo]

crap, as of right now I only have x450 but I do have a 3 blade version also thats sharpened and balanced, from what ive seen with most scale hydros, everyone usually begins with that prop so thats why I went with it. That, and this video, which is the only video of an FE setup with my hull that ive found, were apparently using the same prop, but on 10s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSP3x-SKfT0

ill try to snag a bigger prop over the weekend and get early next week hopefully, but from what I had been under the assumption before, was that if I was drawing more amps with the 8s setup rather than 10s, I would have figured I needed to be conservative on the prop sizes I used! very confusing for me at the moment, but im sure once I just get some driving and hands on experience with everything, ill gain alot better perspective right away. I was indeed understanding that I should keep the throttle down for most of the run, however I just thought this was to ensure a steady flow of cooling, not so much for the more comprehensive reasons you illustrated.

Thanks for the help!!

[tlandauer]

Make sure you use good quality batteries, running them in 2p set up is a good idea. The CC ESC loves big capacity from the batteries with a good honest "C" rating.

[nichismo]

For the 8s setup I was indeed going to go with 2p, Im using Revolectrix Silver 70c 5500mah packs. Im going to get GiantPower from now on though

[Fluid]

You can try the x450/3-blade, depending on your setup it might work. Howard's video is almost ten years old, setups were far different then. And that motor was turning nearly 5,000 rpm more than yours will.

Of more concern is your CG and strut setting. What are they and how did you determine them? A perfect setup can run less thrust effectively.


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[nichismo]

well i havnt determined a strut setting yet, ill just start out with the strut at a neutral level, perhaps an inch deep and go from there. The cog is about 1.5 inches behind the rear of the sponsons, aligned with the middle of the turn fin. Obviously as the boat hasnt seen the water yet, these are just rough templates almost, I have yet to add any weight to the front of the boat, or even know if I will need to. Im going to run the first lap without the rear wing on the boat, with the canard neutral as well, to see how or if it planes.

I had been wondering if that video was any real good indication to go off of, I personally feel like I never see Plett motors around at all, and running 10s2p and only getting 53mph seemed a little lackluster. The boat did look to be running superbly though.

[dmitry100]

tlandauer: Does this apply to any other ESC's? Say I plan to run a 6s 3300mah 60c on a SF esc ... would it have any issues with such a low mah lipo? I've only run 5500mah on those things...

[tlandauer]

tlandauer: Does this apply to any other ESC's? Say I plan to run a 6s 3300mah 60c on a SF esc ... would it have any issues with such a low mah lipo? I've only run 5500mah on those things...

In general yes, the higher the "C" and capacity the happier the ESC. The quality of your battery is very important. When the motor is demanding the amps , the ESC has to feed it and if the battery is stingy, you will have premature failure.
I responded primarily because in particular there is a disproportional rate of failure on these CC ESCs, the response from the CC technician is to NEVER use anything lower than 8000 mah ----- I could be wrong on this exact figure since unfortunately I have a momentary lapse of memory, but it wants enough mah.
Compare that to say a Seaking 180 V2 ( I say V2 only because I have 1st hand exp) which many people beat them and starve them to death and they came back for more. Not saying that it is better but pointing out the particular trait of these CC.
Adding a cap bank and making sure the battery is up to the task would make this CC ESC a wonderful unit . I have primarily used the 240A version and I run 12,000 mah with the set up (4s2p) and I love the performance.


Edit: there was another issue that casued these to fail and that was the case would rub on one of the inside area and CC issued a tech bulletin to correct that. Do a search and you will see what exactly I am talking about. Later versions were retrofitted with a small foam piece to protect that area. My Alzheimer is really acting up this afternoon , I don't want to say anything inaccurate but there are ways to identify whether the ESC is made after the tech bulletin or has been sent back for correction. Sorry about that.

[nichismo]

No need to apologize, you have actually provided a great deal of very helpful information, thanks :)

As of right now, my Hydra Ice 2 has the extra cap bank installed, along with 8mm bullet connectors on all the cables. Although I have Revolectrix Batteries that are 5500mah and a couple 4800mah, I am going to next purchase the 5s, 6000mah packs from GiantPower for my 10s2p setup, excited to get those, had to make a TON of space for them though!