What's your favorite ESC?

[Meniscus]

By far, my favorite over the years has been the MGM 280. I've put them through more than they ever should be able to handle. As-long-as you have caps and short wires, they can provide many years of service. Only caveat is that you have to be willing to program correctly with a computer.

[dmitry100]

Meniscus: Whats the most amount of amps you were able to push from one of the 280's?

[ray schrauwen]

Nice, I know it adds time to the process, but would you consider taking photos along the way and posting a step by step guide on here? I would love to see the process, and possibly follow along. I am sure I would not be the only one interested either.

I will if I do it. From what I gather in pictures and conversation with this gentleman, you basically remove the BEC from both and remove the control board from one. There are 2 sets of 6 pins soldered holding it on.

When you see these pictures it's not hard to figure out.

Don't get confused on wire color differences from the picture above. The esc above is just a different batch of colored wire. Color makes no difference. You are basically only soldering connections from the extra fet board to the top of the other control board. Not all 6 wires are used as you can see. He said this can also be done with V3 HW esc's. Actually, I think these pictures are of the V3, pretty sure. Same thing for the V2 I have here.

[ray schrauwen]

Not ssure what he puts in between fet boards to prevent short circuits. I'll ask him.

[Meniscus]

Meniscus: Whats the most amount of amps you were able to push from one of the 280's?

My official answer is 280A. I cannot confirm or deny that they will handle more than that (laughing). Often, you will find that you will exceed the current capacity on the motor prior to hitting 280A. Even for my SAW record, I don't see anything near that, even on low voltage and 2s. However, I've been running my own motors for some time now.

If you run the numbers on 6s, pulling 280A is more than 8 horsepower. I doubt there are very many of us that pull quite that much, but I know there are a few that do, especially with advanced timing!

The point of sharing my favorite was reliability. I haven't had an issue for many, many years now and the 280s I have still run strong with no signs of letting-up. (knock on wood)

[dmitry100]

Well, a dual cat running LMT 1950's at 73k unloaded push much more than 300 amps... and I don't want to run an ESC that will limit me in amps. Which is what the MGM appears to do. Don't want to spend over $750 for ESC's that will not let me run uncapped anyways (it used to be much less around a year ago because of the USD to Euro exchange rates)

Hopefully there will be some 250-300 amp opensource ESC's available really soon - which appear to be much more efficient and better designed than anything in RC out there. Running firmware which can be tweaked and modified as needed.

[jim82]

What would be nice is if the mark up on them would come down some.

[StevenBryant]

Hopefully there will be some 250-300 amp opensource ESC's available really soon - which appear to be much more efficient and better designed than anything in RC out there. Running firmware which can be tweaked and modified as needed.

Interesting Dmitry can you tell us more about these speed controllers??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dmitry100]

ray, are these the ones as in the picture? https://www.hobbywingdirect.com/coll...nt=30055448785

I would imagine the new 160 amp seakings have a similar layout - but does anyone know if they are completely sealed, or is it possible to pop open. That would be cool to stack those for a "320" amp total...

ANDDDD.... 2,000 amp burst

[jim82]

I don't know why they don't just make one not like they wouldn't sell

[dmitry100]

Ray, maybe use long 30mm Male header pins to connect the 2 power boards to the control board ? Would be more reliable and easier than with wires (if thats what you were going to use).

You can get them on amazon but ebay has big selection.

[ray schrauwen]

Well... on FB when Bill Oxidean was at the factory the other day, I sent him a picture of it ans told him to show it to them just before he blocked me out. Seems like good ideas only go so far.
If you see one come out with Bill's name brand on it you know who gave the poke.

I don't know why they don't just make one not like they wouldn't sell

[ray schrauwen]

That's a great idea, however the pins only go through the control board and the pins actually have a 90* bend to solder flat on the FET board.
I don't want to try to drill through the board to make that happen, not sure what other traces on the board may be effected? Actually I'd be drilling through fets. The way it's manufactured, they solder the pins on the FET board first then the control board goes on.

Ray, maybe use long 30mm Male header pins to connect the 2 power boards to the control board ? Would be more reliable and easier than with wires (if thats what you were going to use).

You can get them on amazon but ebay has big selection.

[jim82]

Well... on FB when Bill Oxidean was at the factory the other day, I sent him a picture of it ans told him to show it to them just before he blocked me out. Seems like good ideas only go so far.
If you see one come out with Bill's name brand on it you know who gave the poke.

That is probably what will happen to

[ray schrauwen]

We shall see. It's on on record on FB. Nothing escapes the Zuckerberg Algorithm!