Swordfish 300

[srislash]

Hi Shawn,
Could you pls tell me about lehrer motors you used?
Thank you

Summer

I have Lehner 2250/7's at 1690 Kv.

I should add that Lehners are 2pole motors Summer. And capable of pulling lots of amps. I am planning on starting on 6s but then stepping up to 7 and 8s.

Shawn

[T.S.Davis]

Seaking we know does make a quality unit but they don't offer anything high amp wise.

I tried. They told me that they weren't interested in a higher amp unit and weren't interested in a higher amp HV unit either. I was racing those exclusively because they were pretty solid but with their choice for representation I had no plans to purchase more. Off my menu. Maybe now that they have Ray Presnell he can make them respectable again. Feather in their cap.

I have 4 Swordfish. None of them work. Hard for me to accept that I just don't know what I'm doing. Not my first rodeo.

The Raider works really well but same problem. Limited amps. Great for limited boats though.

[photohoward1]

I tried. They told me that they weren't interested in a higher amp unit and weren't interested in a higher amp HV unit either. I was racing those exclusively because they were pretty solid but with their choice for representation I had no plans to purchase more. Off my menu. Maybe now that they have Ray Presnell he can make them respectable again. Feather in their cap.

I have 4 Swordfish. None of them work. Hard for me to accept that I just don't know what I'm doing. Not my first rodeo.

The Raider works really well but same problem. Limited amps. Great for limited boats though.

So Terry,

The swordfish light I saw you running at the CUP is toast?

[T.S.Davis]

Yep. Got 3 heats out of it. Got one from Todd in exchange for some work on one of his boats. That one runs about 50% throttle. The 240LV baked on the bench (might be a 220?). Never made it to the water to see how it would run. The 120 gives me 50% throttle too. I'm guessing on those percentages. The boats get on plane but speed is minimal. Maybe I should go back and put the timing on auto? Really frustrating.

Haines had one of these.

http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=111

Low amperage again though. Not sure how they've run.

[Fluid]

It is shocking to me that with all the problems with the Swordfih controllers that folks still buy them or that Steve still sells them. My club has had over a dozen of differeant amp capacities and all but one has failed either immediately of after a few runs. I have also witnessed a number fail on boats built by highly experienced racers.

How do these Swordfish engineers sleep at night?


.

[Mxkid261]

Well I guess I'm glad I didn't buy a SF after cooking a t-180 earlier this year. Have they always had issues?

[srislash]

Well I guess I'm glad I didn't buy a SF after cooking a t-180 earlier this year. Have they always had issues?

The old 200's were stellar! 240's too! If you run across any but them.

[T.S.Davis]

Well I guess I'm glad I didn't buy a SF after cooking a t-180 earlier this year. Have they always had issues?

.

I'm kind of st a loss right now too. I can't in good conscience buy Hobbywing anything which pretty much leaves me MGM for anything pulling series amps. Great ESC but pricey.

My son is starting to pay for some of his own gear but who are we kidding. His only sponsor is the old man. Hahaha. So multiply my fleet cost by 2.

[kfxguy]

Yep. Got 3 heats out of it. Got one from Todd in exchange for some work on one of his boats. That one runs about 50% throttle. The 240LV baked on the bench (might be a 220?). Never made it to the water to see how it would run. The 120 gives me 50% throttle too. I'm guessing on those percentages. The boats get on plane but speed is minimal. Maybe I should go back and put the timing on auto? Really frustrating.

Haines had one of these.

http://www.skyrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=111

Low amperage again though. Not sure how they've run.

For some reason I've never had one run right unless it was on auto timing. They even run hotter unless on auto. Not sure why but I could never use timing set at any constant number.


Jay, I think the reason people buy them is because there's really no choice for an affordable high amp/voltage controller. MGM is more complicated (because you can customize it and some people would rather just buy it and get it over with) to buy and the price makes it out of budget for a lot of people. Alien isn't that popular because of the past issues that were had with the company who makes them. They are much better now than they used to be from what I've seen. But still, if swordfish doesn't want a bunch of unsatisfied customs then I think they will get on the ball and get these issues fixed. From what I've seen they have really good customer service but shipping an esc to china isn't easy or cheap.

[T.S.Davis]

The last 300 I ran was with a really hot D wind. I dropped the timing down to 2 degrees. That's the unit that barely planed out. We buttoned up our pond last Saturday so I'm not sure if I'll get back out before the water freezes. What was the result of running it with fixed timing? Just the heat issues or was there a power loss?

On the cost thing.......if I have (2) 300's, a 220, and a 120 I've spent $800 plus some shipping. If none of them work.....................how's my budget look'n? This was the argument we used (internally in our heads) to justify paying the money for Schulze back in the day. If it's bullet proof and never lets you down on race day it was worth every penny they charged.

I had only one Alien that I thought ran well. That was a 250 that would go 8s I think. That had a really odd start up though. I was never sure each time I plugged it in if it was going to run. No water proofing proved fatal. I even DP270'd that one.

[kfxguy]

The last 300 I ran was with a really hot D wind. I dropped the timing down to 2 degrees. That's the unit that barely planed out. We buttoned up our pond last Saturday so I'm not sure if I'll get back out before the water freezes. What was the result of running it with fixed timing? Just the heat issues or was there a power loss?

On the cost thing.......if I have (2) 300's, a 220, and a 120 I've spent $800 plus some shipping. If none of them work.....................how's my budget look'n? This was the argument we used (internally in our heads) to justify paying the money for Schulze back in the day. If it's bullet proof and never lets you down on race day it was worth every penny they charged.

I had only one Alien that I thought ran well. That was a 250 that would go 8s I think. That had a really odd start up though. I was never sure each time I plugged it in if it was going to run. No water proofing proved fatal. I even DP270'd that one.

Well your argument definitely makes sense. By the time you by two sf300's you could have bought a MGM (only thing nowadays that's higher quality that I know of) and saved yourself some time and money. But for some of us cheapasses $280 split up feels cheaper than $550 at once lol!

My first experience with a sf240 proved to be a slight ordeal. That's how I found out about the auto timing feature and realized that these escs just won't work (well for what I've experienced and in my stuff) on fixed timing. My Daytona went 39mph with fixed timing on it maiden. Changed that to auto and it went 60 something. I don't remember exactly but I made some strut changes too but the strut wasn't the big issue it was the esc. I think I wasn't getting full throttle either. Testing on the bench on very low voltage and pulling logs showed much lower Rpms with fixed timing and the heat in the motor would build up quickly.

I haven't used an alien yet but I was given one. My buddy had so much faith in them (went through 2 sf300 lites and was tired of spending money) that he bought me one. I epoxy coated and and planned on using in my Rivercat but ended up giving it back to him when his last sf300 went out. He flipped the boat and it just quit. No smoke. Just didn't work anymore. I had one do that to me in my shocker. The cooling hose wasn't linked but I flipped the boat pretty hard and the esc never came back on. I inspected both escs and did see anything disconnected or broken.

[T.S.Davis]

I baked one of the Alien 250's at about 65000 rpm. Don't think it was really intended for that. Chunks of FET everywhere on that one.

I have done some things with Seaking180's that shouldn't have worked. To say that I was pushing them doesn't quite cover it. haha But I can't buy those anymore.

Maybe it's time for all of us to accept that amps and inexpensive don't belong in a sentence together.

[kfxguy]

I baked one of the Alien 250's at about 65000 rpm. Don't think it was really intended for that. Chunks of FET everywhere on that one.

I have done some things with Seaking180's that shouldn't have worked. To say that I was pushing them doesn't quite cover it. haha But I can't buy those anymore.

Maybe it's time for all of us to accept that amps and inexpensive don't belong in a sentence together.

You still haven't told me why you can't buy the seakings anymore.........

[T.S.Davis]

You still haven't told me why you can't buy the seakings anymore.........

"Can't" isn't really the right word. "Won't" is better.

There's an extremely unsavory story that goes along with it but I won't buy products from companies that sponsor ONE particular racer. I don't campaign for others to follow suit. I just won't buy myself. Same problem with Promarine. I won't buy those either. I've never ever suggested a boycott as was claimed by one of their representatives but when asked "what should I get?" I don't recommend them. Not on my menu. I'm a nobody though so no harm to either.

[Mxkid261]

I have done some things with Seaking180's that shouldn't have worked. To say that I was pushing them doesn't quite cover it. haha

Definitely guilty of this also Lol. Just hard to beat the price and reliability (unless over-amping it) of a t-180. Plus they're stupid easy to set up. Only issues Ive ever had with them is blowing up from pushing it to hard. Other than that I've never had a single hiccup out of one