Castle Mamba Max Pro + 36mm blower FAN REPLACEMENT GUIDE
 

Hi guys-

I did some research on this and thought it could help someone else out there who may need to replace their fans. I bought a TEN-SCTE from someone who failed to mention the cooling fans of the blower and ESC were shot and I was fool enough to buy it without testing first.

Anyways, the ESC and blower use 5v electrical fans. My goal was to save a few bucks and find a better fan if available. I definitely found better fans. The stock fans from Castle are no name chinese import fans off of alibaba. The replacement fans I found are Sunon which is a well known name for fans in various industries.

Mamba Max Pro

The Mamba Max Pro uses a 25mm x 25mm x 7mm no-name fan. Its stock part number is YM0502PVS1. Here are it's specs from Alibaba's website:

25x25x7 (mm)
Sleeve bearing + 1 ball bearing
Rated Voltage: 5
Voltage range: 3.5-5.5
Current: .12A
Input Power: 0.6W
Speed: 10000RPM
Air flow: 2.2CFM
Noise: 27 db-A
Weight 5g

I found a Sunon fan that is a drop in replacement. It actually pulls 3.0CFM air flow (27% improvement) using the same amount of power. It's part number is GM0502PEV1-8. It is available on Digikey and I am sure other electronic component suppliers. Worst case is it is just the tiniest bit noisier.

25x25x7mm
Vapo Bearing (supposed to be very smooth)
Rated Voltage: 5
Current: .11A
Input Power: 0.6W
Speed: 13000RPM
Air flow: 3.0CFM
Noise: 31 db-A
Weight 5g

36mm blower

The blower uses a 30mm x 30mm x 7mm no-name fan. Its part number is YM0503PVS1. Here are it's specs from Alibaba's website:

30x30x7 (mm)
Sleeve bearing + 1 ball bearing
Rated Voltage: 5
Voltage range: 3.5-5.5
Current: .14A
Input Power: 0.7W
Speed: 10000RPM
Air flow: 3.4CFM
Noise: 33 db-A
Weight 5g

I found a Sunon fan that is a drop in replacement. It actually pulls 4.9CFM air flow (63% improvement) using the same amount of power. It's part number is GM0503PEV1-8. It is available on Digikey and I am sure other electronic component suppliers. The new one is quieter.

30x30x7mm
Vapo Bearing (supposed to be very smooth)
Rated Voltage: 5
Current: .14A
Input Power: 0.7W
Speed: 9500RPM
Air flow: 4.9CFM
Noise: 28 db-A
Weight 5g

I will post pictures and a full writeup whenever I hit the post count required to post links... Stay tuned.

Nice write-up!
Good info!

Ok, my post count is high enough now.

The stock fans are press fit in. Simply use a small flathead screwdriver or hobby knife to carefully pry the stock fan out of the housing. Do one side at a time a time or two and the old fan pops out.

Once the stock fans are out, the housings need to be very lightly modified to use the new fans. This is because the stock fans routed the power leads differently than the Sunon fans. This is seen here.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/r...dremel_tab.jpg

Dremel or cut one of the fan mounting tabs off of the motor cooler or ESC case as shown below.

Speed control case. Note, the new Mamba Max Pros have a 1-piece case. Here you see the older design where the fan mount and case are 2-pieces.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/r...el_tab_ESC.jpg

Motor cooler case.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/r..._motor_fan.jpg

Then, just carefully press the new fan in place. Make sure the new fan's power wires route clean out of the stock location and don't get cut. I routed the wires as shown here. The fan wire leads aren't kinked and they don't sit higher than the fan.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/r...remel_done.jpg

My last step is to solder the stock connectors to the new fan leads. This is a new brainer. If you can solder 12-ga leads onto Dean's connectors, you can do anything. :D

The final step was to solder the new fan leads to the respective connector. I soldered the wires and shrinkwrapped them individually. Then I shrinkwrapped over that. I tested the fans on the bench and they are good to go! Whisper quiet and its pretty amazing how much air these little fans move.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/r...solder_esc.jpg

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/r...lder_motor.jpg

After all this BS, the castle cooler motor fan broke a blade during practice yesterday. The thing is totally protected and obviously I had the body on.

So, the castle cooler goes in the garbage.

You have just figured out why almost none of the offroad rc vehicles use a fan. It's much more common to see them on road cars because there is very little shock load.

Just about all of the cooling fans that we use in RC are not purpose built items with shock/G load in mind, but in fact computer hardware coolers meant for static operation.

I have broken a couple of fans on my MMMs in the past. Called CC and they sent me 3 free fans. Oddly enough, ever since I got these fans I haven't broken one yet. I have broken a couple ESCs though, haha. I ran them in my old 8ight 1.0, D8T conversion, and now my Mugen ECO. My poor MMMs have had a pretty hard life.

I decided to give this a shot on my MMP. Those fan models are both discontinued, but there are replacement models available from Digikey

GM0502PEV1-8 is now the MC25060V1-000U-A99

and GM0503PEV1-8 is now MC30060V1-000U-A99