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Arrowmax Dash ESC...Cheaters Dream

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Arrowmax Dash ESC...Cheaters Dream

Old 05-31-2018, 08:22 PM
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Default Arrowmax Dash ESC...Cheaters Dream

Recently I entered a race with a few of my friends and we joined the 17.5T blinky class. Among my friends, there was one that was particularly fast and he was consistently putting down fast laptimes, his fastest was a sub 19s lap. Then comes 3 guys which easily smashes that laptime with ease and was able to put down low 18s lap. Needless to say they took the top 3 position with my friend at 4th. We later discussed the race and everyone thought it was weird how they were so fast. With one incident where one of us will be in the middle of the straight and the 3 of them are just entering the straight. They could easily catch up by the end of the straight and pass in the sweeper. We already found a sweet spot for the gearing which give us a nice balance of speed down the straight and torque out of the corner without overheating our motor with track temps at 70c, but they were able to blow right pass us like nothing.

Afterwards found out they were using Arrowmax's Dash ESC with TLAB function which basically blinky mode with turbo activated via the 3rd channel. Think of is as DRS function a lot of motorsports have today.
You can see the product review here demonstrating the function (3:02 mark)

And how it performs on the track (2:15 mark)

Not entirely sure why Arrowmax decided to develop this function for their ESC when no one in the market is asking for it. Not every manufacture will follow suit to include this function and it becomes a very niche market. Either they have to sponsor an entire race and provide ESC for all their racers to race in their blinky class, or it becomes a way for racers to cheat and have an unfair advantage over others who abide by the race rules.

We tried to talk to the race organizers afterwards but they couldnt do anything as the race was already completed. They were also less than helpful when we reported about their tactics and they advised us to use whatever they are using if we feel its not fair.

Last edited by disaster999; 06-01-2018 at 06:15 PM.
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Old 05-31-2018, 09:02 PM
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If the esc is adding timing, that is not "blinky" They were cheating, and the only thing you can do is make sure they have it disabled before racing starts next time. If the track owner doesn't do something about it, tell the track owner that you will not come back. If you and your friends all say you will stop going to the track if he doesn't stop them from cheating he will probably make sure they don't cheat any more. Also, let other people in the pits know that those guys are cheating.
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Old 05-31-2018, 11:20 PM
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Originally Posted by urnotevenwrg2
If the esc is adding timing, that is not "blinky"
Depends on your definition of blinky though. For you and me - that definition is probably the same but for race techs that aren't in the know, as long as the ESC is blinking then it's blinky according to them.
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Old 06-01-2018, 12:23 AM
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Originally Posted by WagwanBumba
Depends on your definition of blinky though. For you and me - that definition is probably the same but for race techs that aren't in the know, as long as the ESC is blinking then it's blinky according to them.
There is a ROAR rule book that specifies what esc's are blinky legal. Tekin esc's led's blink when you have the brakes applied. If you have timing in a Tekin and held the brakes as the inspector looks at the esc it would look like your esc is in blinky unless the inspector knew exactly which led's were the blinky led's.

He can bring it up with the track owner, and either stop going to that track if they are not going to do anything about it, or put timing in his esc, and cheat like the other guys.
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Old 06-01-2018, 12:51 AM
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Unfortunately this ESC is on the ROAR approved list and there's no mention of this feature to look out for.
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Old 06-01-2018, 05:24 AM
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Because it's entirely not possible that this group of guys if faster than you....
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Old 06-01-2018, 06:15 AM
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why not have them pull the 3rd channel wire from the ESC during tech inspection before the race?

*** I noticed the pricing recently jumped up from $180 to $200 on these ESC's
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Old 06-01-2018, 07:54 AM
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Originally Posted by urnotevenwrg2
There is a ROAR rule book that specifies what esc's are blinky legal. Tekin esc's led's blink when you have the brakes applied. If you have timing in a Tekin and held the brakes as the inspector looks at the esc it would look like your esc is in blinky unless the inspector knew exactly which led's were the blinky led's.

He can bring it up with the track owner, and either stop going to that track if they are not going to do anything about it, or put timing in his esc, and cheat like the other guys.
Not everyone follows ROAR rules and seems this ESC is already on the ROAR approved list some how.

Originally Posted by whitrzac
Because it's entirely not possible that this group of guys if faster than you....
That's entirely possible but when their car is blatantly faster than the rest of the field on the straights and you manage to actually make time in the corners (this is blinky we're talking about!) somewhat unlikely.

Originally Posted by billdelong
why not have them pull the 3rd channel wire from the ESC during tech inspection before the race?

*** I noticed the pricing recently jumped up from $180 to $200 on these ESC's
Problem is that the race techs have to be in the know! and post inspection there was no way to really stop/check if the racer would put the 3rd channel cable back in.
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Old 06-01-2018, 08:11 AM
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Originally Posted by WagwanBumba
Problem is that the race techs have to be in the know! and post inspection there was no way to really stop/check if the racer would put the 3rd channel cable back in.
I agree, and I wouldn't limit the tech to only Arrowmax, I would encourage the tech to completely remove any wiring (full 6" length of wire) from any ESC to the 3rd channel... it would be obvious if someone removes their body to re-install a new piece of wiring at that point... you can also have top 3 finishers get inspected immediately after the race and if the 3rd channel wiring was replaced then they are automatically disqualified.

I once saw a national event hosted at the club in my area where Ryan Lutz was disqualified after a post race tech:

***UPDATE

Apparently links to FB are removed so here's a screen shot:

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Old 06-01-2018, 08:55 AM
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Looking at the video's it seems they are using a different kind of blinky indication with this boost mode. The boost mode is an extra item to make fun racing.

So it is up to tech inspection to see that the right blinky mode is used, I can not see there is something wrong than only a different but still confusing blinky rithm.
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Old 06-01-2018, 09:00 AM
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Originally Posted by billdelong
I agree, and I wouldn't limit the tech to only Arrowmax, I would encourage the tech to completely remove any wiring (full 6" length of wire) from any ESC to the 3rd channel... it would be obvious if someone removes their body to re-install a new piece of wiring at that point... you can also have top 3 finishers get inspected immediately after the race and if the 3rd channel wiring was replaced then they are automatically disqualified.

I once saw a national event hosted at the club in my area where Ryan Lutz was disqualified after a post race tech:

***UPDATE

Apparently links to FB are removed so here's a screen shot:

May be somewhat missing the point. You still have to rely heavily on pre/post tech and tech don't spend long enough to check these kind of things.
Why has Arrowmax come up with this pseudo blinky mode, where from outside it looks like it's blinky but it really isn't! I don't have an issue with the TLAB function itself ... just don't make it look like it's blinky.
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Old 06-01-2018, 11:35 AM
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Just like any esc that has the ability to add timing, you have to have timing disabled to be legal. If the rules state no timing can be added through the esc, then anyone running this esc with this feature enabled is cheating. There are ways to see that this setting is disabled. If the race director at the OP's track doesn't want to enforce the rules, OP can either stop racing there, cheat like the other guys, or hold himself to the rules and work on being a better driver to beat these cheaters honestly.

Really though, 30 seconds of added timing over the length of a race isn't going to work out to much of an advantage. The guys that beat the OP probably still would have beat him without this feature enabled. Straight line speed is based off of corner speed.

​​​​​​Personally I like my car to have as close to the same amount of power through the whole race as possible. Imagine you hit the boost button a split second too early, and the timing shuts off on the run up to a big jump. Now your 1 second advantage you have gained is gone because you crashed as a result of this pretty useless feature.
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Old 06-01-2018, 12:21 PM
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Or...disallow that ESC at your track. Blinky means Blinky...no added timing of any kind. (jmo)
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Old 06-01-2018, 12:30 PM
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Originally Posted by WagwanBumba
May be somewhat missing the point. You still have to rely heavily on pre/post tech and tech don't spend long enough to check these kind of things.
Why has Arrowmax come up with this pseudo blinky mode, where from outside it looks like it's blinky but it really isn't! I don't have an issue with the TLAB function itself ... just don't make it look like it's blinky.
The bigger question is why did ROAR approve the ESC when the blinky mode is misleading.... you can't cherry pick rules here, that's what having tech inspection is all about... if your club doesn't want to do a proper tech inspection then it sounds like they just need to run Open Mod, which already sounds like the RD was alluding to in the first place.
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Old 06-01-2018, 01:04 PM
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thanks for video and the translation at bottom sent that to ROAR lets see how long that lasts on roar approved list,,cheaters never win 4 long as of now ill make sure any blinky mode I race in dont have that esc.
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