rcus3r

Seen RX8v2 catch on fire the other day. It was very entertaining. Like a movie when the car catches, on fire, engulfed in flames and keeps rolling. ebuggy cought on fire in mid air, landed, kept rolling straight to a stop. Interestingly, both motor and battery survived.

Managed to get podium finish at the end of one of the series, running with a Traxxas radio. Upgraded since then (Airtronics), and I do see the benefits when it comes to making changes on the radio, but as far as performance, not much. Not at my level.

HW for me. Have some flavor of ESC in all 4 of my racing rigs, as well as couple of motors.

MOmo

iTrader: (2)

Bottom line,

ALL Electronics are POWERED BY SMOKE...... Once you release the SMOKE....... they usually don't work anymore, regardless of Make and Brand name!


Everyone has both + & - experiences with various companies. People used to talk down about HW when they came out, (and many people learned that their high end ESCs were coming from the same factory and ultimately had almost identical components as the HW, but with a more recognized Brand Name.

Do some research, see what others have about the feedback. Obviously the sponsored guys are going to be biased, but there is some truth to what they have. For me here, many run Orion elec. because the Team Manager for Orion races local and is able to assist with problems or updates and insight into tuning. What your wallet can afford is another story.

The extra Bells and Whistles is relative IF you are able to capitalize on them. If you're running Blinky 17.5 or Novice, having all that adjust-ability may not matter.

Like others stated, Price is sometimes a #, but a cheap ESC in the proper hands can still whoop on the Higher end stuff.


Myself personally, I don't have the pocketbook to buy the latest and greatest when it hits the market. I'm about a Generation behind. (Recently upgraded my 3pks to a 4pks ) and I am okay with it. Its not THAT outdated. I did find some Deals on my SpeedPassion ESCs, because I like SP and have had pretty solid performance with them. (I'm a Mid Pack guy anyway). I am also a sponsored Venom driver, so I Run Venom batteries. They used to get a bad rep, but I've been very happy so far and even the people I loaned my batteries to have also commented that they were impressed.




MOmo

Dan

iTrader: (75)

I'm purging all my Tekin ESCs due to shoddy reliability and the way they handle their warranty business (which benefits them mostly, not you). I've had Tekin, Castle, Speed Passion, Hobbywing, and now Orca to try out. So a good mix of expensive stuff and some cheaper alternatives. I've been pretty happy with the Hobbywing stuff so far. At my old 1/8th track, I've seen way too many RX8 go up in flames, nearly all by experienced users. I personally had to send back 3 Tekins before (two RS and one RX8). Not a single one of my other ESCs ever had to be sent back. I treat my electronics all the same, cheap or expensive.

Also agreed that you should not cheap out on your radio. This is not an expensive purchase considering how many years you will use it. (I upgrade radio on average 5-8 years.) And also how important it is in terms of feel.

WagwanBumba

iTrader: (1)

Many Tekin's up in flames where I go but then the track shop is also distributor for Tekin so there's a high proportion of Tekins out there. Personally have had bad luck with Tekin - never going there again for an ESC; Vipers have won me over!

Surprised to see that no one has mentioned chargers. With the dangers of badly managed lipos being pretty catastrophic, I think it's imperative that you don't skimp on the charger. You can get the best batteries money can buy, but if you're not using a charger that will properly balance, not overcharge and then return the pack to it's storage charge properly, you're in danger.

radek

To answer the threadstarter,

Really depends on what you want to get out of it. For a 2wd mod buggy that has plenty of power, and handling is more of a decisive factor. You can be quite competitive even with cheaper equipment. With for instance touring on-road, you very well might need to pay alot for that last extra percent of power.

I started out by buying a cheap hobbyking esc, a copy of hobbywing escs. For a fraction of the cost it didn't matter much to me if the mosfets were of a lower grade, or overall inner resistance being 2% higher.

That cheap esc worked just fine, nothing wrong with the performance. But the plastic case cracked and split in a crash and esc was dead.

Same story with servos, lots of brands offer very high specs on paper at a low price. Unfortunately very few list current draw or centering ability. Not always, but mostly, you get what you pay for.

My advice if your on a budget, buy used high quality equipment. That's where the real money saving opportunities can be found. More so than buying new cheap stuff.

Drift_Buggy

iTrader: (22)

1st time I've seen someone say that LRP have great support. They must of changed over the years as they use to be the worst.

Turnigy (motors, esc's, batteries etc.) are great value for money. I've yet to give ther servos a try but will next time I require a servo. I've recently started using SMC batteries and love them. No idea where Orion, LRP and Trinity etc get their pricing from.

Yosh70

iTrader: (17)

Yep, I've got sensored Trackstar motors in both my 22 and truggy. For ESC's, a MM Pro in the 22 and running a TS Gen II 150A in the Losi. I had a 17.5T Trackstar motor in my TC which for the short while I had it, ran very strong and smooth.

Running a brushless TS900 servo in the 22 and for the specs (258 oz/in torque and .09 speed @ 7.4V) its unbelievable value.

Another servo that doesnt get alot of advertising is the Bluebird line from HK. Fly guys know all about these servo's and I had one set up in HB 1/8 buggy. With a Castle external BEC cranked up to 7.4V, it was around 390 oz/in of torque and .10 for speed. Digital, coreless and titanium gears with those specs for the great price of $61. Hard to beat IMO.

lbenton

iTrader: (48)

The golden rule applies here that cheap stuff is crap, mid-range is the best value, and "top of the line" is only a little better than mid-range.

heinen81

From experience in owning Novak, Tekin, and now Speed Passion, I would have to say Speed Passion Reventon 1.1 Pro was hands down the smoothest throttle curve, and best braking in mod wheeler, hands down. I have $150.00 in that combo (speedpowerrc.com), which was half the price of the Tekin. For mod, that combo is strong enough I have to turn the punch down, EPA down a bit and run no additional timing in motor. The esc is also run without timing as well, its just too powerful otherwise, at this point.

Now for Stock 17.5... I started out with a $100 Speed Passion Reventon R with 17.5 MMM motor combo, and I felt I was giving up some speed to the Tekin's and Trinity's out there. I went ahead and ordered a $150 Fantom Short Stack motor and was going to couple this with a SP 1.1 Pro esc that I had in my mod wheeler as well. The motor didn't show up in time, so last week I ran the 1.1 Pro with my 17.5 MMM motor, and honestly I didn't need to order the Fantom. I actually had to plug my programmer in to make sure i was still in Stock 0 profile, it was that noticeably faster.

My recommendation is a Speed Passion 1.1 pro coupled with any of their motors, when bought as a combo, will stack up against any of the other $250+ combos out there. Have had great reliability for 2 years now.

Mudcat981

iTrader: (4)

+1

to answer the orginal question.

RC*PHREAK

iTrader: (146)

+1

90% of the "feel" from a system comes from the esc, not the motor. if you're going to "cheap out", do it with the motor. hobbywing stuff is fantastic regardless of price and i've dealt with falconsekido on warranty issues and they've been awesome. with the uber cheap chinese stuff (hobbyking), warranty is hit or miss (for me it's been a miss once and a hit once).

so if you're looking to cut a corner, skimp on the motor, unless you're talking stock. and if you're looking at hobbywing, the stock 3.1 will run a 4x4 buggy just fine. it's a 100a esc that is rated to handle down to a 5.5T motor and it has the same software and adjustability of the 120a v3.1 which is excellent.

mvrk28

iTrader: (2)

I'm not necessarily looking to "cut corners" I was just curious if the juice was worth the squeeze.

Right now I'm down to 3 different setups.

1. Tekin RSX w/ Redline Gen 2 $287 + Hotwire (Can easy pay setup on tower)

2. LRP Flow Works Team w/ X20 $243 + PC Link and Castle BEC (again easy pay)

3. Speed Passion Reventon Pro 1.1 w/ V3 Competition Motor and Program Box $130 + Castle BEC

Reasons for Tekin:

1. Already run it in my SCTE
2. Warranty
3. Performance/Reputation
4. Connect to my Android device

Reasons for LRP:

1.Performance/Repuatation
2.Connects to my Mac

Speed Passion:

1. Seems to have good performance/reputation
2. Connects to my iPad
3. Less money

thebombster

iTrader: (3)

Live within your means, and buy what you can afford. I run trackstar electronics and My laps times are the same as the fast guys, I drove a buggy with a LRP flow team spec and it felt exactly the same as my trackstar. In mod class I see no reason for me to have a blackbox or LRP etc, I wouldn't cheap out on servos/radio/reciever though

wittyname

iTrader: (4)

Yup... I see a trackstar turbo 120 setup podium or win everytime the guy decides to race in 2wd buggy , 4wd buggy or stadium truck. I personally will never run a castle bec again , ever. In a 10th scale buggy or stadium truck you can find plenty of good 6v servos and avoid that piece. I ran the reventon pro in my wheeler and it was flawless. I now run a Novak pulse in it ,and again no issues. Its no better , no worse , just orange. I like my 79.00 Speed Passion GT more than my novak in my 2wd buggy. I think as long as your sticking with pretty common electronics that are familiar on this forum your good. Start fooling with obscure , ebay, funny stuff and thats a different ball club.

racer1812

iTrader: (31)

I've run Tekin, don't like the feel personally. new software or not.

I ran LRP and Orion ESC's as well. Orion had the best feel at the time, along with the highest price, I didn't care. A buddy got me to try Speed Passion stuff. I was impressed, they have a nice smooth feel like the Orion but are WAY cheaper. I'm not cheap but if I can get the same feel for less money..that means I can buy more tires

As far as reliability, the only SP issues I've seen have come from IDIOTS. And sadly that includes some of their "team" drivers.

That's just my opinion. And that's all you're going to get from a thread like this is opinions. You'll have to decide for yourself.