Wiring help needed - Mamba X with capacitor
 

I have my HB D413 1/10 buggy that came with a Mamba X. I needed to add my receiver (Futaba 304GF) and I can’t seem to get it to work. The one odd thing I am not used to is the capacitor. I end up with an extra connector that I don’t know why to do with.

it appears there is a “aux” connection on the Mamba harness, it has one wire going to a capacitor.

when I get it turned on, the Mamba flashes red, when I push the receiver button to bind, the ESC comes alive (fan comes on and it starts some light beeping), but I don’t get a green light on the receiver nor do I appear to be connected to my transmitter (4PL). No matter how long I hold the receiver button, I don’t get it to flash red.

I have the ESC plugged into channel 1, servo into 2. Black wire closest to the edge.

I realize the Mamba is overkill, it’s what came with it and I just want to make it move before I get my normal Hobbywing setup.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...7e16b7aef.jpeg

Ch.1 is steering, ch.2 esc.

Well crap! I started that way and doubted myself. I swear I looked up a diagram, but must have been tired!

I’ll swap that tonight. Any ideas in the extra connector from the capacitor?

The aux wire let's you adjust esc parameters from the transmitter after you've set up everything within the esc programming. The capacitor is a "glitch buster" and is normally added if a high powered servo is causing brown outs of the receiver. The capacitor needs to be plugged into any open channel on the receiver, while the aux wire must be plugged into the 3rd channel. Odds are, whoever owned the car before you didn't have enough empty slots on their receiver so they combined both onto the same connector.

Basically, extra stuff that isn't required to make your car work. You can leave it disconnected and nothing will happen.

I am confused as to why it has a capacitor on it. The AUX channel can be used to change settings on the fly via your transmitter.
https://dzf8vqv24eqhg.cloudfront.net...95-0290-00.pdf

Can you show us how the capacitor is wired? The aux connector has a single signal pin, no + or - to connect a capacitor to.

So I swapped the steering and ESC, no change. I plugged the capacitor/aux into 3, no change. I’m going to try a different receiver in a few.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...ffaac4d76.jpeg

Tried another receiver, no change.

Ok, so I tried an old Spektrum receiver and I got some more life out of it. It at least appeared to get power to servo now.

I am wondering if the ESC is set to something other than 2s. Going to dig into that now.

You probably need to reverse the throttle channel on your Futaba radio before the esc will recognize the throttle.

I had similar problem when I got the car that came with mamba x, just couldnt make it run. Spoke with the previous owner and he said the reason is because it was programed to use with telemetry and had to be reset or something.

Ok. So I finally got it working! Took all evening but got it.

Primary issue: FHSS - I didn’t have my transmitter set to the right receiver. I needed a 10yr old girl on YouTube to show me this step! Lol

throttle reverse - as mentioned above, that needed to be done

esc goes in #2 spot, brown is common and goes toward the edge of the case

castle products absolutely suck to program! Trying to calibrate the transmitter was a royal pain and took about 5 tries. I can’t wait to replace both (Mamba X and sidewinder 3) with Hobbywing products! Not even going to try to program the reverse on the Mamba X.

overall, it was a pain, but these two used cars are up and running now and ready for the track! Thanks for all the help!

Yeah, it can be a real pain sometimes. When switching communication protocols on Futaba it usually requires a power cycle on the transmitter to actually switch. Also, some escs don't like to turn on without the receiver present, but the receiver won't turn on because the esc can't see it. I reccomend getting a battery that plugs into the receiver to power the reciever to bind them to the transmitter.

The Mamba X will power on without the receiver but won't arm, it'll keep beeping until the receiver comes online. The ESC doesn't need to see a receiver for the BEC power rail to go live. If it did, it would never be able to power on.
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​​​​​​Also do not plug a battery onto the receiver when the ESC is connected unless you've modified the connector to disconnect the BEC.

I said some escs not "this esc". I've never owned a Mamba X so I don't have experience with this exact esc, but I have seen other escs that shut off the bec if the esc doesn't see a valid pwm signal after a short period of time. If the receiver is not bound to the transmitter the esc won't see the pwm signal and therefore will shut down the bec. This is why I suggested a battery for binding the receiver.