All my experience in brushless is with ROAR "BLINKY" rules. For fun with my kids in our parking lot racing I got some ESCs with variable timing and boost functions that I want to try. We will use them with some older racing motors that have adjustable endbell timing. Where should I set the endbell? Zero?
ESC is the Trackstar 80A which has almost no documentation. Thanks.


The reason I ask is that we do have an old HobbyKing ESC that only gives the variable timing WITHOUT the sensor cable. So the question becomes, 'does the Trackstar 80A add timing to the sensed position or does it use a sensorless algorithm to advance the timing in boost mode?' Because if it does the later, then endbell position won't matter.

If no one knows, then I'll try to figure it out how it is doing the timing with some trial and error.

A sensored ESC with a sensored motor DOES know what position the motor's timing is in, & as such, it DOES matter how the motor itself is timed. It's been awhile since I've used boost on my ESC's(the motors around when I did had more limited mechanical timing), but I noticed that some types & brands were more tolerant of boost than others. For example, when I started using boost, I had mainly Novak Ballistic series motors, & noticed that they HATED boost, made no difference what the mechanical timing was set to, they still overheat no matter what I tried(even when intentionally undergearing them, & then they'd be both slow & run hot). but we also discovered that Trinity's Duo2(D2) series motors appeared to be MUCH more tolerant, & we could use timing advance both on the can & in the ESC(though I believe we usually stayed at about 20 degrees advance on the motor itself), & would shoot for somewhere around 50 degrees combined timing(& use the ESC settings to adjust where & when the ESC boost would kick in). But it's generally diffrent for every different design of motor, so it'll really come down to a lot of trial & error for you in figuring out how much to use on the motor & how much in the ESC(best to start maybe with 20 degrees on the motor & gradually experiment with the ESC, adding a little at a time)....

Some days you have to wait more than 6 minutes to get answers.

That post came off wrong. What it means is I suspect no one knows this ESC because it is new, so I'll be the first to test it and let you all know.

I got the programming card for the ESC today in the mail but it is snowing out side now

The endbell timing is tricky, partly because not all motors are labeled the same. For example, and if memory serves, early Novak Ballistics had 30° of timing when the label was at zero. Later ones were labeled with the 30° as the starting point. Some other brands start in the 10 to 20° range if I'm not mistaken.

But in general some timing is needed, I would not start with 0 endbell. I'd start with whatever the motor came with. Maybe a little lower if you know it's a 30° motor.

Then gear down, as boost done right can add a lot of RPM. I had good luck with gearing a good 20-25% or more lower than blinky. Then add in boost carefully. Get it right and a boost setup can be fast and run fairly cool, as proper boost ramping keeps the motor in a more efficient range. But be careful, it also can go over the edge very quickly when overdone. Lots of quick temp checks when testing.

I have an inertia dyno (FACTS DYNO) and I can find the timing beyond which horsepower falls off the curve. That would be the max timing of the boost, turbo and any mechanical timing I put in the endbell. I'll try that.

Just to further elaborate here, I looked closely at the programming card which gives the boost and turbo timing advance in degrees. It seems there is plenty of advance timing available with the boost and turbo that one would just leave the motor endbell set on zero.

Finally had a chance to try it today. Not that hard to figure out. I just subtract any boost or turbo timing from the endbell.
So, I had the endbell set to about 25deg from my dyno results (just before current rises sharply).
I added 5 boost and 5 turbo degrees. When they both kick in that is 10 degrees, so I subtract that from the 25 and set the endbell at 15.

Timing can destroy a motor. I burned up a 17.5 because I had the timing up all the way
and I forgot to gear down, and the motor cooked itself.
Simple mistake of mine that could have been much worse than it was.
Sure I got a nice speed boost outa a 17.5 motor, but was it worth it, probably not.

Lol hopefully it was just a cheapo $40 motor