Castle ESC not compatible with Freewing motors....

[Rick227]

Can someone explain why this is....? Thanx Rich

[OV10]

where/whom are you getting this info from

[fhhuber]

Castle ESCs work fine with Freewing motors.

You may have the ESC programming wrong for the motor.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Just installed the Castle 130amp Phoenix Edge ESC into my Freewing F-16C which has the upgraded 12 blade 6S 4068-1835kV Inrunner and it works perfectly. I also installed the Castle 10amp BEC bypassing the units 5amp BEC. This replaced the Gecko 155 Amp ESC Motion recommended on their "upgrades" page. The Gecko was a real piece of . I never flew with it as I discovered that it had major timing issues, especially with that motor, that caused the throttle to occasionally go completely dead . I luckily discovered this upon taxiing . Supposedly you can "fix" it by uploading some firmware fix, then having to buy their programming hardware and re-adjusting the timing. Of course, if you get the timing wrong, all that happens is you burn up the $158 inrunner and most likely end up with an expensive lawn dart. Kudos to Motion as I returned it and got a full refund for it , cause the only "fix" I was planning on doing to it was tossing it into the ocean. Apparently not everyone has this problem with the Gecko, but many do. As usual, I'm one of the lucky suckers; wish Motion would remove that item as recommended, however. After installing the Castle, I immediately noticed that the throttle response was much smoother than the Gecko-on the occasions that the Gecko actually decided to work.

The Castle is also very easy to program. You can get real specific and program a lot of different parameters with their programming module, or just stick with the basics (like I have done with all 7 of my Castle ESC's) and program the throttle range. Turn on your transmitter, set the throttle stick to 50% (VERY,VERY IMPORTANT), plug in the ESC, wait for two beeps, then drop the throttle to 0 (at which time it will go through the initialization beeps-1 for each lipo cell and the ready to fly tones) and your done, forever. Some ESC's have you program the 100% throttle position first, then drop it to 0, so don't do that or else the ESC will only supply 50% power when you have the throttle wide open as it "thinks" this is 50%.

[Hugh Wiedman]

One more thing that is a little "funky" with the Castle ESC's I forgot to mention. If you use one of your 2 position switches as a throttle cut-off switch, you must manually set the throttle cut position to -100%. Anything more, like say -110% (which I think is the default setting on the Spektrum menu under throttle cut) , and the ESC will automatically assume that this is now the lowest throttle position, so when you turn the throttle cut back on, even though your throttle stick is a 0, the motor will run because the throttle is 10% higher than what it "thinks" is now the lowest position, even though you turned it on initially correct.

[Rick227]

PRODUCT UPDATES:

• November 18, 2016 - Castle Creations ESCs are NOT compatible with Freewing motors. ZTW brand ESCs are recommended upgrades when using a Freewing motor.

[Rick227]

where/whom are you getting this info from

Under Phoenix Edge 130amp ESC PRODUCT UPDATES:

• November 18, 2016 - Castle Creations ESCs are NOT compatible with Freewing motors. ZTW brand ESCs are recommended upgrades when using a Freewing motor.

[Hugh Wiedman]

I use the Castle 130amp ESC in my Freewing 90mm F-16 and I have, to date, not had any problems with it. This is with the upgraded FW EDF 12 blade 4068-1835kv inrunner . I did bypass the Castle internal BEC, which was only 5amps peak, and added the castle 10amp BEC for a safer margin.

Originally I ordered the jet and inrunner with the Gecko 155A ESC. This was a real piece of . They have major timing issues with the gecko's and my throttle would go dead intermittently. The only way to fix it is with a firmware download and the gecko programmer to change the timing, but that's way above my pay grade. I returned it to Motion (and they did acknowledge that the gecko's have some timing issues) and they were good enough to refund my money completely. I asked them if the Castle has any problems with FW EDF's, and they said they work fine, which is why I ended up with a Castle in the F-16. I should have just stuck with the stock FW ESC when I ordered (got the ARF so I could install the inrunner instead), but I've had nothing but good luck with Castle ESC's.