Mamba max systems

Anyone ever used a mamba max system?

I found a good buy on a 4600KV and 6900Kv both with ESC and Motor.

Never used!
Price $250 for both

What do Ya think too small to handle a 12lber... maybe good for a 3lber??

Frisco

Mamba max is a 540 size can, with way more power than a 540 DC brushed. This makes a pretty good weapon motor, but the Mamba Monster is a step up, and I know that''s what Team Jag/MLEC (the one rjw advises) uses on their new 15 lb drum.

The big advantage of the Max systems is that they have high Kv's, and are a direct replacement/upgrade for 540's in the RC car market. Also, like all Castle brushless that I've seen, they have a lot of programmable settings to match your battery and load requirements.

The Mamba Max was one of the first brushless systems our team ever tried, and I have been very impressed with their durability and power. They do get hot (like hot enough to burn your hand) if you have them running under a heavy continuous torque, and forget about using NiMH or NiCads because they drain 'em really fast.

Do you think they will last on a 6 cell A123 set up???

If they are the older mamba max's , I think that they are iffy.

We have 4 or 5 burnt out ones to back that up, but there are factors involved

1) at first they worked great in bench testing...but if cogging set in on startup, either motors or esc's went up in smoke

2) the older ones are only rated 3 or 4 cel...castle tech stated that they could be run higher, but not with the bec..still poof went the max's

3) we were using other motors...feigao, axi, Scorpion, align

4) at the time, we were using timing belts with timing belt pulleys....didn'e help the coggin, even when run loose.

eventually everything went up in smoke.....MOSTLY when coggin set in..which seemed to happen randomly, even with the index the wires trick, etc

So we gave up on them.....

you'll find that castle techs will tell you a lot of different answers to the same question and they are not very supportive of combat weapon apps.

the monster is total overkill...but in a combat bot, that might be a good thing for reliability and durability, etc.

the new max pro might be a bit different, but.....we paid our dues, did our r & D and have a bunch of fryed max's to show for it.

Wow, rjw's experience is much different from mine!

I bought three of the max systems (5700kV motor and ESC), ran them on 12s NiMH numerous times with really 'torquey' loads, and while the motors got really hot, as well as the batteries, they kept on running. I've used 'em on 6S A123's with absolutely no problems.

We DID blow a Mamba Max ESC while driving a Scorpion HK-2221-V6 with THREE Parallel-connected 4s 4800 mAh 25C Thunderpower LiPos, (That's potentially over 100 amps at 14.8 V!!) and the motor had already produced sufficient smoke that it could easily have had a dead short in it--so I scratch that up to bad design on our part.

One system sells for $213 new, so two for $250 is a pretty good deal.

One VERY IMPORTANT FACTOR is that we programmed them from the outset to 'go easy' on the motors. I don't recall the details, but the CastleLink software that we used at the time gave descriptions of the effect of each setting on the current demands and heat produced by the settings, and we pretty much consistently went for the lower end of the options. This alone may account for the very different results Team Jag had from us.

We tried all of the settings, multiple calls to tech and mostly low or medium startup settings.

However...I don;t doubt that it may have been our motors, in that at the time, there were no max motor kits with enough kv for our application...so we used other motors....as I said, axi, align, scorpion, etc.

Their kits are very well matched, motor to esc...but I think they may be a touch weak for a 15...maybe a 12 as well.

But like Bob says...the price is right.....

Well I gotta say I just walked in the door at home and have 2 new systems in my hand...

I couldnt pass it up for the price.
I think we are going to use one (4600) on our 11" FBS direct wheel to ring system.
The other (6900) ????? Maybe try it on a drum.
I think the Doomsday rebuild would draw too much getting the 16" blade going.
We needed 2 new weapon motors and 2 new esc's anyway so I figured I had to at least try them.
They are brand new.
The only thing that scares me is the fact that they say dont use a 3S on the 6900 system.
We usually run at least 5 cell A123's.
Think I need to stay at 5 or drop to 4 cell?????

Frisco

Frisco wrote:

Well I gotta say I just walked in the door at home and have 2 new systems in my hand...

I couldnt pass it up for the price.
I think we are going to use one (4600) on our 11" FBS direct wheel to ring system.
The other (6900) ????? Maybe try it on a drum.
I think the Doomsday rebuild would draw too much getting the 16" blade going.
We needed 2 new weapon motors and 2 new esc's anyway so I figured I had to at least try them.
They are brand new.
The only thing that scares me is the fact that they say dont use a 3S on the 6900 system.
We usually run at least 5 cell A123's.
Think I need to stay at 5 or drop to 4 cell?????

Frisco

You could always do the cel tap thing....on some of our bots, we tap 4 cel lipo for drivetrains and leave the weapon at 5 or 6.

You could actually go the other way.....not a big deal to do, expecially with 123's

That's kinda what I was thinking of.
I hate to buy different batteries fo different bots.
It is a lot easier to just say we are using a 6 cell and design around it and justify the weight.
That is basically what we did this year.
I am ordering the batteries tomorrow so i figured I would order 2-6 cell 123's straight up for the drums using the Ice 100's .
Then order 2 capped 4 cells so these new Mambas can run on 3 and the drives on all 4..
What about running a series/ parallel combo? Probably need 2 switches?

you can do an experiment with running ONLY the grounds thru a switch.

If all the esc's in the bot are disabled, then you should be ok with the 1 switch..otherwise use 2

some esc's somehow either stay powered or take timebleeding down caps when only the ground is removed

couldnt you tap all you batteries packs and still use them in every bot? It would just be like having the option of running dual voltages. You would only do it in the bot with two plugs though. May also be good for testing/driving practice at lower voltages so you dont burn anything out