Specifications

Which brand of esc is best?
This used to be a tough call, but at present the Castle Creations MMM ( Mamba Monster (Max) )
is top dog in my opinion. It is a great esc, very smooth, great programming options, and very
reliable.
Team Tekin have the RX8 esc, aimed at the same kind of market as the MMM- 1:8 scale buggies
& truggies, though it is slightly more expensive as Tekin is a racing team, so racing escs will
always be aimed more specifically at racers willing to pay a bit more for what they use.
The European MGMs are good escs also. They don’t have quite the programming options of the
MMM, but they do have more options in terms of the voltage and current they can handle, so
there isn’t a need to go with just one esc when a cheaper model will do what you require, and
then some. That said, they are about twice the price of the MMM for comparable models. Some
say they aren’t quite as smooth, but the updated software of late is the best yet.
Quark monster pro 125b is something of an enigma, I think. Although spec’d as a 6s lipo esc, it is
more at home with a maximum of 5s lipo due to peak voltage issues occasionally. It also suffers
fro overheating issues due to its design (the case is the heat sink, and the PCB within can
become detached, causing heat to become trapped); there are some clever fixes for this
problem, but its not really worth it in my eyes as again, this esc is rather expensive, support is
patchy at best, and it is of a lower spec than today’s MT oriented escs. Good luck finding a Quark
plasma (Mk2 or mk3).
Schulze is a name long associated with smoke and flames. They are the smoothest escs
according to many, but the often poor customer support (so some say) would make me nervous
of purchasing one, especially if the company that makes them would rather blame me for altering
the connectors or having wires that are too long, rather than accept their product isn’t as bullet
proof as they want to believe. Prices are also rather silly for what you get, and size is definitely
an issue- huge pancakes of escs they are…
Kontronik is another European manufacturer, but their top notch escs have far more positive
feedback. The older Jazz models are better for high voltage & low kv motor setups, but their
latest Jive line up is better suited to typical MT setups, as well as the HV route. Only issue is
there is no reverse, only forwards and brakes, making this a good racer set up.
HobbyWing XE-RUN 150amp & 80amp escs are a relatively new product from China, looking
suspiciously similar to the MMM esc. They are much improved however over the older EZ-RUN
escs that dwarfed the MMM but had various durability issues- not much cheaper than the MMM &
MMPro escs, but certainly one to consider if every penny matters.
The MambaMaxPro is another CastleCreations esc. Although it is intended for use in 1/8 buggies
as a mild upgrade to the older MambaMax, it is a much more capable esc, capable of operating
on 6s lipo & with sensored motors- only a slightly weak BEC lets it down, but this is solved easily
with an external BEC unit. Just don’t use the cc36 motors as those wont cut it in a 10lb MT.
Beyond that, most escs are either plane/heli items with no proportional brakes or reverse, or are
intended for use in much smaller and lighter vehicles. Not that its impossible to use a forwards
only esc, but it is best left to the guys doing BL conversions of nitro vehicles that use mechanical
brakes.
What do all the numbers mean on these motors?
Let’s take a Neu 1515 1Y:
15 = diameter of motor, in this case 39mm with the smooth can. Most BL motors of the 550
variety are 36mm in diameter.
15 = length of the magnet/rotor. Other companies will use the second set of digits to denote the
length of the can, which is often XL or 74mm for the kind of motors we need in MTs.