Should I move to a Castle Phoenix Edge Lite? (50A)

[Sefrez]

I have had a time with the stock ESC(s) on the Align 450L 11.1V setup. The first one caused the motor to choke in flight and had the heli going down quickly. I assume the heli went down so quick because the motor came to a stop thereby having the one-way bearing doing all the traveling (higher resistance).

Ultimately I fired that ESC and the motor after this happened for the third time and I didn't hit my throttle hold switch after impact.

I bought another motor and the same ESC because I wasn't sure which to get. It went well for a while and then the same dang thing happened again. Luckily I hit throttle hold this time.

I then tried a HobbyWing Platinum V3 50A and it hated the dominator 3200KV motor, so I got mad and risky minded enough to put the old ESC back on.

It's been about 20 flights since. No problems in the least. I've began to wonder if it had something to do with doing 3GX changes and 3GX throttle calibrations without reprogramming the ESC. Looking back, it seems there was this pattern, and now with about 20 flights having reprogrammed the ESC, I'm slightly more confident. Doesn't really make sense however.

So I'm still leaning towards replacing it. Would a Castle ESC like this be a good idea for replacement, and how much of an "upgrade" would it be?

I also wonder about temperatures with this ESC not really having a heat sink. Would it be able to handle the higher temps of the 3S setup over the 6S? I figure the Dominator 3S setup is a bit more demanding than your average 450 3S... Perhaps I should continue to play it out with the stock ESC?

Thanks for reading and any feedback.

[joanpeca]

In my honest opinnion, I think that 50A is ok for a standard 450 3S configuration... but if we are talking about a 450L running 3S... I thing that 50A may be insufficient. Specially, if we take into account that we are talking about "lite" version of the ESC. Castle states that "lite" version of their ESC's is suitable when maximum power requirements are much less than maximum peak current given by device (see note (*) in http://www.castlecreations.com/produ...edge-lite.html).

Regards,

Jose A.