Guys,
I upgraded my CC link to 3.253 motor and battery are running hot anyone have any similar reaction to this version?

DennisT

Guys,

I did some searches on old threads here and it seems that there are two pieces of software/firmware that can effect the motor / battery temps. One is the CC Link which is what I downloaded and used to set up the ESC Phoenix 45 and the second is the software for the ESC. Since you get the software update with the firmware update I assume it loads all at the same time. Looking at the old threads there seemed to be a screeching problem and temp increase with release 2.11 of the phx 45. Seems if we ran in "Outrunner" mode there was a problem but changing the freq 12.4 (the setting for the older rev) eliminated it. I will look tonight to see what comes as the default settings.

Best,            DennisT

Crist,
You are right, I checked the set up and found a tab on castle link that allows you to update the Phoenix firmware. I had 2.0, so some of the problem could have been having the old firmware and the new castle link. I did check the base settings and set the frequency to 12 instead of Outrunner. Will test over the weekend.

Best,               DennisT

I have wondered how it would be possible for the CastleLink version to affect the running characteristics of the motor, but figured while unlikely, it is certainly possible.  I put the question to Castle directly, because I wanted to put this to bed one way or the other.  Here is my email and their reply:

"Hi-
I have a question regarding the Castle Link application and the performance of the motor/ESC –

There seems to be the perception, in some circles, that the version of Castle Link one has installed can change the motor and esc performance – for example, this question was recently posted on an e-power forum:

“Guys,
I upgraded my CC link to 3.253 motor and battery are running hot anyone have any similar reaction to this version?”

In the past there was another thread in a similar vein – giving various combinations of Castle Link Version numbers and Phoenix firmware versions and the perception that the Castle Link version could effect the running even if the Phoenix firmware version was not changed.

Is this a valid observation ?  It seems to me that if I upgrade my Castle Link to version 3.xxx and leave the FIRMWARE version in the ESC unchanged, then there should not be any effect on the running characteristics.  I would like to post the Castle response to this type of thread, if possible.

Thanks for any info."


From: Thomas Porfert [mailto:thomas@castlecreations.com]
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 3:27 PM
To: Mike Anderson
Subject: Re: Castle Link Version and motor performance

Mike,

If you do not update the firmware on the controller and only update the Castle Link program on the computer, it will have absolutely no effect on the ESC's functionality or motor performance. Only changing the firmware or settings on the controller will you see any changes. It is true that by changing firmware versions, you can indeed change motor performance, but not just from updating the software on the computer. I checked with the engineers, and it may be an unintended consequence of the new software; but it has never happened before and this is the first report that I've seen. It is possible the controller defaulted a setting when they first connected the controller to the new version; which can happen when values on a particular setting has changed. Other than that, we have never seen this and it should not be happening. Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

 ---   
 Thomas Porfert   
 Product Specialist   
 Castle Creations

So it seems that the most likely scenario would be that one must be careful not to ACCIDENTALLY change the firmware version - it would be easy to do, as the first thing the software does is check your firmware version and offer to upgrade if a newer version is available.  It is pretty easy to click the 'Yes' button without really being aware of what you are agreeing to, especially if you've just run an install of the newest software, and kind of running on autopilot as the install progresses.  You should always save a copy of the setup so you can get back to a know good point, then if you notice a change in running characteristics, you can double check that you haven't inadvertently 'upgraded' your firmware version, and restore it to the older version if you wish.