SkyRC Toro Beast large scale brushless controller

[saviown]

good to see one actually working

[Noj]

Power delivery is as smooth as the xl2, IMO. Be good to get a mix of differently powered BL badgers together for some comparative bashing

[MAZ]

Soooo.... If I wanted to go brushless with my (yet to be finished) Baja, what sort of

Edited February 7, 2015 by MAZ

[Tug]

I'd steer you towards the Alien ESCs, good value I reckon. I've got one in my Baja and it's good kit. The braking and reverse are awful, but turn off reverse and she's a peach!

For a more efficient set-up, look at the 520kv motor and higher voltage combo. 10S and a 520kv are working well for me at the moment, more testing soon I hope.

Cost? Allow 500 for the combo and a few lipos, a large charger is important too!

[sean-vrs]

Soooo.... If I wanted to go brushless with my (yet to be finished) Baja, what sort of

[Noj]

Will still require a kick ass charger and some zippy bricks though...

Two years back, neither alien nor toro were worth a look...BL large scale will be common as muck, I'm heading off to I/C!!

[Oh How Original]

I certainly think Darren's videos look a hell of a lot more exciting and fun than the first video posted (no offense) what LiPos are you running there Darren? (cell wise)... You may have said but I can't be bothered to read every single reply

[Tug]

For a half decent runtime, lower the kv and invest in several sets of large capacity cells. That's why my price point is quite high, you'll need cells, a fat charger and probably a PSU.

[Noj]

Fat chargers FTW!

[Tug]

Hyperion FTW!

Dem's phat!

[Thunderwolf]

i'm assuming here that this is the newer version of the esc i have for my flux...or am i wrong?

[darrenelmslie]

Costs are coming down all the time and the Toro is certainly an attractive price point. Time till tell how reliable it is I guess; these are high-stress applications and most manufacturers struggle to meet the demands for featured and performance without sacrificing something to keep the retail price realistic for a mass market.

Most manufacturers seem to end up with a product that doesn't meet the brushless adage of 'volt up, gear down' which works around the principle of using larger voltages (in the form of 10s, 12s lipos or greater) to provide the same power at lower currents. Toro have gone down the lower voltage, higher current path and I guess time will tell how sturdy their ESC is in these applications; Castle went through quite a few growing pains with the XL initially and given the nature of the application if be surprised if Toro don't too. I've yet to be convinced of their support offering...

Esc and motor are the big ticket items but all the other paraphernalia is going to hike the price up a bit further; a reasonable set of lipos (circa

Edited February 8, 2015 by darrenelmslie

[darrenelmslie]

Cells I'm using at the moment are a set of Thunder Power G6s and a Hyperion Eos 720 duo charger (love me some Hyperion!). The TPs are high capacity (6600mah), high discharge (65c which I *think* is about 300a max continuous) 4s packs.

These days TP make a lower capacity, supposedly higher C rated version in the G8 but independent testing hasn't rated them that highly.

I've just ordered a set of 5000mah 50c Gens Ace and some 6000mah , 65c a-spec G2 nano-techs which are getting a lot of VERY good reviews, despite the Turnigy (re)branding. I'll try swapping to these to see how they compare. They were the best alternatives I could find at the time, that fitted the budget.

Im using an adapting server PSU to run the charger off. HP make rock solid ones that can provide more power than several dual-lipo chargers are ever going to draw (I think mine can supply about 115A at 12v; more than enough to charge a pair of lipos simultaneously, even at 5A/pack. There are Internet guides covering the necessary mods and the supply was cheap enough s/h on eBay.

Edited February 8, 2015 by darrenelmslie

[darrenelmslie]

Thunderwolf: I think so yes. I'm not 100% sure if the origins but it seems as though the 'Gen 1' (for want of a better term for it) of the Toro Beast - still a SkyRC product from what I can tell and the same 200A continuous, 8s-capable controller looks EXACTLY like what Hobbyking sell, branded as the Turnigy TrackStar 200A.

This ESC has the two fans on the top, integral supply leads, is an orange-red colour case, is an opto-esc (no BEC) and can only be programmed by a card/doesn't have data logging (so far as I know)

The 'Gen 2' version of the Toro has a deep red case, no fan cooling, BEC outputs, data logging and can be programmed via a computer or a card.

I'm only guessing but I can't help wonder if this is a development of the earlier version the rights for which may have been sold to Hobbyking for distribution under the Turnigy brand (?)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Thunderwolf]

Thunderwolf: I think so yes. I'm not 100% sure if the origins but it seems as though the 'Gen 1' (for want of a better term for it) of the Toro Beast - still a SkyRC product from what I can tell and the same 200A continuous, 8s-capable controller looks EXACTLY like what Hobbyking sell, branded as the Turnigy TrackStar 200A.

This ESC has the two fans on the top, integral supply leads, is an orange-red colour case, is an opto-esc (no BEC) and can only be programmed by a card/doesn't have data logging (so far as I know)

The 'Gen 2' version of the Toro has a deep red case, no fan cooling, BEC outputs, data logging and can be programmed via a computer or a card.

I'm only guessing but I can't help wonder if this is a development of the earlier version the rights for which may have been sold to Hobbyking for distribution under the Turnigy brand (?)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

this would seem accurate to me, for people who don't know, this is the one i have -

 

 

branded as a turnigy trackstar esc but as far as i know it is the same as the sky toro set up.

[Oh How Original]

Look at that dust!!

Shameful Paul, shameful.

I bet even Noj's aren't that dusty!

[Thunderwolf]

Look at that dust!!

Shameful Paul, shameful.

I bet even Noj's aren't that dusty!

 

result of a long project that i can't really afford anymore.

[Oh How Original]

That rather sucks buddy... Have you simply put it on hold or are you considering letting it go?

Which would be a massive shame.

[Thunderwolf]

That rather sucks buddy... Have you simply put it on hold or are you considering letting it go?

Which would be a massive shame.

 

currently sitting under a custom street toys baja cover waiting for some money to be spent on her, only needs around

[Oh How Original]

What about flogging that pile of parts you built into a rough Baja shape? Surely that lot should fetch

[Thunderwolf]

What about flogging that pile of parts you built into a rough Baja shape? Surely that lot should fetch

[darrenelmslie]

Sorry to read you've considered selling some of the fleet Thunderwolf. I really hope you don't, it *would* be a massive shame You could make recoup money by selling it but then again it's not costing you anything by gathering dust; it'll definitely cost if you start from scratch again later. Here's hoping you can keep it on hold

[darrenelmslie]

So I did some more runs today in better conditions, in order to get some data logging done. The SkyLink logging is a world away from Castle's (which itself, isn't mind-blowing, but it *is* functional). At the moment, the data logging screen is in Chinese only. I've translated some of it but what I'm seeing doesn't make a lot of sense..

Here's an example of the logging screen

 

https://flic.kr/p/qPuw7T

 

Here's an example of an actual run

https://flic.kr/p/qa9Vgk

 

From what I can figure out;

• ESC temp (orange ) - hovers around the 100 degree mark, rising ever so slightly through the run but pretty stable. I think this is a Fahrenheit reading - if so it'd correlate with the 32 deg or so that a pyrometer reads off the casing.
• RPM (light blue) - matches the throttle openings , so that's looking okay. What *is* strange is that it's rated to 30k RPM and it's only hitting 24.5K. That'd seem to indicate a bottleneck somewhere in the power delivery.
• Throttle (dark blue) - looks reasonable, showing some full throttle and full braking at points (although I notice I never get 100% throttle which probably indicates a recalibration is needed)
• Current (green) - nothing recorded. Doesn't look as though this logging is available (Grrrr... it'd be one of the most useful!!) The scale is gibberish in any case - a value of 3,000 is to small for mA and everything would be in flames if it was Amps
• Voltage (red)  - interesting dips on full throttle (ripple voltage). These packs shouldn't struggle to deliver the goods when you open the taps if you believe the specs, but clearly they are. Dips this size are likely to cause issues in the ESC eventually and might explaing why the motor is not spinning at max rpm. 

 

This setup is using supply leads as short as possible, with 8mm connectors and a CC cap pack added at the ESC. The limiting factor must be the LiPos. I'll swap them out for the next run and compare what I get.

 

Logging aside, it's still running like a champ at the moment (touch wood )

[Thunderwolf]

What *is* strange is that it's rated to 30k RPM and it's only hitting 24.5K. That'd seem to indicate a bottleneck somewhere in the power delivery.

 

i don't find this strange at all, the 30k rating is the max rpm of a motor before parts of motor want to explode, more like a limit, not max rpm.

 

 

by all means try and get it to that rpm but as long as its not going over by much and you are happy with the performance i wouldn't worry about it.

 

 

 

Sorry to read you've considered selling some of the fleet Thunderwolf. I really hope you don't, it *would* be a massive shame You could make recoup money by selling it but then again it's not costing you anything by gathering dust; it'll definitely cost if you start from scratch again later. Here's hoping you can keep it on hold

 

don't be, i consider selling the lot more than buying more to add to it, but it never happens.

Edited February 9, 2015 by Thunderwolf

[darrenelmslie]

True re: the revs. I thought after I posted it, that the maximum limit is obviously a free one. Taking into account losses in the drivetrain, the surface friction, etc, revs are always going to be lower aren't they.

 

Here are links to the latest runs

 

http://youtu.be/MJHEjY0yNHU

 

http://youtu.be/2AduQSDMqJY