Mounting the Castle ICE 75

[xCrashNBurnx]

I'm going to run the Castle ICE 75 speed controller in my 3DHS 58" Edge. Because it's so much heavier than the ICE Lite 75, I'm a bit concerned with simply zip tying it to the side of the motor box. I would love to see or hear about how you guys have mounted larger ESCs. I thought I might put a small peice of balsa inside the front of the motor box and mount the ESC to it. Maybe it will distribute the weight better during violent maneuvers and tumbles.

 

[gyro]

I'm going to run the Castle ICE 75 speed controller in my 3DHS 58" Edge. Because it's so much heavier than the ICE Lite 75, I'm a bit concerned with simply zip tying it to the side of the motor box. I would love to see or hear about how you guys have mounted larger ESCs. I thought I might put a small peice of balsa inside the front of the motor box and mount the ESC to it. Maybe it will distribute the weight better during violent maneuvers and tumbles.

I don't have a 58" Edge yet, so I can't say for sure, but I think I read somewhere they were a tiny bit tail heavy depending on the equipment used. Since I don't know what else you have on your plane, my recommendation is this:
Ziptie the esc to the bottom of the motorbox where it meets the firewall. This will ensure it gets proper cooling, and I really suspect you'll be fine weight wise, and can use your battery to adjust your CG.

 

[SnowDog]

I'm going to run the Castle ICE 75 speed controller in my 3DHS 58" Edge. Because it's so much heavier than the ICE Lite 75, I'm a bit concerned with simply zip tying it to the side of the motor box. I would love to see or hear about how you guys have mounted larger ESCs. I thought I might put a small peice of balsa inside the front of the motor box and mount the ESC to it. Maybe it will distribute the weight better during violent maneuvers and tumbles.

Using balsa to secure an ESC to anything is a bad idea. I hope you mean light ply instead?

Don't worry about the extra weight of the ESC...it will actually help you by allowing you to position your battery more in the mid-tray range instead of the "up against the firewall" range where so many of us have to place the battery.

Side of motorbox, bottom of motorbox? I would go with the bottom of the motorbox for better cooling, although I would suspect either one would work. Mine is on the bottom and it does just fine there.

 

[xCrashNBurnx]

Yeah, I meant light ply. Good to hear about the placement, I hate having to push the battery so far forward that you need 3 hands and some hemostats just to tighten the battery straps.

 

[ryan_m]

I have zip tied all of my esc's to the side of the motor box with no problems. Ice 100's, Ice 120 HV's, no problem. I usually put a bit of foam under them to reduce vibrations, but otherwise a couple of zip ties and forget about it.

 

[gyro]

I have zip tied all of my esc's to the side of the motor box with no problems. Ice 100's, Ice 120 HV's, no problem. I usually put a bit of foam under them to reduce vibrations, but otherwise a couple of zip ties and forget about it.

i've done the same with all of mine, except those like a Caslte ICE or ZTW HV that have mounting tabs with screw holes.

 

[xCrashNBurnx]

I glued an extra rx tray I had, under the front of the motor box to help distribute the weight. I have some foam that was used as packing for my Hacker motor, but it's pretty hard. Where do you guys get your soft foam, like the type you use to pad a gas tank.

 

[albsurfer]

I zip tied mine to the side of my motor/battery box, just behind the firewall on a 60" Sbach. The power cable to the receiver throttle channel wasn't long enough if placed forward of the firewall, so I mounted it there. The air came in straight in the right side cowl cheek inlet and over the ESC. My temp readings from the ESC on a 90 deg day never put it into danger. I ran a Blue Lipo 5s4000mah 30c pack and an APCe 14x7 prop on a Hacker A40-14s for 905 watts. It worked out great. I did have a hole cut in the bottom of the cowl for venting along with the fuselage bottom.