ZTW Gecko vs Castle Creations

[Bushwacker]

So I have used both of these brands, however I have only ever used the CC on a Heli. Both work well. The Gecko I have only used on a plane a 65" Vyper with a Motrolfly motor. The CC works great on my Helis but have never ran one on a Motrolfly motor. What do you guys think works best of these ESC's?

I ask because the price between these two are quite significant. Are you paying for the name with CC or is it a much better ESC? If it is better can you give your opinion why. Im doing a new build "Aerobeez 70" Slick Pro" is why Im asking these questions.

Thanks much

Bush

 

[3dmike]

If I remember right Geckos where having problems. Not sure if it all got sorted out or not so I would research that. Altitude Hobbys (I think) was trying to get that issue fixed. I use CC on a couple of birds and I've never had an issue.

 

[6172crew]

I use a 100 ICE on my MF 4330, works great but was told by MF not to use the Edge100.

 

[Bushwacker]

I know the issue your talking about Mike I have the same issue. Spins up fairly slow and bugs the crap out of me. When I hit the throttle I want to be right now not in five freaking minutes. I have been reading about CC not being the best solution either. I have also been reading that the Master Spin and X-Pro does not suffer the problems FTW and CC have.

crew dude I am glad yours is working good for you man.

 

[Bloosee]

I know the issue your talking about Mike I have the same issue. Spins up fairly slow and bugs the crap out of me. When I hit the throttle I want to be right now not in five freaking minutes. I have been reading about CC not being the best solution either. I have also been reading that the Master Spin and X-Pro does not suffer the problems FTW and CC have.

crew dude I am glad yours is working good for you man.

I'm building the 70 Slick Pro as well. I'm putting in a Jeti Mezon 160 (for a high current 6S application), I know they work with the MF motors, I've had two Geckos that didn't work with MF. I have Mezon in my 71 with the 4330 and it works fine. They are EXPENSIVE though!

 

[Bushwacker]

Thank you for the info and yes your right those buggers are not cheap are they.

 

[Bloosee]

If I decide to go with the Hacker motor instead, I'll probably do a Gecko 155A, it's less than half the cost of the Jeti.

 

[Bushwacker]

True, hey let me know what you wind up doing will ya. Got me curious now. Plus it might help me decide on what I end up doing.

 

[Bloosee]

I'm probably about 4-6 weeks away from getting this bird in the air, right now I'm leaning toward the MF because that's what I've always run and I really love them. The nice thing about the MF is if I get tired of 6S I can send it back for an 8S wind, gives you options.

 

[Xpress]

Hacker/Jeti Spin ESC's are just amazing, they're incredibly efficient and they just seem to function perfectly. Programming is a little tricky using the JetiBox but that's just a little small bit of hassle for a setup that is gonna smoke everything out there (figuratively speaking). I was thoroughly impressed with how well my A60-18L performed with a Master Spin 99 from Hacker (Jeti Spin 99) on a 24x12 wood prop over the Castle Edge 120 HV I was using. Spool up time was better, full throttle power was increased, and I even got a bit of additional flight time out of it without taxing the packs as hard as the Castle did. Where it really shined was the mid-range performance- the Castle ESC was a bit sluggish in the mid range spool up and I even had it skip one time using the Outrunner Mode which forced me to make a rough landing (too low, high alpha, bent the aluminum gear). The efficiency at which the hacker motor and spin ESC operate at is incredibly apparent if an APC prop is used- the propeller is so inefficient that it caused barking, so I had to switch to a Xoar propeller.

Castle Creations does make great speed controllers though, I use them almost exclusively in my smaller airplanes, however there are just some motors out there that have certain ranges of efficiency they're designed to work with and the Castle ESC's won't work well with them. Since I like to run Hacker motors in my larger electric airplanes I will stick to either Jeti or Hacker Spin controllers since they have proven to work incredibly well for me. I will still always run a Castle ESC in my smaller airplanes (60" or smaller) since they have also proven to be reliable to me.