Ziggmiester

Hey, I was wondering if anyone had either of these and what you thought of them.
My brother and I both have on-roads, and these are the two we've narrowed it down to. My brother has decided on the GTB, but I'm still trying to decide. Will both of them compete fairly well, or will there be a noticeable difference in the speed when we drag-race.

I know that the safest decision would be to go with the same one, becuase then we know they will be about the same, but I have always knew that the sphere was awesome.

Here are links to both of them:
(yes these would be the two systems that will be purchased when we have enough money)
GTB
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXMGJ2&P=ML

Sphere
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXMAC8&P=ML

Thanks
-Zigg

Doahh

I'm Oarnge only so Novak for me... I also run the GTB and run it one wire Brushed (I unsoldered the oarnge and blue wires and left the yellow) and have run my SS5800 on it and it's great fun...

Ziggmiester

thanks for responding, any more opinions?

happywing

I've seen plenty of both controllers. I went with the Sphere because I had so much trouble with my Novak controllers in the past. Most of the Novak problems have to do with glitching. I've helped a few guys at the track with their glitching problems. Sometimes we can fix it and sometimes we can't. The only sure way to fix the Novak glitch is to use a 2.4Ghz radio system (Spektrum).
My Sphere(s) have been fantastic. I have 1, 2 and 4-Star motors. I've run LiPo and 7-cells (The GTB will not handle 7-cells) with no problems whatsoever since last October when I made my purchase. Another thing that strikes me is that everyone at my track who runs the GTB, also use a fan. The Sphere doesn't come with a fan and there's no reason to have one. It runs very cool. It's not uncommom for me to run for 15-25 minutes straight (I have 6000Mah LiPo's) and it's barely warm.

Doahh

I run my GTB with a fan... I just keep it there for extra protection and it only hits 110 because it's right by my motor other than that it stays pretty cool

R/C fan-addict

what you have to factor in about the number of complaints of glicthing on here or from people is that more people might buy the GTB therefor there should be more complaints of glicthing.

Ziggmiester

Seems like they are both good ESC's no matter which way I go. That's odd about the Novak's glitching like that. I mean, my brother has had a Novak in a B3 for close to 8 years now, about 5 of them in a damp basement, and it still works great. My Super Rooster also has run great. So, I checked at tower, as far as lipos go, can both of them run li-pos and how many cell li-pos can each of them run? I haven't gotten into 7-cells or li-pos yet, but it's a possibility with the touring cars we plan to put them into. What's the deal with 7-cell anyway? Can you buy many premade 7-cells or it more of make-it-yourself project? Tower only has two 7-cells, and they are only 1400's. Thanks for the input.

Loswave

You can run 2 S lipos with either controller, an extra cell will give you a little extra voltage, therefore, a little extra torque, and a little extra top end.

your brother

Ziggmiester

Dude,

I was in the room right next to you...you could of come and told me

bIGmiK

lol at you guys

If you want to go Lipo, check out www.maxamps.com. They have some really amazing packs, at not a bad price.

Also, brushed ESC's arn't as prone to glitching. Complaints about brushed ESC's glitching compared is very minumal in comparasen to the amount you hear about brushless glitching. But I honestly think people only get glitching because they don't know how to set up their electronics.

Yay, lets all go out and buy a top of the line brushless system, but leave our 1500mah stick packs, cheapest radio we could buy and stock tamiya plugs.... and then come onto the internet and ***** about it because it doesn't work propperly.

I bet that with propperly cared for SxS matched batteries, a decent radio and propper plugs these glitching claims would go away alot of the time.

Ziggmiester

Yea me and my brother have good relationship so we kid alot

The batteries will be IB4200s or a lipo off the site you gave me. My radio will be xs3 pro and a rs310 so that certainly not the cheapest radio you can buy. The plugs will probably be deans plugs unless you have a better suggestion.

Oh yea my brother wanted to say wiring is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

DTAK

i have the sphere, and adore, no glitching problems or anything. go with the sphere

Flyojumper

My vote goes to the GTB.
I recently got a GTB/4.5r combo to go in my Evader BX and so far I love it.
I was concerned about the possible glitching at first since I use an AM radio (futaba 2PL), but I've had no such problem. Just make sure you install the ESC as far away from the receiver/antenna as possible and keep the wiring clean.
The GTB is very well made, I was pretty impressed when I got it. It's sealed with a nice rubber all around and it's waterproof I believe. It keeps dust out of the ESC and button too, which is a problem I've heard about on a few sphere users (dust messing up the buttons).
The fan is a nice extra, I wouldn't read anything into it regarding overheating issues since the GTB naturally has a lower on resistance than the sphere (and it can support hotter motors too, hence the possible need for a fan).
7 cells? meh... If you really want more speed, just go with a hotter motor since the GTB supports hotter motors than the sphere. Doing that you'll also benefit from the slightly lower weight of 6 vs 7 cells. Realistically though, I'm not sure why you'd need/want a faster motor than a 4.5r.
One last thing to consider is the supposed awesome customer support of Novak.
I'd say go with the GTB, I doubt you'll regret it.

bigair78

Well, with the sphere competition you can get a hotter motor with it. As far as customer service I can speak from experience novak is great.

Now, I have the 5.5 and I am going to get another system. I am going to try the sphere competition with a 4 star. Here is my reasons..... First, the heat issue. Some say it doesn't matter, but it does. I am a basher and it effects me a little bit. From my understanding the sphere competition doesnt have this problem. Second is the fan. I don't mind it but I have already demolished one and I am sure the one I am using now will break soon enough. The last reason is speed. With 7 cells the 4 star should smoke the 4.5 on 6cells. And with running with fast nitros I need all the speed I can get.

mattster72

what about this one

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXLTY1&P=7

bIGmiK

That is for brushed motors..

happywing

True, there are more GTB's than Spheres at my track. Still, I've heard zero complaints about the Sphere where glitching is concerned. The GTB, on the other hand, is a crapshoot. Most people have no trouble, but a few do. After all kinds of glitch related headaches with my 5800SS, I didn' t want to chance it. As for service, Novak is superior. They've replaced every controller I've ever sent them, free of charge. I just go tired of sending them.

×SlappY×

hey, does anyone know the kv rating on the Neo One 4 star motor and the gtb 4.5 motor?

Ziggmiester

hey, thanks for all of the responses. If anyone can answer that question that the last guy asked that would be great because I would also like to know as well

R/C fan-addict

novak does not post KV ratings for the velociti motors since I heard there was a mixup at the company. I dunno. As for the 4-star I did not see anything on the associated site but I'm sure they have the specs posted. As for glicthing I got my TA05 with GTB and 4.5R running over the weekend. No glitching whatso ever unless I was 50 feet away when I should have already taken out the pack (like after 10ish minutes). I am also using an airtronics blazer AM radio which is about the cheapese radio you can find and if you look at the antenna placement on the TA05 it is very close to the motor. I am using torched IB4200 (the bars just wouldn't solder down even with 150 watt gun it wouldn't melt properly and would only start to melt after like 5 minutes! So I ended up saying I have nothing to lose and torched em! ) I honestly don't see where you guys can get all your glicthing problems from!? The only thing that might be different from my setup to most other peoples' BL setup is that I have very short (under 4") power wires as the ESC is right next to the motor and also the 4.5R might have a RF noise resistant case or something. Power is very smooth and it is truely amazing to drive this car. Worth every penny!

bxpitbull

If you are looking to go more than 6 cells, DON'T I say again DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE SPHERE!!!!!!!!!!! The selling point for me was the seven cell option, considering one of the cars I blaze with is a TC3. Well, I bought the Neo One 3 Star with the Sphere and they recommend on the packaging for long straight tracks, run a final drive of 8.0 is recommended. I was running a 7.8 final drive, should've been ok right...wrong! The car took forever to get to top end and wasn't blazing fast like I thought it would be! I was running matched, 7 cell, Nicad 2400's just to see what the punch was like and it wasnt all that! Doodled around with gear ratios and went back down to a 6 cell 3300NiMh. About the same speed, except run time was improved. Brushed was definately faster because I changed back to my original set-up which was a D5 with a 8x1 D6 skewed armature using a dually ESC. The car flat out hauled! Now here's where things get FUNKY! I re-installed the brushless set-up, ran it again and not only did it fly, it went into thermal mode and never recovered!!!! At the end of running, hit the power switch and the indicator light wouldn't shut-off. Disconnected my pack, gave it a few minutes and tried again...same results!!!! Slapped it on the deck, and it when I hit the throttle, it went in reverse. This would have been ok, but I LOCKED OUT THE FRIGGIN REVERSE!!!! I called LRP/Team Associated the next day and those bozos told me I was pushing the envelope by running 7 cells with such a HOT Motor! I should have consulted my TC3 manual and went by the gear ratios included for a nine turn is what they told me. I told the jackass that when the car manual was printed, there was no such thing as LRP brushless. Not to mention, the gear ratio recommended on the speed control packaging says nothing of if you run 6 cells, run this ratio and on 7 cells, run this one. They blamed me for going to tall on the gearing and told me to send it in for testing. No guarantee it will be fixed, but my problem is, that if they say 7 cell, and I ran the motor that came with the speed control combo pack, AND went by the suggested gear ratio final drive, then how can they say "dont pay that any attention, go by the car manual?" Suppose I didnt own a TC3??? The sphere is not all that and my car got spanked by quite a few cars running the GTB. Oh, did I mention, I have raced only 3 times before the ESC fried?!?!?!?!??!?!?! I have been orange for many years and when they have a product and it says "4-7 cells", it doesnt come with an asterick(*). Hence, LRP is ok, dont go by their 7 cell selling point, but their customer service and techs suck! I was not all that impressed by the run times either (6 cells, matched 3300 NiMH.....6 minutes 42 seconds max in my TC3). Final drive 7.8 running 78 spur/25 pinion. Buyer beware or stick with the ORANGE! Based on my bad experience AND how fast I have seen GTB pump out the juice (not always with Novak motors either), I am going back to my roots. I started with the Super Rooster in a TL-01, have run cyclones, and Dually's have always treated me right. I should've stuck with Novak and got the GTB. Well, I am going back to orange AND NEVER AGAIN buying LRP speedo's!

P.S. The motor is good to go. At least something good came out of the deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lunchboxer

Go get the latest copy of RC Car Action magazine and they covered Sphere Comp w/ 4-Star and the GTB 4.5R.. they run the Sphere in XXX-T and GTB in a RS4 TC.. pretty interesting.. both are fast for sure.. I don't know why anyone would want 50mph in a XXX-T.. LOL!!

I ordered a Sphere / Neo 1-Star and should arrive next week..

I am sure Novak products are great as well.. (I have the SuperDuty XR)

I choose the 1-Star over the 5800 because 1-Star is rated with more power (220W vs. 196W or so..) but that's just me..

4-Star is rated at 280W, I think.. I got that e-mail somewhere in my mailbox..

bxpitbull

I read the article and contrary to what one might gather, I had zero problems with LRP products before I went brushless. I own the LRP no motor/no cell limit for brushed and the thing is bananas. As far as brushless goes, if you read my post, you will clearly see where things went south for me. Now, you may not have that problem. One of my race dogs had the one star in his TC3 running 72/30 on 7 cells (radioshack GP 3300's nonetheless) and no lie, was getting 45 minutes! And the thing was fast! His car kept accelerating and while the acceleration wasnt "centax clutch" fast, his top end and run time were simply off the charts! I figured if I went with the 3 star, gears it several teeth lower and swapped back and forth from 6 to 7 cells, I would probably get 12-15 minutes per pack. That wasnt the case and the speed control is DONE! Run times were average, on 7 cells, average. 6 cells, nice speed and decent run times but their selling point is 7 cells! If there are gear limits, then they should be more specific. Dude told me to refer to my car guide and again I say, when the TC3 came out, LRP didnt have brushless so who would think to refer to a car guide when the brushless motor AND ESC have gearing info. And for them to insinuate is my fault is worse than getting slapped across the face with a wet fish. Again, I state, when Novak says 4-7 cells no limit, they don't skimp out and ***** up and say "only if you do this" or "only if you run that". I am good friends with the owner of my LHS and he is gonna pull some strings to get me a new one....even though I bought it online. If it werent for that, I would've smashed it with a hammer, mailed it to them and the list of my people I am telling NOT TO BUY THEIR BRUSHLESS SPEED CONTROLS IF THEY ARE LOOKING TO RUN 7 CELLS!!!!!

Lunchboxer

Hopefully I will have a better luck with my 1-Star.. I don't plan on going crazy with my setup.. most of the time, 6 cells + 1-Star motor.. and "might" try to get a couple of those 8.4V stick pack (cheap ones) from eBay and check it out.. and will have a fan on top of the ESC (I ordered the fan / power capacitor kit w/ the combo..)

We will see!!

bxpitbull

Newsflash....Turns out that an intern who wasn't supposed to be on duty the day I called gave me some bad information. An actual tech DID say however, that if you run the sphere (not the competition) it is recommended that on 7 cells, do not gear aggressively. The extra cell does zip for run time, gives more RPM's and hence, alters the gear ratio. It will be services because it is under warranty. I will stick with 6 cells until I go Li-po. To all who call LRP tech support, if you get a guy named chris, hang up and try your call again.....For the record, I just picked up the GTB and will run it with my sphere motor. It did go like a sonofabe-yotch!