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Plug and play seems to be a way of life these days. Ever present in today's computer industry as well as the gadgets and gizmo's we all love to play with. This term has forever changed the range of products that we as consumers can experiment, purchase and play with.

Electrifly has now introduced a truly plug and play speed controller into the world of RC flight. From the pre soldered motor connectors to the amp appropriate Deans® battery connectors, these speed controllers make it simple with no muss and no fuss. The Silver series controllers range from 8amps to 45 amps to suite any need.

• Deans Micro/Deans battery leads pre installed
• Compatible with Lipo, NICD and NIMH
• Auto detect battery type and sets cut-off voltage automatically
• Programmable Brake
• Safe Start programming
• Thermal Protection

Before we get into testing the Speed controllers, lets go a bit deeper into the features. Each ESC comes with a Deans® battery connector installed. The SS-8 and SS-12 controller have a Deans Micro® plug which can handle currents easily at the SS-12's 15 amp burst rating. And the SS-25, SS-35 and SS-45 comes with a Deans Ultra®. These are both quality connectors and save the end user from having to break out the soldering iron. Also to save from burning those fingers, the motor wires already have bullet connectors soldered on. The SS-25 and SS-35 have the more common 3.5mm bullet connectors while the SS-8 and SS-12 have what appears to be 1.8mm and the SS-45 has a larger connector that I am guessing is 4mm. I am standardized on 3.5mm so I did have to modify the 8, 12 and 45amp controllers for testing.

LVC (low voltage cutoff) is preset and non programmable. It is preset at voltage x .67 or 67%. That equates to around 2.7- 2.8 volts per cell. I am not sure what the reasoning was at setting it at this variable and not the mainstream 3 volts per cell. However, it works fine and I have measured the resting voltage at 3.2 volts per cell upon hitting cutoff with a 3 cell lithium pack. The one precaution and is mentioned several times in the included documentation is to ensure that your pack is fully charged when you plug it in. This is again due to the voltage x 67% rule. A half charged pack could result in the cutoff voltage being set low enough to damage your pack. So

The brake option is the Silver Series one programmable feature (default is off). The brake is set by taking your radio to full throttle and then plugging in the battery. The ESC will beep twice and you then move the throttle to zero, listening for two more beeps. Then back to full for two more beeps and then back to zero where you will hear four confirmation tones indicating the ESC is armed. The steps are repeated to turn the brake off.

The Safe Start feature is a very nice one. Simply plugging in the battery does not arm the ESC as in most speed controllers. With the Safe Start feature, once the battery is plugged in, the throttle must be moved to full on and then full off again before the ESC is armed. It really takes care of those accidental startup's!

When the ESC reaches a 230° F temperature the Thermal Protection feature kicks in. This feature protects the hardware by shutting down signal to the motor.