Is anyone using the Silver Series 35A brushless controller in their chopper? I emailed Electrifly and they told me that it can be used in a heli. I just want to know if it will start a motor slowly and spin up without too much torque effect. Electrifly told me there might be a slight burst from off to on. I'm not sure what slight is.

The controller I have now is very cheap and it starts so hard that I'm afraid to strip the gears. It torques my heli 90 degrees on start up. [:@]

I would say no since you have to do a series of throttle movements to arm it. Not a good thing for helis.

You are better off with a Castle Creations 35A or Align 35A ESC.

What is wrong with having to do a throttle movement to arm an ESC? Seems like a good feature to me.

What is the difference between these 2 controllers besides the Phoenix being twice the price.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXRFV4&P=7

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXGVS1&P=7

The Thunderbird is marketed more for planes, while the Phoenix will do planes and helis. You could probably use the Thunderbird in a heli, but it doesn't have the functions (soft start, governor) that you look for in a good heli ESC. The Phoenix series are fantastic in helis OTOH.

The difference is, the Pheonix is the one you want and the Thunderbird isn't.

I've got a ss-12 in a plane and it starts super soft. (you wanna count the blade revolutions at start up?) Don't see why it wouldn't be the same for the 35 amp in a heli.

I have an SS25 in a 3D plank with a gear drive swinging an 11x4. It goes from 0 to 60 in an eyeblink (which is what I wanted in that application). I don't know-- are you using a direct drive?

Forget it man, not worth arguing. They obviously know better.

There is a difference between arguing and wanting to know some facts. I usually do some inquiries here before I make a purchase. ...and no, I don't know better, which is why I'm here. I'm most familiar with electric and big gas boats. I've had a Blade CP for a while now, and that thing is just squirly. I just recently picked up the MX400 pro used, for a good price. I don't like the Chinese ESC it came with so I want a different one, but I also would like to save a little $$ for parts when I ding this thing up.

I am going to mess with the throttle curve tonight and see if I can get my heli to start like a heli should. If I can't, then I'll opt for the Phoenix.

Questioning people shouldn't get me shot down. When I'm learning something new I like to know the WHY behind it so I'm more educated on the subject. People who will just take the first peice of advice they get without questions are asking for trouble. In other forums here, I've seen some pretty bad advice from people who seem to know what they are talking about, only to steer a new guy the wrong direction which leads to wasted time and money. TEX, by the number of posts you've got on here, I suspect you know what you are talking about. But, I still just cannot take the first peice of advice I get as gospel. Really though, thanks for your help.

That comment was not directed towards you jdoug, I should have been more specific I guess.

Basically, any ESC that is meant for a heli has a slow start built into it as an option. This saves many gears, blades, motors and smashed helis from inadvertantly hitting the stick by accident. The soft start option overides all throttle stick commands when powering up. In soft start mode if you flip the throttle to WOT it will still start slowly until it reaches your preset throttle curve where ever your throttle stick may be.

An ESC w/o soft start will go from zero to full throttle in just about a second. This can be very damaging to a heli. Yes, you can use an ESC that is not meant for a heli, but you will have to control how fast it starts up.

ESCs meant for helis also have more options like timing, throttle sensativity and governer.

Hope this helps better than the last post.

That was helpful, thanks again!

jdoug,

Windy day, so I had some time to tinker with my ESCs. Here's a vid of the slowest start I could manage with both a SS-12 and a Thunderbird 18. Can't quite count the blades as they start, but you get the idea. Would it spin a heli on start up? Don't know.

http://media.putfile.com/ESC-comparison