| The 43HVR is an electronic speed control that
is mostly suited for scale boats due to it's relatively low (15 amps)
current capability. Most of my scale boats will pull no more then 5
amps so this controller will work well.
The 43HVR is offered as a kit or a complete unit. I chose the kit
because it's cheaper and I like to assemble electronics. Electronize
offers 4 versions of their speed controllers, all available as kits or
finished products. The four styles are:
43X - 10 amp controller without
BEC
43VR- 10 amp controller with
BEC
43HX - 15 amp controller
without BEC
43HVR - 15 amp controller with
BEC |
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| There is a pretty good number of parts in this
kit. The main drive transistor is a single mosfet. The
controller uses a relay to reverse the current instead of using additional
mosfets. The voltage regulator is a standard LM style
rated at 1 amp.
The controllers that do not feature a voltage regulator (BEC) will
operate down to 2 volts while the ones with a voltage regulator will only
work down to 7 volts. Since I am going to be using some of these
units on 6 volt applications, I added a wire so that I can bypass the
regulator so that the drive battery is directly connected instead of going
though the regulator. |
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| The instructions are well done with very good pictures and
descriptions of what needs to be done. |
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| The first step is o solder all of the resisters onto the
board. The circuit board is of extremely good quality. All of
the holes have metal traces going all the way though that makes soldering
a snap. |
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| Next, all of the smaller transistors and IC's are
added. The main chip is soldered directly to the board so a lower
wattage iron should be used to prevent amage. |
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| Next, everything else is added included the mosfet and
voltage regulator that goes on the back side. so that it can use the back
of the case as a heat sink. |
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| The kit includes a handsome case to house the
ESC. The output wires are supplied with the kit as is the
solder. The receiver plug is included but no power plugs are
provided. The unit uses an inline fuse for protection. Wires
are provided for adding a on/off switch on the regulator. The
instructions are good and it is fairly easy to build it although a few of
the pieces are close together making soldering a little bit tricky.
I found a couple of items missing from my kit, a silicon pad and a spacer
used for mounting the drive mosfet. I made the spacer from an
oversized spacer supplied in the kit and just used heat sink compound on
the back of the mosfet since it is totally sealed in plastic and would not
short against the metal backing plate. (Update
as of 9/16/02 - It appears that the most recent versions of the kit now
include all of the missing parts that were missing from the older
ones) |
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When first turned on, the ESC sends a brief
power surge to the motor before going to neutral. The action is very
smooth from off to full throttle. The relay kicks in when the the
unit is switched into reverse. After running the unit for 5 minutes
on a 3 amp load, the bottom metal plate was warm but not hot. The
instructions state that for heavy loads, air should be allowed to
circulate around the unit.
I enjoyed building this unit and it appears to
work well although I have not tried it in a boat as of yet. One
thing to note is that it is on the large size as far as speed controllers
go. Make sure you have room for it in your boat!
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