Demon Pro King ESC

[dinglem]

This pair just arrived through the post. Pretty rare even over in the UK, dating from 86-87. If they're good enough for Jamie Booth, then they're good enough for me

[Fracek]

Good find. I also have two esc form Nick Adams Demon 2d and Big Devil.

[bluewormx]

Great finds!

Fracek please post a photo of the other side of the Big Devil. I have never seen one before...

Dinglem is this the one you have?

[dinglem]

I have seen that advert before but i also have another from that period which also lists the RC10 Ultra Lite bodyshell.

Good to see the ESC specs listed here on such a quality scan. Thanks for posting. Also interesting that the Demon 16triple and 15doubles were considered the ultimate in crazy winds at that time, which is just how i remember them. Kind of tells you how low to go when using these esc's. It was around this rime that i bought my Demon 16triple.

I am also sering two different hestshrink colours; one paler blue and one darker and more glossy (like my example). Both original colours?

[bluewormx]

I only ever saw NEW Demon speed controls in opaque blue. I saw Jamie Booths car at the British GP in 1988 and his proking was in "clear" heatshrink.

The "translucent blue" heatshrink was very typical of Intronics and of CS electronics.

If you ever find a source for the translucent blue heatshrink, let me know.

As far as motors goes things got crazy after the 87 worlds Battery matching became a big thing, and better matched cells meant longer run times. In 1988 things got "REALLY" crazy with the advent of SCE cells the jump from 1200mAh to 1700mAh was brutal! about 40% more capacity.

[dinglem]

I also see some with the FET bank covered, and some open. Again, which was factory correct??

[bluewormx]

I also see some with the FET bank covered, and some open. Again, which was factory correct??

I bought two brand new back in the day and both came open. All the ones my mates had where also open. But there is that one we saw NIP that was closed so who knows. Anyhow they would not last long closed since they got hot and would melt the heatshrink away.

One of the later versions of the proking did not have the heatsink on the brake transistor instead it had another TIP36A transistor in parallel to share the load.

[winner_evo]

I only ever saw NEW Demon speed controls in opaque blue. I saw Jamie Booths car at the British GP in 1988 and his proking was in "clear" heatshrink.

My Demon King that I bought new was definitely plain blue heatshrink not opaque and the FETS were open when new.

I know when I bought mine they were new out, I got mine from PitStop models in Plaistow as the owner used to run the club I belonged to.

[Fracek]

Lucky You, I have image before heat shrink it.

Great finds!

Fracek please post a photo of the other side of the Big Devil. I have never seen one before...

Dinglem is this the one you have?

demon_price_list-1987.jpg

[dinglem]

Well a massive thanks to bluewormx for working over these Demon ProKings for me

The first one is now fully tested, re-wired and working like a dream!!

The second needs a bit more work so I will post that up when completed.

[dinglem]

Well these are both now back with me and fully restored. One had required a new TIP 36A Transistor (whatever that is) so one was ordered off eBay and is now fitted. Both look fantastic so a massive thanks again to Francis (bluewormx) for working on these for me. Incidentally they were also beautifully packaged and wrapped by him for their return journey to the UK

I have recently found another... this version being a 6 FET forward-only version, which still has the ProKing circuitboard as it says ProKing on the back, but is essentially 'King' spec.

Francis mentioned in an earlier post about the later versions having a double brake transistor sharing the braking load, and this one appears to have that, as you can see here:-

This ESC was raced by none other than Rory Cull as i sourced it from his father along with one of his old race cars last week. I have sent pictures of it to Nick Adams (Mr.Demon) and he has shone a little light onto the hand-written sticker on the circuitboard.

Supposedly the upper number signifies the number of the ESC made, and the lower number, in this case 803, signified the week and the year. This one was made in the Week 3, 1988. Great to have some dating info!

number.jpg (51.1 KiB) Viewed 2326 times

number.jpg (51.1 KiB) Viewed 2326 times

[dinglem]

Well i seem to be falling rather lucky with these since I started digging for them. Whilst purchasing a bumper a couple of days ago I noticed some blue heatshrink in one of the pictures and asked what it was. So now I have ProKing number 4 on the way to me.

This one has the more see-through blue heatshrink on it, which assuming it actually still works, I am hoping to retain. I am also hoping it will allow me to make out the dating code sticker which I presume will still be present within....

Pretty cool to have sourced another anyway

[dinglem]

Another very late one added to the collection.

This one has the dual stacked brake transistor sharing the braking load, as per the later ProKings, and BUZ11 FETs.

This has the latest serial number and build date sticker I have seen so far.

Unit number 1102 built in the 17th week of 1989. Must have been one of the last.

[bluewormx]

I cant imagine Nick made many more speedos after this one, by 1989 most of his former team drivers where running Nosram.

[dinglem]

I guess they would have been considered outdated and large by 1989, although they did still occasionally appear in the magazine tech-spec sheets through '88 and '89 so there were clearly some top drivers still using them. I wonder whether they all had uprated spec units like the Rory Cull version though?