Your favorite ESC (with photo)

[juicedcoupe]

I'm surprised nobody has listed the Novak Cyclone

It's not my favourite...

Same here. I have one, and its a cool esc. But far from being a favorite.

I like older electronics, and I have several older Novak, Tekin, Futaba, and Astro-Craft pieces. But once they got buttons instead of potentiometers, they become newer stuff. And anything with a program card is new-new stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I have several newer models. And while some are cool in their own right, they will never be old school cool.

[mikea96]

Here is a couple of my favorites. Novak 410m1c and Novak racer EX.

[morrisey0]

Not an expert on this subject at all, but an ESC that I was introduced to recently is definitely my favorite so far, simply for its programmability. The Zeta Micro. Via a dipswitch programmer, the following can be set or adjusted: Trigger Start Position, Trigger Full Position, Trigger Start Brake Position, Trigger 100% Brake Position, Trigger End of Brake Position, Trigger Start of Throttle Position, Trigger Full Speed Position, Variable Brake Amplitude, Acceleration Rate, Trigger Response Curve .................and this is from a 1989'ish ESC!!

[RogueIV]

I'm surprised nobody has listed the Novak Cyclone

It's not my favourite...

Same here. I have one, and its a cool esc. But far from being a favorite.

I like older electronics, and I have several older Novak, Tekin, Futaba, and Astro-Craft pieces. But once they got buttons instead of potentiometers, they become newer stuff. And anything with a program card is new-new stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I have several newer models. And while some are cool in their own right, they will never be old school cool.

The Cyclone may not be my favorite but I still do have one and it works great! It just doesn't have that vintage look to it though.

[FPE155]

My favorite speed controll. Made by Corally in 1987 together with Dutch electronic manufacturer Philips

[1911Colt]

I don't have a favorite, really, but right now I have a bunch of brushless ESCs, and 1 classic that I sold to a buddy in the early 90s. I just got it back, so it jumped to the top of my list.

[dinglem]

What's weird is when i was just starting out everybody at my local club had British heatshrink-era ESC's, mainly Demon Kings and ProKings, Nosrams and the like. I hated the look of them and bought a Futaba 112B due to the neat looking placcy case. I then went through a few Novak units before settling on the T1X which i ran forever without any issues and still have to this day.

Strangely though it is the heatshrink-wrapped items which now hold a special place in my heart as they evoke so many memories from my first racing days. They are the ones i value and collect now. They are my Parma Eagle of the esc world

[Dadio]

What's weird is when i was just starting out everybody at my local club had British heatshrink-era ESC's, mainly Demon Kings and ProKings, Nosrams and the like. I hated the look of them and bought a Futaba 112B due to the neat looking placcy case. I then went through a few Novak units before settling on the T1X which i ran forever without any issues and still have to this day.

Strangely though it is the heatshrink-wrapped items which now hold a special place in my heart as they evoke so many memories from my first racing days. They are the ones i value and collect now. They are my Parma Eagle of the esc world

It's funny what nostalgia does to us , I've mentioned many times that I'd love to find my first ESC a Downsway Turbo Relay but my enduring memory of it was the constant grief of stripping it down the relay to clean the burnt terminals

[dinglem]

That said, i still find this to be pretty cool.

[V12]

That is a cool speedo indeed, because it´s a very early Tekin.
Not the 411 or the ones you find at the next corner.

The heatsink is not Tekin. Which manufacturer?
Victor made the round shape but other than that I don´t know.

[V12]

The strange thing is I collect alot of things now which I didn´t like in the past. Not related to ESC only.
But they are a part of the history..

But they have to have a reason to collect them.
For sure there are items also which I had in the past and don´t want to have again ... for a reason.

Regarding ESC, I made my own ESC since 1978. Right for the first car, which actually was intended as a testbed for making an ESC for the early R/C electric flight model.
For this reason I choose a Mardave 1/12 because the aluminium chassis could act as a heatsink. The PCB board was mounted than at the area replacing the original MSC.

I remember the RC12 was available at the same time but I thought this car can´t be good because of the fibreglass chassis ...
The Mardave with the aluminium chassis should be better ...

A couple of weeks later I attended my first race. The ESC was working pretty good, but I wasn´t the champion driver i thought of. And the car was a nightmare comparing with the RC12 or BoLink car of other drivers.

Well my ESC was completely open frame, no heatshrink or anything.
The next one got a small aluminium case which I still might have, similar to the early CS ESC but a bit shorter length.
https://classicrc.wordpress.com/esc-electronic-speed-control/cs-electronic/car-speed-super/

All of my ESC´s later got the heatshrink.

Now I have a couple of vintage ESC´s in heatshrink but the majority wear a case.
And I can´t say I prefere the heatshrink ones because regarding the cased ones there are Demon 2, Delta, early Tekin Mospower, Victor, Corally, the first LRP etc.

[dinglem]

That is a cool speedo indeed, because it´s a very early Tekin.
Not the 411 or the ones you find at the next corner.

The heatsink is not Tekin. Which manufacturer?
Victor made the round shape but other than that I don´t know.

Yes, I have some round Victor ones on my Victor ESC's, but these red ones are a Hot Trick hop-up which i thought suited the pinkness. I have two sets, the other being on my pink Titan ESC. I took the original Tekin and Titan ones off and replaced them with these because they looked better in my opinion. I got the idea from the Hot Trick Red Prince advert as I have a Red Prince build underway and the Titan will be going into that.

[Tang]

I'm probably one of few here who has never raced r/c competitively, besides a small homemade track in my parent's backyard in the early-mid '90s my brother, myself and friends made. Therefore, reverse ESC's were must-haves for us youngsters. My favorite back then was the Super Rooster, so it'll always be one of the favs.

I was the same way. I got out of it before the Super Rooster, though. I had the first Rooster in my World's Car back then. I'd go to the track at my local hobby shop for fun, but I never raced competitively.

[WillyThickfoot]

Gotta love the classics!

[V12]

I have a black one for this version of the Tekin Mosfet