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Long time overdue, here's a peek at my ESC collection... Let's say that the ESC craze really took off as I was a kid, and of course I couldn't afford one at the time, especially the "big brand" ones like KO, Novak, Tekin. When I could spend some money on a hop-up for my car, it would typically be motor first, and, er, well, that's it... bearings were too expensive for the immediate adrenalin rush they brought (ie - none ) and as a teen speed mattered more than reliability, and god knows shocks and tires are useless anyway

Anyway, you got the idea, I was able to catch up a bit since

These are the vintage ESC's I've acquired along the years and that are in the "Vintage ESC" box below



This doesn't account for those in cars already, and the ones I've used the last 15 yrs or so in my racecars, most of them sold (or toasted ) along the years barring the odd cyclone or VFS1, so we're missing (at least) a Novak's Racer, Hammer, Cyclone TC, TC2, Tekin's G10 (a handful... all burnt ), GM's V12 and V12R, LRP's QC2/3, Keyence ExStraight...

That's what the magic box looks like with the lid off:



And now with the ESC's slowly appearing in their antinuclear zipbags



Let's look at them brand by brand...

Paul

TEAM NOVAK

There's something about Bob Novak's ESC's... the fact that they've won so many races, the bombproofness, the everlasting Orange box and other design cues... I love them. I have a few more in some of my runners, and they just won't die. I've toasted many Tekin's, but not a single Novak that I can remember. Here's the current collection:



Novak 4



There's something funny about this one, if anyone has a clue - when connected to a RX, it works as long as you don't connect a steering servo... once the steering servo is plugged in, the ESC can only move the wheels and the steering servo doesn't work any more. Oh Well

Novak T4 - Basically a 4 with Tempfets. Showed in my Fox runner where it replaced the aforementioned disfunctionnal 4... Works a charm, although it's taped together as the threads of the 4 screws are stripped in the top box




Novak M5 - "The Workhorse"



Probably the best entry-level ESC ever sold... timeless, punches way above its weight, relatively tiny, affordable. Mythical, and one of my favourites on mild-mod runners!


Novak T1X



Novak 410 M1C - in my late RC10 CE runner Race-grade ESC, world champ BitD!




Novak 410 MXc - The bigger brother to the M1C, harder to fit in a car...




Novak 410HPC - The pinnacle of the 410 series and the last of the novak racegrade speedos without onetouch setup, one of the best, ever! Note the plugs, gone on most others




Novak Hammer Pro - One touch setup, here I come!

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Novak Cyclone in my runner LXT - Undoubtedly the best speedo of all times with the VFS1. With the "setup" possibilities via an external box, this speedo was 10yrs ahead of its time at least. I stupidly sold my pitwizard about 5yrs ago




Paul

Team Tekin

Somehow I've always looked at Tekin like a subpar-Novak... Which is a shame as Kevin Orton pretty much invented the FET ESC, the delta peak charging method, and the gold-anodized FET that sells for 10x more than its value My only racing venture with Tekin was last millenium with the G10, and I have to say I probably went thru 5 or 6 of them in my street weapon in a few months, for what appears to be no reason. Fortunately customer service was efficient, they would always send me a new one I think the fifth or sixth I got I sold right away and I was done with it Shame because that ESC would be hard to beat when it was working well, and that KnightRider kinda LED bar was just killer

Tekin Not_Sure_What_The_Name_is_But_It_Must_Be_One_Of_The_First_Ones... and it needs a good cleanup




Tekin 411P - This one has received a lot of TLC, has been recabled, cleaned up, rewired internally for my TRX1 "Black Widow" runner, blinged up, and so on so forth... When I told a longtime shopowner friend of mine I was about to rebuild the ultimate TRX1 with a 411P speedo in it, he said "mmmh make sure it works".... Well, guess what - it was dead when I plugged it! Tekin's longtime (un)reliability image sure is justified. The tape you can see peeking below has "f***ed up" written on it as a memo Now there's an Novak M5 in my traxxas so it's the black widow with an orange ESC:roll:




Tekin 411G - Basically a 411P with painted FETs on it and a 200% price tag Don't ask me if it works, I cannot resolve myself to trying it




Tekin 410K (eyboard) - Probably the most discussed-about ESC ever built. No need to comment further. I have instructions if anyone needs them btw...




Tekin G9 - brand spanking new in sealed box... yum!



Paul

LRP (Lautenbach Racing Products)

In my memories, LRP was the most expensive gear on the market, and Juergen the great european engineering guru of RC electronics. For what I know of RF electronics, he was indeed pretty darn good! I never ran LRP gear before my Quantum's in DTM, this was this millenium. The products are typical German engineering and pricing, think of LRP as the Porsche of RC electronics. Just like Porsche sold their soul to the devil recently by extending beyond the 911 lineup (Boxster was still ok...) and selling Cayennes by the bucketload, LRP is now rebranding cheap asian products, cars, radios, whatever else can drive sales. Interestingly they still haven't lost their engineering edge as Jurgen was smart enough to jump on the BL bandwagon early, and the Sphere and now SPX/SXX controllers are still the benchmark. But to me LRP lost a bit of their PoD the past few years, still...

Interesting (translated) Page from Juergen himself on the ESC history of LRP
http://www.lrp.cc/de/news/aktuelles/aktuelles/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=5354&cHash=8a360bf5afd672d202f46a2dc999d332


Now off to the vintage stuff

LRP LE 25AMS (1991) - This is the granddaddy of all LRP ICS/IPC family. Pretty darn advanced for its time, regenerative braking, brake adjustment,.... This was THE ESC to beat in 1991 and LRP's first "mass produced" product! Pretty darn collectable if you ask me

LRP ICS Digital (1995) - Evolution of the 25, the ICS was (I think) the first ESC to offer different "profiles" with the chips you could plug in, not sure if this goes beyond "simple" current limiting though. Used by both Mark Pavidis and Matt Francis to win the Worlds at the Yatabe in 95 The day when I restore my Pavidis Ed. I know where this speedo goes!




LRP IPC Digital (x2) - This is legendary stuff, released in 96 I think. Up till the end of the brushed era where it was sold in parallel with the Quantums, the IPC (in a different form, V6, V8, stock, whatever) still was one of the speedoes to beat at the track. Again it looks like an ICS, at least externally. I'm wondering to which extent the speedos that MF and MP had won with the year before wouldn't be proto ICS that were close to IPC.



Paul

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OMG Paul! That is a great collection there!

I have had quite a few that you have listed, I started out with Tekin speedos, although never really had any issues with them. I had a 410K too, great speedo, having a keyboard on your speedo was uber-cool BITD!

I had a couple of Novaks too, the 410HPC went in my first Losi XX in 1993/94 when they were first released.

I do remember switching to LRP from Tekin one day though, and couldnt beleive how much smoother the LRP speedos were, alot more controllable at low revs, maybe to do with the switching frequency(?), but from then on I used LRP only..

it's funny hearing other people's thoughts on the quality/dependability between novak and tekin. up until i bought an lrp qc2 in '08 to use in my rc10 at the vnats, all i ever used in my race cars was tekin. i did have a t1x in my junior-t for a short time after i got it, but was replaced with a 411p not long after i started racing.

when i worked at the lhs, we were sending esc's back to novak for repairs constantly. it was rare that we would send a tekin back. i still have my original 411p and it works like a champ, and i wasn't kind to it either. it was used...... alot.

Interesting perspective indeed! My personal experience on Novak ESC's is that i have NEVER toasted one. I've used them as a clueless basher when I was a teen (think 7cells, overgeared mods on trucks with boxstock pinion,...), as a beginning competitor as a older teen and young adult, and as a more or less "serious" adult racer who was finally beginning to understand what brushed motors were about... not once has a novak ESC let me down. The only time I ever was unable to finish a race due to a novak speedo was with my RacerEX, it was parking lot racing in Houston in the middle of the summer and ridiculously hot, and it just thermalled with a 12turn mill...

In similar times, none of my G10's ever made it past a couple of races before they had to be returned to the factory

I like both brands anyway

Yet to come:
- KO
- Oddball stuff, some of it pretty radical

Paul

Awesome collection Paul! You've got a lot of cool stuff there.

I'll add the English version of that article for anyone whose German isn't quite up to snuff: http://www.lrp.cc/en/news/news/news/?tx_ttnews[backPid]=11&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=5241&cHash=a6370b2d2f08b97c23ab6a16a59a1297

when i worked at the lhs, we were sending esc's back to novak for repairs constantly. it was rare that we would send a tekin back

Hey Jason do you know if you guys sold more Novaks than Tekins?

Paul you have a Helbing in their?

And the AMS was awesome - especially with the optional potientiometer

drbelleville wrote:Paul you have a Helbing in their?

And the AMS was awesome - especially with the optional potientiometer

Maurice, yes, I have a NiB HEL 3000... didn't get to that point yet but it's coming

Ooops! I forgot to take a pic of the LE25AMS pot!!! thanks for pointing this out! I will have to fix this soon

Paul

Yes, you need a shrink. Let *me* be your shrink. Whatever you don't want, send to me, that will help shrink your collection.

when i worked at the lhs, we were sending esc's back to novak for repairs constantly. it was rare that we would send a tekin back. i still have my original 411p and it works like a champ, and i wasn't kind to it either. it was used...... alot.

I agree from my first Novak in 1986 till probably my last they always had problems I just really liked the orange color