CastleLink 2.23 with Mamba Max v1.09 released(possible problem!!!)

[TheSteve]

CastleLink 2.23 was released today, in it is new firmware(v1.09) for the MambaMax which is supposed to fix a possible cell detection problem with the auto-LiPo mode. I've never had my Mamba Max's miscount the cells but figured better safe then sorry. Two of my three Max's gave flash update failed errors, one is still fine, the other is now dead. I have flashed my four Mamba25s many times, along with my phx-10 and my thunderbird 18's in the past without incident.
I have always had complete confidence in Castle software but this has me a little concerned. I am hoping it was a fluke with my computer tonight.
I hope everyone elses updates go better then mine. This is my first Castle product failure...

[leomax001]

CastleLink 2.23 was released today, in it is new firmware(v1.09) for the MambaMax ...

....sorry to hear your issue :eek: but the update is for the mamba-25, not the max...... that is still at 1.07 level

http://www.castlecreations.com/downloads/frh-mamba_max.html

anyway, try to restore (from the software menu) the "initial" release of firmware, and then re-update to package version 2.22 (I'm still using that with my max.... ;)

[TheSteve]

The Castle notes are actually incorrect, the update is for the Max, not the Mamba25.
No chance to go back to older firmware, the ESC is dead, no USB communication at all and no motor drive.

[glassdoctor]

That's odd... I have updated several MM too... and some have had a communitacation failure several times before it finally worked, but it never killed one. I had to unplaug for pc, restart castlelink, etc.

Yikes... not sure I will be installing this update.

I had hoped that this was "THE" update we have been waiting for. Is there anything in it besides the auto-lipo?

[Dagger Thrasher]

That's worrying...I was about to update to this new version 1.09, but now I don't want to risk it. That sucks that one of you MMs is dead...maybe Castle will revive it under warranty?

Do you know if there are any other improvements other than the auto-lipo tweak?

[Demon-TC3]

OF course Castle will revive it under warranty, its their duty to...

IF the guy has 4 of them then he is fairly experianced with the unit, and if 3 of them died during upgrade then there is something wrong with the procedure...
That and castle seem to have fairly good Customer support...

[TheSteve]

Just to clarify, only one is actually dead after the update. Hopefully XP was just having a bad day and thats what caused it to fail. In the off chance it is some how related to the actual firmware itself or Castlelink I posted the warning.

[Dagger Thrasher]

Well I just bit the bullet, flashed my 2 MMs...and there wasn't a problem. I'm running Windows 2000 SP4, and both controllers updated just fine. TheSteve, it sounds like you could be right...maybe XP threw a bit of a wobbly. :( Either way, the update's worked fine for me. There are obvious no changes in CastleLink itself, and given that the firmware is only v1.09, I guess it's probably just the auto-lipo update.

[GordonFreeman]

Updated my firmware fine.

If I had to choose between Microsuck and Castle for who screwed up the firmware update, I'd pick Microsuck 10 times out of 10.

That said, perhaps Castle needs a "backup" boot or a way to confirm the update is correct before making it permanant in the ESC, in case the firmware update get interrupted/corrupted. (If it is possible for a bad firmware update to render the ESC inoperable.)

[Stuart B]

just done mine. It faled the first time, wouldn't work when I retried...so I reinstalled 1.07 which worked...then retried 1.09 and it succeeded....phew

not quite as straight forward as it could given its just a button press.

Just learnt that it beebps the amount of cells its counted too whe in auto lipo mode...handy check. Especially as I have a 3s ordered (I use a 2s currenty, and want to swap as the mood takes me).

Stu

[SpEEdyBL]

Mine miscounts the cells when I use auto lipo, but I don't use anything but 3s so it doesn't matter to me.

[TheSteve]

Mine miscounts the cells when I use auto lipo, but I don't use anything but 3s so it doesn't matter to me.

If it miscounts the number of cells in auto LiPo mode its quite possible the cutoff voltage in fixed LiPo mode is also incorrect. This could simply be because of the software glitch of course. To be safe you might want to manually see where it cuts off.

no answer from Castle yet regarding my Max which went to sleep.

[SpEEdyBL]

I'm pretty sure the manual voltage cutoff is not incorrect. I ran my batteries all the way down (before I knew that auto lipo was inccorrect) and the battery was still well above 9 volts. I'll check again though.

[TheSteve]

Well it could also error on the high side, not low side. I checked one of my Max's and it was within 0.1 of a volt. I have run auto-lipo and manual before. Highest manual I ran with 3S was 9.6 volts, made no real difference until the very end, so atleast I know my cells are holding good voltage for the duration of the run.

[GordonFreeman]

Crap, one of my MM started acting funny (would start the motor, then not run it anymore, might have been a voltage cut off issue (after thought)). So I tried to downgrade the firmware back to 1.07 and got some error during the process. Now it is dead. When I plug it into the computer, XP complains that the USB device is corrupt or some such ****.

Joe?

[TheSteve]

I received a response from Castle suggesting I reflash my ESC even though I told them it was completely dead. Anyway, mine is going back to Castle for repair. I get absolutely nothing when I plug it in.
I am still thinking that flashing a Mamba Max is not as stable as flashing all of the other products Castle makes, the Max is the only one to have its own usb interface, everything else uses the phx-link for usb communication.

[Rtsbasic]

Sorry for the massive bump, but I now have the same problem, using Castlelink 3.01, it flashed to 1.09 fine last week, tonight I tried taking it back to 1.07 while troubleshooting another problem (see other thread), and now it sits there with solid red/green lights on and does nothing, Windows doesn't recognise it as a valid USB device anymore, and Castlelink won't do anything with it. Any ideas?

[TheSteve]

Send it back to Castle.
If it can't be recognized as a USB device by CastleLink there is no way for you to recover it.
Castle Creations will be able to reflash it for you though, they did for me.

[Rtsbasic]

Typical, I just start getting back into RC, and the damn thing goes and breaks itself.

Oh well, I've sent an email to CC, shame its going to take weeks to get it sorted now :(

[chilledoutuk]

tbh i would get it sent off a fast as possible for repair.

I would also recommend that you pick-up another controller as its most likely going to be quite a while considering there stating 4-5 weeks on there site.

http://www.castlecreations.com/support.html

[Rtsbasic]

Cheers for the link. Its already out the car and ready to be sent, just waiting to hear from them now. Will be testing a Mtroniks Pro + 7700 combo till I get it back :)