A lot of you will have read our story on the Speed Passion 540 brushless system back in Feb this year. At the time we said it was pretty damn good, and that still holds true now. Speed-wise it was real close to our normal black can Sport-Tuned motors, but it turned out to have a real Achilles heel, the ESC.
The motors were brilliant (and still are) but the ESC's turned out to be a real hit and miss affair. Out of the 2 we had, both had some form of problem after only a short while, and one of them ended up having a close relationship with 'Mr Hammer' and I don't mean a person either. Our suspicions were confirmed when the Exige quietly disappeared off the market after only a few months. If you've got one and it works well, then it's awesome, if yours is a problem child then you have our sympathy, and would you like to borrow my hammer?
9 months on and another system hits the shops. Ever heard of Hobbywing? Neither had we. But sources tell us that these guys are THE major player in the brushless motor and ESC game in China and the reason we haven't heard of them is that up until now they have essentially been an OEM supplier only. There's a good chance that you've used a Hobbywing product in the past, but it just had someone else's sticker on it
Well, we always said that whoever stuck their toe in the water with an affordable 540 brushless system would sweep the market away, and at first glance, Hobbywing appear to stuck their whole leg in and we can't imagine anyone else even bothering to join in the game.
Read this - closely. For around about (depends on where you buy it from) $130 Australian you get
A brushless motor, an ESC, AND a programme card to let you change all the settings. Yep, all of that for one note. I have to admit straight off, that most of us here at rc-mini are running ESC's alone that are worth twice as much as that, and that's just for the ESC! Buy a complete Hobbywing system and you get EVERYTHING for around half what most of us pay just for the speedy… Try and tell me that's not value for money.
