Starting to race a TC3..Will a Novak Fusion do the job?

[Mr. Furious]

Hey all.
I'm building my TC3 to start carpet racing. I have some nice packs and plan to start with stock motors. I have a Novak Fusion I'm going to install but I'm placing a big order for a better charger and a Novak Smart Station so I got to looking at the higher end ESC's.

My question is whether the Fusion will do a good enough job to get me started and be competitive or do I need to start looking at the higher end Novak or LRP ESC's that seem like they were built to race more than bash? I don't plan to run below the 12turn limit of the fusion. If it gets to that point I'll go brushless. So do I need something different or will I be all smiles with the fusion?

[rcguy2477]

The fusion will work perfectly fine. There may be a slight difference between the fusion and other "race" esc's, but honestly, few notice it.

[gizmoguy303]

If brushless motors are allowed at your track and those will then be what you use if you decide to run mod, then just use the Fusion. For stock and 19t racing it will be fine. Good luck!

[redheat8]

You should be just for now but when the time comes to add a different ESC I would suggest a Novak GT7, run stock and mod motors and diff. track setup options. RED

[Cain]

The only issue if I remember correctly that I didn't like about the fusion is the 5V of BEC. I like max power to my servos so you get the most performance out of them.

For starting though, you should be fine with the fusion. If you really want an ESC with 6V BEC but not fully high end the MC230CR and MC330CR both put out that amount and are pretty small.

[Pro3/nmt105]

I would stay away from the fusion. This ESC is rated down to 12T but it would thermal after a minute on the track with a properly geared 19T that was barely even warm in my bk2. I thought there must be something wrong with the esc so I bought my friends fusion off of him, it did exactly the same thing. When I emailed novak all they said was that I could send then in a pay to have them replaced with refurbished escs.

[Ed237]

I have Fusion and have raced it both with a 12 x 2 Reedy Pulse R, a 13 x 2 Reedy Flashpoint motor, and PK2K motor with a 3600 mah Trinity VIS stick pack in my T4.

I have run the 3600 pack for 8 minutes with the flashpoint and the Fusion has never thermalled. I think its one of the best esc's you can buy for under 60 dollars.

Heat can be problem if the fusion is not set properly. It has 2 frequency settings, one for stock and one for mod motors. I could see where running a 12 turn mod moter on the stock frequency can cause overheating problems.

Its possible that Pro3 got a bad one, but if the 2nd one did the same thing, I would be checking my car over to see if something else was causing it.

[Cain]

Agreed here. The fusion seemed to work good to its limit in most vehicles when I raced. From truck to 4wd sedan, was a popular one.

If you don't care about buying used, pickup a novak C2. I have that right now and love it.

[Pro3/nmt105]

I have Fusion and have raced it both with a 12 x 2 Reedy Pulse R, a 13 x 2 Reedy Flashpoint motor, and PK2K motor with a 3600 mah Trinity VIS stick pack in my T4.

I have run the 3600 pack for 8 minutes with the flashpoint and the Fusion has never thermalled. I think its one of the best esc's you can buy for under 60 dollars.

Heat can be problem if the fusion is not set properly. It has 2 frequency settings, one for stock and one for mod motors. I could see where running a 12 turn mod moter on the stock frequency can cause overheating problems.

Its possible that Pro3 got a bad one, but if the 2nd one did the same thing, I would be checking my car over to see if something else was causing it.
The strangest thing is that the fusions never thermaled with a 16T and 17T that they were run with. I think the Orion element tends to heat up escs for some reason. The motor itself runs pretty cool but it made the fusion thermal, and it makes my QC2 run a little hotter than it normally does with my 16t v2. I know that the ESCs were the problem, because someone leant me a novak electra, which has been discountinued for years, and that ESC was able to handel the motor too. The fusions would thermal at 140F, and they wouldn't shut off completly, they would shut off every time I slowed down then when I hit the throttle, they would start working again after a 2 or 3 second delay. I also tried both drive frequencies, and the result was the same. The motor was probably the problem since I actually sold one of them to someone who used it with a similar motor and they had no problems, but since other escs could handel it without thermaling, the fusion was the weak link.

[Pro3/nmt105]

Since no one else seems to have a problem, you should be safe buying one.

[hooligan1]

i run an explorer 2 under it's turn limit and it's fine so i say go for the fusion!

[b3guyRC10]

The fusion will be fine for now to run in a TC3. If you were considering to run mod, DON''T until you gain a lot of experiance. Mod is extremely hard on batteries, tires, bodies and motors. A freshly trued set of foams will last one race day, bodies last a couple race days at most, and motors have to be rebuilt every run. Also with mod, it is extremely expensive and time comsuming. An ESC would be the last of your trouble when getting high end stuff for mod, (lathes, chargers, trays, tires, bodies, motors, batteries, ect.)

The next hard part is setting up a car for mod, because with carpet you MUST have a good car to drive well, which is not the case so much with offroad. Its much easier to wheel a poorly setup car offroad than it is on carpet.

Third, the car is going so much faster that if you hit anything, it is pretty much guarenteed something will be broken.

If your going to be running stock which I HIGHLY recomend, the fusion will be fine. I don't know who mentioned it thermaling, but that will not be a problem with a stock motor.

Keep in mind, a 19t may not seem hugely different in an offroad car, but in carpet, a 19t is a heck of a lot faster. At my local track in the mod class Eric Derosiers (AE/Reedy Team Driver) runs crazy mods and he is one heck of a driver. Other Factory drivers run 19t's and are roughly 7 tenths off him. Keep in mind, Eric is also one of the best drivers in the Northeast. Hand in hand with Dumas, Smyka, ect.

if you have any questions about carpet, feel free to drop me a PM.
-will

[J_Bone]

I had a problem with my Novak Fusion ESC. It was glitching something crazy!!
I used a Hitec 645 , a Associated servo S2008MG and a JR 590. The only servo that worked was the JR 590. The Associated was the worst glitcher!
So I took the Futaba MC230CR ESC off my old RS4 and tried it. Nothing, no glitching with any of the servos. SO I ended up swapping ESC's and now my T4 and RS4 run. So I have Hitec 645 servo & Futaba MC230CR in the T4 and the Novak Fusion with a Futaba servo. Now neither glitch. But I wanted the Novak in the T4 so I oculd run 19T spec class too. I bought a JR590 so I can. It's been a big hassle.

So, be careful of which ESC you run. I've always known Novak to be a good ESC, but this one obviously has an issues. I can't run a Hitec 645 or the AE S2008MG so make sure the servo and all the other electronics work together.

[Ed237]

I have heard that Novak will stand behind their products. Did you guys send them back for service?

[ElectricThunder]

Novak is a very reputable company, and will stand behind their stuff. I had a novak fusion a year or two ago and it was a great ESC. Handled my 13x3 (which i overgeared sometimes... :eek: ) perfectly and never shut down due to thermaling. Unfortuneately, I ran it through some water one day, and was a newb, so I didn't know I could save it by turning it off and drying it, so it got dissected :D. I loved the two different drive frequencies though. It was so easy to change it too.

[Mr. Furious]

I have 2 cars now so I needed another ESC. I couldn't find a mid-priced one that really had all the features I was looking for so I bit the bullet and bought a Novak GTX. I figured it would last me through a lot of changes and could do it all from stock to super hot mod motors. So I'll be running the GTX in the TC3 I plan to race seriously and running the Fusion in the B4.

I really like Novak's stuff and they have a great reputation for quality and customer service.

[J_Bone]

I e mailed Novak and they said they would give me a new if I send it to them. Well it works good with the FR590 servo, so that's waht I'm doing. It is a great ESC for the money, just can't use it with Hitec servos. Maybe it's Hitec?? Not Novak.. It wasn't a bash against Novak, I'm using it still and it runs great with other servos.

[baileyk]

I e mailed Novak and they said they would give me a new if I send it to them. Well it works good with the FR590 servo, so that's waht I'm doing. It is a great ESC for the money, just can't use it with Hitec servos. Maybe it's Hitec?? Not Novak.. It wasn't a bash against Novak, I'm using it still and it runs great with other servos.

The servos you were using pulled to much power. The BEC on the fusion is really crappy and can't handle much more than standard servos. Technically there is nothing wrong with your speedo, the BEC just can't handle the more powerful/faster servos.

Karen