Kontronik Jazz 80-6-18
| Reviewer | Ashley Davis |
|---|---|
| Review Date | 9th March 2007 |
| Supplier | TrexTuning |
| Model | Jazz 80-6-18 |
| Unit Cost | £170 |
Overview
The following is an overview of the Kontronik Jazz 80-6-18 and it's functionality.
The Jazz 80-6-18 an Electronic Speed Controller for use in applications that will draw up to 80 amps continuous or 100A burst for 15 seconds. This makes it within capacity for the T-Rex 600. It's internal BEC will also handle up to 6S (or 18 cells). Hence the name Jazz 80-6-18, it stands for 80 amps and 6-18 nicad cells which is similar to 6S for lipos. The rating is somewhat confusing as 18 cells is 21.6V and 6S is 25.2V, Kontronik clear this up in the specification by specifying as a 25V capable BEC. However, the BEC s only rated to 4 amps which is certainly nowhere near enough to run three standard size digital servos comfortably.
The Jazz is programmed using a jumper (on the ESC) and the transmitter
stick position. This sounds complicated but in comparison to other ESC
it is amazingly simple. Basically you can alter one setting at a time.
You put the jumper on the ESC pins and power on. Wait until you hear three
beeps then take the jumper off, then wait for the beeps for the setting
you want to alter (multiple beeps) and then go throttle high.
There are only two settings to make, heli mode and lipo mode. Which is
setting 4 and setting 9.
So you power on with the jumper connected, wait for three beeps, take the
jumper off, wait until you hear four beeps and go to high stick.
Power off.
Power on with the jumper connected, wait for three beeps, take the jumper
off, wait until you hear nine beeps and go to high stick.
Power off.
and that's it !!
If you want to read more there is a downloadable manual here
The ESC is now set for heli mode and lipo mode, which means a nice soft start, no brake, and between 2.7 and 3.0v per cell lipo protection with a soft shutdown. Timing you don't have to worry about as the Jazz has automatic timing and adjusts it's frequency to exactly match your motor.
Normally at this stage I would go through all the setting on the ESC but for the Jazz it just isn't relevant, Heli fliers just set heli mode and lipo mode, nothing else required.
The next item normally covered is what motors the ESC will handle (in governor mode). Again this is somewhat irrelevant, the Jazz has a very clever governor that works out the timing of your motor and adjusts itself in both frequency and timing to produce a perfectly governed RPM. It does this with great authority and I've yet to hear of a motor that it couldn't govern adequately. Certainly all the motors I have tried have been no issue for the Jazz.
Of course the Jazz can be run outside of heli mode and this means that the governor is turned off and other settings would need to be applied to make sure nothing unwanted happens. The only reason to do this would be if you were running an external governor such as the eMultiGov which requires any governor mode to be switched off.
Flight Review
I have used the Jazz controller with several motors in the T-Rex 600. The majority of this time I have used the built in governor and only recently did I switch this function off due to installing an external governor (eMultiGov).
This speed controller works identically to it's smaller brother (40-6-18). It has a super smooth start-up which takes 12 seconds to reach full governed head speed. The governor has always worked far better than any other built in governor that I have tried. During the course of testing this ESC I had a lipo failure and motor failure both of which had potential to damage the ESC. The Jazz has various protective circuits to stop it being damaged by excessive current & overheating and throughout its lifetime nothing has caused it to malfunction.
In flight the governor works extremely well and certainly provides more consistent and managed power than running a throttle curve that is set to 100% (as often advised for the align speed controller).
Additionally with my latest motor I have run the ESC beyond it's specification of 100 amps and on occasion pulled close to 120 amps for brief moments. Again the Jazz has dealt with this without any issues. My most recent flight involved a very large loop through which I had full power and full pitch for several seconds. Prior to this loop I had been doing tic tocs. At the top of the loop the ESC went into thermal shutdown, I could see from the flight log that I had been pulling 110A for several seconds. Thermal shutdown of the ESC at this point did unfortunately lead to a rather heavy crash but it's worth pointing out that the ESC did the right thing in protecting itself from failure due to over current and overheating.
The Jazz is an expensive ESC but the money that you pay is paying for the reliability and protection built into the product. On top of this you get the variable timing and a superb governor. The variable timing being a big contributor to very efficient running of your motor and therefore marginally longer flights.
Conclusion
Having spent quite some time flying with the Jazz there are some things
you become very accustomed to once you have used one. First it has the
smoothest startup I've seen on an ESC. I can immediately spot a Jazz powered
T-Rex just from the spool up. Secondly the governor just does it's job,
no issues, no surging, it's very reliable.
These two things alone are a huge plus point but when you add to this automatic frequency matching (which gives
a silky smooth motor run) then it is difficult to come up with reasons
for not putting a Jazz on your machine. Added to this the programming couldn't
be simpler.
But before we all reach for credit cards be ready for a significant dent in your finances compared to other ESC. If this isn't an issue then without doubt this is the best ESC you can put in a standard T-Rex 600 and you certainly get what you pay for.
If you are running a very high power system (nonstandard motor) then the jazz may not be suitable for you, particularly if your setup pulls more than 100 amps. One such example would be the NEU 1515/2.5D F.
Overall I highly recommend this ESC if you are looking for a high-quality replacement for the Align ESC.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
