03 August 2007
Okay, the Novak Super Sport Plus and SS5800 has been working great the past year and a half that I've had it, but I've sold all my Ni-MH batteries and have gone totally LiPo. What are my options? I tried installing a LiPo low-voltage cutoff unit (the Novak SmartStop 2s) and that did work well along with the SS+ and SS5800 combo, but it adds lots of wires to my cars which are already very messy, and is a hassle to move around. The better solution was to get an ESC that had the low-voltage cutoff as a built-in feature and that's where the XBR comes in.
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Novak makes it clear that this system is the successor of the Super Sport Plus. Even the box is the same size. |
| Inside the box is the same foam packaging. |
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Same length sensor wire as the old system, same pre-mounted power cables, same wirey mess to look forward to installing. |
| A comparison of the XBR esc (on the left) with the old Super Sport Plus (on the right). The XBR has a narrower footprint but is actually longer overall if you take into account all the solder tabs. The old squarish design was notoriously difficult to install in many cars, so this longish design should theoretically be easier to fit into some cars, but probably not by a whole lot. The bottom isn't perfectly flat so make sure the mounting tape is thick enough. |
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A better comparison pic of the widths. The XBR has LiPo low voltage cutoff feature, a feature to run the motor in the opposite direction, and automatic detection of brushed or brushless motors, and a 6V 1.5A BEC. In brushed mode, it has a no-motor limit and is supposed to perform as well as the GTX (Novak's top brushed motor ESC). In comparison, the old Super Sport had a 12-turn motor limit, but it had the Sportsman mode (RPM limiting) and a beefy 6V 3A BEC. You gain some, you lose some. |
| The new EX motor (left) and the old SS5800 motor. My EX is actually the 10.5 turn version, but there are also 13.5 and a 8.5 versions. The EX 8.5 is the new equivalent of the SS5800. Performance wise, both series of motors are identical as they run the same components inside. The gold centre ring on the EX seems to spin quite freely, while the purple centre ring on the SS5800 is clamped tight. I'm sure this doesn't affect performance though. |
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About the only thing that's changed on the motors are actually the solder tabs. The old-style tabs had holes for the wires to poke through but the new ones are just solid L-shaped tabs. Novak claims this is easier. I've never had any problem with the hole tabs myself. |
| Test-fitting on the DF-03. It could almost fit, but the motor power cable solder tabs were the only thing in the way. |
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Test-fitting in the TA-05 chassis. It doesn't seem to fit without some major mods, so I've stopped trying for now. Here you can see the receiver plug pins (on the left) and the fan power output pins. The fan output is shared with the receiver BEC, so don't get carried away with the current draw. |
Conclusion: The EX motors are based on the old Super Sport series, so I have no doubts about their performance. The XBR Sport ESC seems to perform the same as the old Super Sport Plus, plus it has the LiPo cutoff feature. I wish it could run 1 motor wind lower in brushless mode, but considering it's actually priced lower than the SS+ was, I still think it's a good deal.
To read about the old Novak Super Sport brushless combo, go here.
