Tekin FX, FX-R and B1
12 April 2008
This is my review of Tekin's FX and B1 series of electronic speed controls.
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How they come in their boxes.
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Included in the box - the ESC, a capacitor, some wires, zip ties, mounting tape and some Tekin stickers.
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This is the FX. It measures 1.1" x 0.80" x 0.40 " (28 x 20 x 10mm) and supports brushed motors down to 10-turns.
You have to use the included capacitor. The solder posts make soldering jobs easy.
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The FX in a Tamiya TA-05 tourer. It's really tiny so I don't think you'll find one 1/10th scale car that it won't fit in.
If you use Corally plugs, always make sure you plug in the battery the right way because the FX isn't polarity protected.
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Here's the FX on a Tamiya M-05. I put it up top to keep the wires short. I don't think I'd find many ESCs that can
fit in that tiny space.
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The FX-R is a reversing ESC. It has all the same settings as the FX but no throttle profiles and can support motors only
down to 13 turns. The 6V 3A BEC, strong drag brakes, small size and weight make it a favourite among rock crawlers.
Here it is mounted on my Axial AX-10.
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The B1 is meant for smaller (1/18th) scale cars and can handle any 380-sized motors.
It measures 1.0" x .93" x .35" (25.4mm x 23.6mm x 8.3mm) making it shorter but broader
than the FX. They are certainly the smallest ESCs I have ever seen.
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The B1 in an Xray M-18. The motor can is quite long and the servo is on the large side, so everything is tight on this car.
In terms of driving, the B1 felt just like its big brother the FX - silky smooth.
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One-touch setup
After doing the one-touch setup, the FX didn't seem to want to turn the motor. The first three LEDs just kept blinking. I was worried I'd
gotten a faulty unit. The manual said 3 blinking LEDs meant the ESC couldn't find neutral, so it wouldn't start up.
I did the one-touch setup again and the same thing happened. In the end, I had to "help" the FX find neutral by using the throttle trim
(alternatively, use the sub-trim) on the transmitter, and after that, everything worked fine.
I asked about this on a Tekin forum and Randy Pike said this happens sometimes with old transmitters because the neutral has shifted out of
the range the ESC expects. I found this odd as I thought the whole point of the one-touch setup process was to tell the ESC exactly
where neutral, full throttle and full brakes were. Anyway, this proved to be just a minor inconvenience in setting up and didn't affect
performance, so I didn't worry about it after that. The FX-R and B1 behaved the same way.
Tweaking it
There are many things you can set up with these ESCs using the two buttons - the most important of which are the throttle profiles and drag brakes.
Pressing the mode button toggles between modes and pressing the increments button changes the settings of whatever mode you are in.
It's really so intuitive I could have figured it out without reading the manual.
Update (25 Oct 2011): I recently tried using the Hotwire to set the neutral bandwidth to minimum (1 on the computer screen) and
had an impossibly hard a time getting the ESC to start up as it tried detecting neutral on the transmitter. I reset it to 10 and
the ESC starts up without any problems now. Just something to look out for.
Pros:
Tiny
Super smooth response
Throttle profiles and drag brake settings is super easy to set with the two buttons
Finer adjustments possible on a computer with the optional Tekin Hotwire USB unit
Firmware upgrades self-downloadable with the Hotwire unit
Can download and copy other drivers' setups through the Hotwire unit
LiPo friendly
Cons:
No reverse polarity protection
Apart from what I reviewed here, Tekin also offers the FX-Pro which has no motor limit,
the FX-R Pro which is reversible with a 10-turn limit, and the B1-R which is reversible.
