Brushless Tornado – Team Orion Vortex BL ESC

Settings
The Vortex Sensored/less offers a good amount of set-up possibilities to adjust to your driving style or track conditions. These are:

Battery setting (LiPo, NiMH or no cut-off)
Power curve (5 step – Super smooth to aggressive)
Brake (9 steps – 0% to 80%)
Drag brake (7 steps – 0% to 30%)
Motor timing (8 steps – 0° to 30°)
Dead Band (4 steps – 1% to 4%)
Operation mode (Forward/Reverse or Forward only)

The set-up of the speedo is well explained in the manual. Adjusting the software is a simple task as small charts help to set-up the correct parameters. The only down side is that you can only change one parameter (the power curve for example) at a time. You will have to start from the beginning of the set-up scenario to adjust other parameters like Drag brake etc.

Track test
To test the Team Orion Vortex ESC we choose to mount it into an X-Factory X-6 buggy. With its large capacitor its not even the skinniest speed controller out there and the X-6 chassis offers loads of space. We ran it with one of Team Orion’s own LiPo batteries – in our case the 3800mAh Race Spec offering. Its Kokam cells offer loads of voltage and run time and during our test period we were never disappointed by its performance.

Back to the Vortex ESC. Initially we ran it plugged in to a 9.5T stock motor in sensorless mode. To our surprise the set-up of the speedo matched 100 percent with our Futaba 4PK radio and R604FS receiver. No set-up of throttle or brake was needed.

In sensorless mode (read: with unplugged sensor cable) the Vortex showed moderate cogging on acceleration. Once the motor starts to spin the Vortex offers good and precise throttle control. With the power profile on value 3 and a timing of 0° (both unchanged out-of-the-box values) the buggy was very drivable and although equipped with LiPo battery not overpowered on the carpet indoor track we tested the speedo on. Our goal now was to find a bit more power so we went the radical way: power profile on value 5 (called X-Power) and a timing of 30° (which is no problem with the Speed Passion 9.5T motor). We also plugged in the sensor cable to make sure the motor revved up as smooth as possible. The characteristic of our ride changed instantly. The X-6 took off like a bat out of hell with minimal to no cogging, acceleration felt a lot stronger (we assumed is now uses a positive exponential throttle curve) and even the top speed felt faster although we did not test it with a radar gun. The only other thing we changed now was the operation mode from Forward/Reverse to forward only.

Equipped with the detachable fan the Vortex run always on the colder side with a temperature of around 40 to 45 degrees after a 7 minutes run. This offers lots of potential for hotter motors down to 5.5T or even 4.5T with attached fan. After this initial test we plan to give the Team Orion Vortex ESC a full blast on next weekend electric off-road indoor race in Quakenbrück/Germany. We will keep you posted on the results!

Specifications
Team Orion Vortex BL Sensored/less High Performance 100A ESC
Item number: ORI65003
Type: forward/brake and forward/brake/reverse function
Supports: brushless and brushed motors
Motor limit: unknown (down to 4.5T we guess from the specs)
Voltage input: 4 to 8 NiMH cells or 2 to 3 LiPo cells
Maximum current: 540A peak/100A constant
BEC: 5V/2A
Parameters: 7 (fully adjustable)
Size: 43x42x32mm (with cooling fan)
Weight: 100gr (with wires)
Parts included in Set: Speedo
sticker sheet
Price: around 129,00 Euros
Optional parts: ORI65020 Vortex Controller Digital Setting box (DSB)

The speedo was kindly supplied by Kyosho Deutschland.

Review by Sebastian Suerstedt