The following is an overview of the Castle Creations PHX-Link and it's functionality.
I've also included the setup details for an Align brushless motor as part of this overview.

The PHX-link is a small piece of circuitry that allows your Castle Creations speed controller to be plugged into your PC and its settings manipulated through a small software program on the PC. The PHX-Link includes a small circuit with a servo type connector on it. This allows the ESC to be plugged into it via the ESCs normal connector that you would plug into a receiver. The PHX-Link has another connector on it that plugs into a USB cable to the computer.

The pictures below illustrate the componentry involved.

The large silver square on the circuit board is where the USB lead plugs into the PHX-Link.
The bottom right picture shows it plugged in and the red LED illuminated showing a connection.
OK, so having plugged it all in how does it work?

Well firstly you have to download the PHX-Link software from the Castle Creations website. Installing this software takes you through setting up the drivers which I won't go into here.
Having loaded drivers and installed the software you should have a new program on your PC called PHX-Link.

Before running the program plug the PHX-Link into the USB lead (to your PC) and into your ESC.
If you have a good connection then the front page of the PHX-Link program will show two green status for USB connection and ESC connection. Additionally you will have a red and green LED lit on the the PHX-Link and a red LED lit on the ESC.
Upon running the program you are presented with the following :
Firstly click on the Software tab, the first task should be to update the ESC to the latest level. :
Click the update button and you will download the latest software to your ESC as follows :
Click Yes, the software will download :
Having updated the ESC software we can look at the setup options, I've built these into the table below showing the options per input box and the default highlighted by an '*'.
Also within this table I have highlighted certain options in red, these are the options to set for an Align brushless motor running on a 3S lipo.
Category Options
Cutoff Voltage
  • 4v
  • 5v (*)
  • 6v
  • 7.2v
  • 9v
  • 12v
  • Custom
Cutoff Type
  • Hard Cutoff
  • Soft Cutoff
Brake Type
  • Delayed Soft (*)
  • Delayed Hard
  • No Delay Soft
  • No Delay Hard
  • Disabled
Throttle Type
  • Auto Calibrating (*)
  • Fixed
  • Governor Low
  • Governor High
Soft Start
  • Softest
  • Soft (*)
  • Fast
Motor Timing
  • High Advance
  • Standard Advance (*)
  • Low Advance
Current Limiting
  • Very Sensitive
  • Sensitive
  • Normal (*)
  • Insensitive (choose this if you want some over current protection for you ESC)
  • Disabled (choose this if you want no over current protection for your ESC)
PWM Frequency
  • 13khz (*)
Assuming you set the options in red above and are running an Align brushless motor, you can click the 'Update' button to update the ESC with the new settings. Below are screen shots of the settings for my Align 400S powered T-Rex.
The only setting I would change within this is the Motor Timing, I'm undecided as to which is best. Standard advance gives slightly longer flight times but high advance gives more power. I need to check how hot the motor gets in either mode but for the moment I'm using the standard advance.

Further investigation showed that the Phoenix ESC will pick the timing it feels is most appropriate even if you set this option. Also I have highlighted two possible selections for current limiting. This option is personal preference, some people prefer to fly with no current protection others prefer some minimal level of protection for situations such as electrical shorts or the motor being stalled causing a high current surge (as might happen in a crash). Either will work fine.