Prop Motor Tests

by nickatredbox | December 12, 2012 | (5) Posted in Tips

Having been bitten by the specs on some websites for motors, EDF's and other parts I decided to routinely test and map all my new acquisitions.

Test of various motor prop combinations for folks to look at, hope its helpful data. Here is a spread sheet with my data

All my mad projects are here 

Kiwi Tricopter

Setup: Turnigy L3010C-1300kv (420w) 
H-KING 50A Fixed Wing ESC
10 X 6 Windsor Propeller S2 Series Master Air Screw Sabre Shaped blades 
Turnigy 3C 2200mAh discharge 20C

Thrust results
1632 Grams, 415 Watts, 37.6 Amps
1490 Grams, 356 Watts, 31.5 Amps
1231 Grams, 264 Watts, 23.1 Amps
1071 Grams, 214 Watts, 18.2 Amps
750 Grams, 139 Watts, 11.6 Amps

Turnigy L3010C-1300kv
Dimension: 37mm x 18mm
Weight: 87g 
Kv: 1300rpm/V
Voltage: 11.1v (3s)
Max Power: 420w
Max Current: 40.1A
No load Current: 1.8A
Diameter of shaft: 4mm
Thrust: 1650g
ESC: 50A~60A

H-KING 50A Fixed Wing Brushless Speed Controller
Amp rating: 50A
Burst Rate (15sec): 55A
BEC Current: 2A, 5V (Linear)
Voltage: (2-4 cell Lipo)
Dimensions: 38x28x16mm
Weight: 38g



Twin D4023-850's driving 10 X 4.7 Slow flyer on a single Hobbyking SS Series 90-100A ESC all up weight including rig 322 Grams

A test to see if two motors will run on one ESC 2.2 Kgs of static thrust at 35 Amps both motors in parallel. Speed control was good 

Results 2.2 Kgs of static thrust @ 35 Amps both motors in parallel 387 Watts total on a Turnigy 2200mAh 3C 

Efficiency @ 387 Watts Thrust/Power = 5.75 Grams/Watt

A single 850 delivered 1.4 Kgs for 22.4 Amps 235 Watts swinging a 11 X 4.7 on a 3C Thrust/Power = 6 Grams/Watt

You would expect better efficiency as the static losses double in a twin installation.

Hobbyking SS Series 90-100A ESC
Weight: 85g
Size: 70x50x13mm
Cells: 2-7S Li Po 
Max Current: 90A [over 70A use 6S only]
Burst : 100A
No BEC 
Timing: 1/7/15/30 programmable
PWM: 8/16K

Two D4023-850 Out Runner Motor
Rpm/V: 850kv

Max Watts: 380W
Max Amps: 35A
Max Volt: 7.4~14.8v (2~4S)
Idle Current: 1.5A
Resistance: 0.039 ohms
Weight: 107.1g


Test setup 2200mAh 3C 20C Lipoly DT850 motor 11 X 4.7 Pusher Prop

D4023-850 Out Runner Motor
Rpm/V: 850kv
Max Watts: 380W
Max Amps: 35A
Max Volt: 7.4~14.8v (2~4S)
Idle Current: 1.5A
Resistance: 0.039 ohms
Weight: 107.1g
Shaft: 4mm x 39mm threaded
Can Size: 41mm
Mount Diameter: 30mm

Turnigy Dlux 30A SBEC Brushless Speed Controller w/Data Logging
Spec.
Max Cont. Current: 30A
Max Burst Current: 40A
Max BEC Current: 2A
BEC Voltage: 5.5v 
LiPo: 2~4S
Weight: 23grams
Max RPM (2-pole): 200,000rpm
Size: 51 x 27 x 11mm
Motor Plug: Female 3.5mm bullet Connector

HobbyKing HK-010 Wattmeter & Voltage Analyzer


HexTronik DT850 Motor for FPV 1500 Grams @ 26 Amps Turnigy Dlux 30A ESC 11 X 4.7 Prop

Test setup 2200mAh 3C 20C Lipoly DT850 motor 11 X 4.7 Pusher Prop ESC set to defaults with the exception of no brake, 16Khz freq, Soft start

D4023-850 Out Runner Motor
Rpm/V: 850kv
Max Watts: 380W
Max Amps: 35A
Max Volt: 7.4~14.8v (2~4S)
Idle Current: 1.5A
Resistance: 0.039 ohms
Weight: 107.1g
Shaft: 4mm x 39mm threaded
Can Size: 41mm
Mount Diameter: 30mm

Turnigy Dlux 30A SBEC Brushless Speed Controller w/Data Logging 
Max Cont. Current: 30A
Max Burst Current: 40A
Max BEC Current: 2A
BEC Voltage: 5.5v 
LiPo: 2~4S
Weight: 23grams
Max RPM (2-pole): 200,000rpm
Size: 51 x 27 x 11mm
Motor Plug: Female 3.5mm bullet Connector

HobbyKing HK-010 Wattmeter & Voltage Analyzer




DT700 Motor Power Tests for FPV Plane 770 Grams @ 11 Amps 11 X 4.7 Prop

Much better efficiency with a 11 X 4.7 and DT700 half the amps double the range 10.4 minutes at full throttle, and 10% more thrust in total. So my FPV plane must be designed to swing a huge prop, I will allow for 1 12" prop in the design I think. One negative factor the DT700 is 28 Grams heavier.

hexTronik DT700 Brushless Outrunner 700kv

Turnigy AE-20A Brushless ESC

Data sets for hexTronik DT700 vs Turnigy L2210-1650 tests

I suspect this motor can be pushed much harder then 13 Amps as the specification says as it run ice cold on this test


Testing Turnigy L2210-1650 Bell Style GWS EP Prop RD-8060 Turnigy dlux 30A ESC Batt 2200mAh 3C 20C

This is the setup I used from http://www.hobbyking.com Nice little motor got a bit hot at 30 amps :) but held up well

2200mAh 3C 20C Lipoly

Turnigy L2210-1650 Bell Style Motor

Turnigy dlux 30A SBEC Brushless Speed Controller w/Data Logging

GWS EP Propeller (RD-8060 203x152mm) 

HobbyKing HK-010 Wattmeter & Voltage Analyzer
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10786

See the data here 

Nice looking little motor very good finish (the wife liked it) runs pretty hot but is light (50 Grams) and powerful. The strange noise at high speed I suspect is the prop loosing Aero Dynamic stability, not a good characteristic for a propeller :)

Got 880 Grams on a 3C using a 7 X 5 blade cut down from a 9 X 5 from HK


Here it is again driving a 90mm 7 blade EDF

Cobbled together 90 mm fan with 250 Watt Turnigy L2210-1650 Bell Style Motor (250w) seeing if I can get decent efficiency from a small fan turning slower.

On 14.8 Volts its pushing almost 500 Grams, not so bad thrust mapping is as follows.

100 Grams 1.9 A 27.6 Watts
156 Grams 3.0 A 42.9 Watts
197 Grams 3.9 A 55.1 Watts
257 Grams 5.5 A 76.0 Watts
296 Grams 6.7 A 90.9 Watts
340 Grams 7.9 A 105.5 Watts
432 Grams 10.7 A 138.1 Watts
492 Grams 12.5 A 155.7 Watts

The tests were run on two 7.4V 1300mAh Turnigy 20C Lipo's in series, I figure the motor will survive full throttle bursts on 4C and its 10 Amps short of the max, 100 Watts below its spec.

Its surprising as the same motor with a 8 X 6 prop pulled 23.3 Amps on a 3C yielding 520 Grams of thrust at 232.3 Watts. So 90 mm prop in a pie and a prop have the same efficiency?



And a water jet for some variety

This has enough power to weight to fly I just looked it up this thing has the power to weight ratio close to a WW2 Spitfire 438 Watts/Kg

Setup

A bath with some water in it
HobbyKing HK-010 Wattmeter & Voltage Analyzer 
2C Turnigy 5000mAh 20C
2 X NQD 20mm Jet Drives
2 X Turnigy 2627 4200kv
2 X Turnigy AE-30A Brushless ESC



Some cool stats from Wikipedia on grunty machines
Space Shuttle Endeavour SRBs
33 GW / 44,000,000 bhp 280 t / 616,500 lb 118,000 W/kg / 0.014 lb/hp

F-22 Raptor Air superiority fighter aircraft Mach 2.25, 312 kN thrust
241 MW / 323,088 bhp 19,700 kg / 43,430 lb 12,230 W/kg / 0.13 lb/hp

BMW Williams FW27 Formula One 2005
690 kW / 925 bhp 600 kg / 1323 lb 1150 W/kg / 1.43 lb/hp


Supermarine Spitfire Fighter aircraft 1936 1,096 kW / 1,470 bhp 2,309 kg / 5,090 lb 475 W/kg / 3.46 lb/hp















COMMENTS

earthsciteach on December 14, 2012
Thank you for taking the time to compile all of this information. This is great stuff.

I hope people realize how incredibly useful it would be if a bunch of us would be willing to upload this type of information for a given motor with a variety of props. Having this type of catalog would be AMAZING for hacks like myself who don't own a wattmeter!

This could be the start of something very special.
Log In to reply
nickatredbox on December 15, 2012
Many thanks your enthusiasm does you credit :) I too had no Watt meter a year ago and fried a few ESC's due to random prop, motor setups. Its a very useful tool and great value for money from HK.

I will try top share useful stuff as I'm pretty happy when I find useful info myself.

Data data data I can't make bricks without clay (Sherlock Holmes 2009)
Log In to reply

You need to log-in to comment on articles.


Prop Motor Tests