RC Powers T-50 V5 Build log - part 4

Hi Everyone -

In among all the holiday cheer, I managed to putter away a bit on my T-50 V5, mostly getting things ready before mating the fuselage to the wing plate.  One thing I like to do is mark where my elevon control horns will go.  Knowing that where I will be connecting the pushrod to the servo is approx 3/4" out from where the servo will be mounted in the side of the "nacelles", I use the slot that marks where the nacelle will fit into the wing plate as shown in the second picture.

Then using one straight edge as guide, I make a mark on the elevon on both sides so that I remember where the control horn will be mounted.  I rarely use the control horn marks that are indicated on the plans as they rarely line up with where I want to put my control horns.

I used 150 grit sandpaper to taper the trailing edge of the wing, the leading and trailing edge of the prop slot, the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer and all around the outside edge of the elevons to help keep things sleek.  I like to do all this sanding before mounting the control horns, but I forgot to take a picture of that😏  While I can lay the wing plate flat is also when I sand the hinge tape on the ailerons and elevons so that it is no longer shiny and paint will adhere to it much more easily.

I also tapered the outside edge of the vertical stabilizers and added some bamboo skewers for extra reinforcement.

Before being able to join the fuselage to the wing plate, I needed to glue the front part of the wing plate on.  You may remember that this part was cut out separately so that I could get the wing on a 20x30" sheet of Dollar Tree foam (DTF).

I start by taping the two pieces together as shown below.

I then hinge these two pieces open, exposing the edges of the foam as shown in this picture.

Then using 5 minute epoxy, I spread a fine layer on each side of the foam, then lay it flat with the tape down (I always put wax paper under it so that I don't have any ooze out and glue my wing plate to my work table).  If any excess epoxy oozes out on the top as shown here, I take some scrap foam and spread it smooth ensuring any gaps between the two pieces of foam are filled.

Then another piece of wax paper goes on top of that seam and I weight it down with something so that the joint dries nice and flat.

In the next picture below the video, you can see that I have put the "insurance" tape on the bottom of the elevon hinge as I describe in this video at about the 7:50 mark.

Control horns mounted using epoxy.  

So lots of "fussy" work done now, it is just a matter of mating the larger parts of the plane together, finish constructing the fuselage, attach the "nacelles" and "under rudders".  

Still coming together, slow but sure😊

Happy New year for 2018 everyone🎉🎆

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

My 2017 RC year in review and the way ahead

Hi Everyone -

As 2017 has seemed to fly by, I took the time over the holidays to reflect and be thankful for how blessed I am to have a life that allows me to enjoy this hobby I love so much.  I take pause to look back on where my RC journey took me this year and take a peek on what lies ahead in 2018.  As usual, lots happened this year and I think has set me up for an exciting journey ahead😊

At the start of 2017, my NAMC (North American Mig Consortium) partner Stephan and I were busy working out the "think and design" part of the NAMC Su-27 Flanker (our motto being Think, Design, Test and Validate).  This was a project we had been discussing for a couple of years and leading up to it's release, there was a lot of work for Stephan to get the curved nose of the Su-27 just right as well as incorporate some of the great characteristics of the NAMC Mig-35B.  Here is a "God's eye view of a Mig-35B and the first prototype of the Su-27 that I built and flew.

In addition to this work that was going on in the background, we decided to start a thread on the RC Powers forum called the NAMC Su-27 design, build and test thread which we hoped would shed some light on our entire development process at NAMC and hopefully generate some interest in our Su-27.  Our goal was never to make any money, but there were website bills to pay😉  I also recruited a beta test team, something we had done with the Mig-35B which was very successful to give us final ideas for the plans, instructions and of course the plane, but on a more objective level.  I am very grateful for the support that team provided us, my deepest thanks to the following gents

• Carl (CRMERC from the RC Powers forum);
• Eric (EricR from the RC Powers forum);
• Peter (homey666 from the RC Powers forum); and
• Rocky (pileit1 from the RC Powers forum).

The NAMC Su-27 was officially released on April 2nd of this year and reviews were good, however it did seem that response from the community was very slow (at least if sales of the plans was an indicator).

I had lots of energy and motivation after the Su-27 release and decided after seeing the success that Peter had building his Su-27 entirely of Dollar Tree foam (DTF or Adams readi-board), I built a Mig-35B entirely of DTF.  I had long been using DTF for my KF airfoils, but had never built a plane entirely from DTF.  It was a great adventure and experiment, the plane flew great and was quite durable in a variety of temperature conditions.  Here is that plane here (it has since been recycled).

However, shortly after this point, I became a bit of a victim of my own enthusiasm and felt a bit "burnt out" and took the months of June and July completely off from the hobby in any way including the NAMC website and the RC Powers forum.  I had taken a break from the hobby in the past to "recharge my batteries" so to speak, but when I returned this time, I didn't have quite the same passion for the NAMC website and the RC Powers forum.  I'm not trying to be negative here, just honest, my gut was starting to tell me perhaps it was time for me to make a change in how I approach the hobby.  My number one goal in this hobby is to have fun, and it just didn't seem to be as fun for me as it once was.

I owe a lot to RC Powers, I wouldn't be in this hobby without them and I still build and enjoy their designs.  However, as often happens, the forum has changed considerably to be more of a general forum, with far less discussion about park jets than there once was.  I have tried to be an active participant and give back to the community that got me where I am today in this hobby, but it is no longer the same for me, so I thought it time for this "old dinosaur" to move on.

I have always been a bit of a "foam park jet purist" I suppose and I don't mean this to sound elitist, probably the opposite.  I get the most joy from building these inexpensive foam planes, experimenting with them, learning from them and passing on those lessons learned.  I have tried other planes over time, but quickly get bored of them as I don't feel the same connection as I do with park jets.  So I decided after long, thoughtful consideration it was time for a change if I was going to stay passionate about park jets and enjoying myself in this fairly simple, inexpensive, niche part of the hobby.

I told my NAMC partners Stephan and Dave of my decision that I no longer wanted to be the face of NAMC on the website and the RC Powers forum, nor was I interested in being part of any future designs there.  They were very gracious and supportive of my decision and soon after was born this blog and my increased educational content on my YouTube channel.

Before this of course I had started building more planes experimenting more with the readily available (to me anyway) DTF and other foams I had on hand to come up with the best performing and most durable park jets I could build.  This also went hand in hand with starting some testing and evaluation of quad racing motors for use in park jets on a standard 3S setups.  I have already written a blog article on my initial lessons learned using quad racing motors in park jets.

So hopefully I haven't bored you with my story, but I thought it important to share as I am taking a much different path in my park jet journey, one I think will be very good for me.  Without being responsible to my partners at NAMC and providing input to the RC Powers forum, I will have time to share a lot of what I have learned thus far and continue to be creative by following my own path and imagination.

Even though I took almost two months off, I still got lots of flying done, accumulating 950+ flights in 2017 and surpassing 5000+ park jet flights since I started keeping a formal log in Jan of 2014.  I also surpassed 1000 total flights on my favorite park jet of all time, the NAMC Mig-35B since flying the first prototype in Dec of 2015.  I have never come close to this number of flights on any other park jet and I will be flying it for many years to come😎

In recent months, I have also started following rcplanepirate's YouTube channel and we have had many great conversations about motors, props, ESCs and batteries.  He is a great fellow and I have learned an incredible amount from him, I encourage you to go check out his channel highlighted where his name is in the first sentence of this paragraph.  His channel contains an incredible amount of test information on all kinds of motors, props, EDFs as well as some flying videos of planes much faster than mine😎

Another fellow "Youtuber" I have been following is Ground Control RC who has produced a lot of great videos focusing more on micro RC, FPV, quads, planes as well as reviews and great RC tutorials.  He has designed his own micro F-22 Raptor which I hope to build and fly in the New Year to explore that part of the hobby with something a little smaller.  I encourage you to check out his channel by clicking on the highlighted "Ground Control RC" in the first line of this paragraph, lots of great information there and I have learned a lot from him as well😊

2018 I think will be starting off with a bang, lots more quad racing motor testing to do on the bench and at the field, more "table talks", "how to" videos and a revision of some old blog articles I wrote including the series "which park jet for me" that I wrote awhile back on the NAMC blog.  This will still be up for awhile, but the website will be moved or shut down at some point in the future. 

I hope to keep this blog fresh and informative and keep up with some good content on my YouTube channel to pass along my personal lessons learned about what has worked for me so that perhaps it will help others or inspire them to try new things.  One of the biggest things I enjoy about scratch building foam park jets is the ability to experiment and express your creativity without it costing a lot of money, you just never know what is around the corner in your park jet journey😊

I may also clean up and organize my work shop this year...but no promises😁

I want to humbly and sincerely thank those of you who have supported me on this blog, my YouTube channel, at NAMC and the RC Powers forum.  Your support and input have made me the park jet builder and pilot I have become and given me the motivation to pass along what I have learned, be it good, bad or indifferent.  

I wish you all the best in your RC journey and peace, prosperity and good health in 2018 for you and yours😊  My co-pilot "BDog" (Bently🐾) and I wish you all the best!

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

EMAX AVAN-R 5065 3 blade quad racing prop "discussion"

Hi Everyone -

The postman brought me another package today, some EMAX AVAN-R 5065 3 blade quad racing props.  I have titled this blog post as a "discussion" more than anything else as you will see later when I start reporting the bench performance on 3S, I don't think these props will find their way into any of my park jets😐  However, I thought I would discuss them anyway as a matter of a lesson learned, I'm sure I can find someone at my field to take them off my hands unless I do experiment with a 4S setup in the future😏

Banggood did package them up nicely with lots of foam wrapped around the package as you can see above.  Below, you see that you get 4 props, two CW and two CCW as you would expect for a quad copter along with more EMAX stickers😊

So a bit of background on why I purchased these props, they were $4.29 USD for the pack of four from Banggood and my research had indicated these props were specifically designed for use on the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor  which thus far has been the top performer of all the quad racing motors I tested.  I had tested a Gemfan 6x4x3 quad prop on the 2212/6 2200 Kv "workhorse" motor in the past, it generated incredible thrust on the bench (34.9A drawn producing 1039 gr/36.7 oz of thrust), but the blades were too big and created quite a bit of drag in the air.  I had hoped that with a smaller blade but higher pitch, I might see some better results.

The prop certainly has an interesting blade shape with almost a bit of a "winglet" at the tip.  I put each of the props on the balancer and they were perfectly balanced right out of the package.

I had a bit of trepidation about mounting the prop "upside down" for use in a park jet due to the blade shape and these fears were proven correct.  I had to place an old spacer ring from a 6x4 APC prop to keep the blade off the flat top of the motor and as you can see in one of the pictures below it was still a very snug fit while still allowing enough thread on the shaft exposed to secure the prop to the motor.

In this picture, it looks like the prop is still resting on the top of the motor, there is just a "whisker's" width there, however, part of the prop blade is blocked by the motor itself. 

Here are the bench numbers for this prop on the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor with the prop mounted "upside down".  Tested with a Turnigy Plush 60A ESC with timing set to low and a Zippy Flightmax 2200 3S 40C battery.  Further details on all the bench testing that follows can also be found on my motor testing spreadsheet. 

50% throttle - 15.5A/185.3W producing 274 gr/9.7 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 36.2A/429.3W producing 448 gr/15.8 oz of thrust.

So these results are very poor and inefficient, almost 2A required for every oz of thrust produced at full throttle.  Compared to the 6x4 APC gas prop numbers of 32.4A/371.2W producing 812 gr/28.6 oz of thrust, this is a pretty sad performance😏

So while I had everything set up, I decided to give it a test on the Multistar Viking 2208 2600 Kv motor .  I know based on EMAX's data this prop isn't designed for this motor, but I suppose a prop is a prop at the end of the day😉  The top of the Viking motor slopes away quite a bit from the shaft and after adding a spacer ring again, I ended up with about 4mm between the prop blade and the bell of the motor.

So here are the numbers with this motor and prop, again, same test parameters as above.

50% throttle - 14.7A/176.8W producing 304 gr/10.7 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 30.3A/348.9W producing 526 gr/18.6 oz of thrust.

So the numbers were a bit better considering this is a lower Kv motor, I suspect the prop having some more room to "breathe" might have helped, but still pretty bad compared to the 6x4 APC gas prop numbers (29.5A/359.5W producing 836 gr/29.5 oz of thrust at full throttle).

So I gave it one more chance on the GearBest 2212/5T 2700 Kv motor, hoping that the extra size/torque and high Kv might produce a "miracle" 😇  Alas,  even with increased "prop clearance", twas not to be😊.

Same test parameters as the first two, here are the numbers 

50% throttle - 14.2A/171.8W producing 378 gr/13.3 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 31A/354.7W producing 630 gr/22. oz of thrust.

6x4 APC numbers for this motor on 3S at full throttle are 32.1A/370.6W producing 1004 gr/35.4 oz of thrust.

So it is certainly not the prop's fault, I was trying to use it in a role it was never designed for.  It is designed to be used right side up and most quad racing guys are using 4S or higher with the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor.  Perhaps with a 4S battery I'm sure it would produce more thrust, but it has a long way to go to make up ground on the 6x4 APC gas prop for the role I need it to play in my park jets.

My challenge to myself when I started this quad racing motor test craze was to find a motor and prop combo that would give me the performance I see in my park jets on 3S, so unfortunately this prop doesn't fit the bill.  I do have some other 5" 3 blade quad racing props on the way to try, one never knows until one tries😉

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

Racerstar BR2406S 2600 Kv motor initial impressions

Hi Everyone -

I recently received the Racerstar BR2406S 2600 Kv motor in the mail😊  I picked mine up from Ebay which is where the first link will take you for $13.93 USD with free shipping.  I could have purchased it also from Banggood  for $10.49, but I got a bit impatient when it was out of stock and Banggood kept changing the restocking date😒  I have ordered a couple of Racerstar motors to test, the other is the Racerstar BR2306S 2700 Kv motor which is quite inexpensive at $8.99.

One of the main reasons I wanted to try this BR2406 motor is that it has a slightly wider stator at 24mm than any of the other motors on my shopping list.

The motor came with several mounting bolts for mounting on a quad and one prop nut, none of which I will be using for my park jets.  The motor wires are 3" long and like all the other quad racing motors I have tried, it does not come with the "X" mount and hardware, nor the 3.5mm bullet connectors to connect it to my ESC.

It has the 16x19mm bolt pattern on the bottom to accept the standard "X" mount that I use in my park jets.  The magnets look relatively thick, not curved with a bit of space in between.  It spins fairly smoothly by hand, not too "bumpy" because of the space between the magnets although the magnets don't feel terribly strong.  It has a hollow shaft all the way through to keep things light and standard "C" clip holding the shaft on the bottom.

It is a fairly light motor, with the hardware, connectors and prop, it weighs 48 gr/1.7 oz.

The bench test numbers with the 6x4 APC gas prop aren't terribly exciting, but here they are.  Test conducted with a Turnigy Plush 60A ESC and Zippy Flightmax 2200 3S 40C battery.

50% throttle - 11.4A/139.1W producing 410 gr/14.5 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 26.9A/310.9W producing 734 gr/25.9 oz of thrust.

For more details and to be able to compare it to the bench results of other quad racing motors I have tested, you can go to my motor test spreadsheet.  The quad racing motors have their own tab which you can find scrolling along the bottom of the spreadsheet.

I hope to get if field tested soon when I get a decent weather window.

In my research, the Racerstar motors get mixed reviews, but often I heard the comment, "for the price, they are a pretty decent motor", so I will see how they make out at the field and over time.  

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

RC Powers T-50 V5 build log - Part 3

Hi Everyone -

I have managed to keep slowly plugging away at this build around all the crazy Christmas and holiday activities that have been ongoing the past week😊  Here are all the parts finally cut out after all my measuring, calculating, drawing, etc.

In this next series of pictures, I discuss how I did the final sizing of my KF4 airfoils.  First I taped the front piece of the wing plate on where I had cut this off on the plans in order to fit on the 20x30" sheet of DTF.  Then, I laid out the template of the top KF I made from the plans on top of the wing plate and both of those laid on top of another piece of DTF so that I could trace the full top KF including the LERX.

Here you can see where I traced the portion for the LERX and where it meets the leading edge of the wing.  I then placed the template from the plans back on this and traced out the entire top KF including the extra bit I needed at the wing root end to get the dimensions I wanted.

Full top KF not cut out.  I then used this as a template to trace out another top KF and for the main part of the bottom KF.

Using the wing plate as a guide, I drew a line on the inner part of the slot that will accept the outer engine/nacelle tab as the bottom KF will be up against this at it's root.

Then I drew in all the lines and I had my bottom KF ready to cut out.  I then used this as a template for a second bottom KF as well as for a template in the event I want to build another T-50 V5 and use the same KF size, I won't have to go through this fuss again.

Here is the bottom KF sitting on top of the top KF, important to ensure that they are uniform where they will be on the wing.  They can also be trimmed slightly if need be when installed on the plane.  

I cut out my elevons all in one piece and will keep them that way until I sand the leading and trailing edges on the wing plate before mating to the fuselage.  I scored where they will be cut later after sanding as indicated by the red line in the picture.

Before assembling anything else, I made sure to make templates from scrap foam for all those main parts I modified, vertical stab, both KF airfoils and the elevons.  Again, this will make building another much easier if these mods work out well.

Using the wing plate as a guide where I had already marked the CG, I marked this on my top KFs for reference.  I like to hold my planes upside down when I determine the CG before maiden, I just find it to be a bit easier and more accurate.  Of course this gets fine tuned after the maiden and during the "dial in" process.

Now that I have the KF airfoils figured out, I can trace where the trailing edge will be on the wing plate top and bottom since the paper will be removed forward of the trailing edge to keep things lighter, allow for good glue bond between the wing plate and KF and keep the leading edge of the wing more sleek.

In the next phase, I will trim off the paper from where it needs to be trimmed on the wing plate, ailerons, vertical stabs, hinge the elevons and ailerons, install the reinforcement in the wing and vertical stabs.  Fussy work, but once that is all done, the rest of the build should come together quickly😊

I'll just keep plugging away as there is still some holiday cheer to be had over the next week!

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

Initial field testing of the Multistar Viking 2208 2600 Kv motor

Hi Everyone -

Had the reliable test bed Mig-35B out for another good session yesterday putting the Multistar Viking 2208 2600 Kv motor from Hobby King through it's paces😊

As mentioned in the video below, you can read more about my initial impressions and the bench testing data I gathered here .

Here is the video

During this blog post, I will be comparing this motor to the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor (which I will shorten to EMAX 2306), the BeeRotor Z2207 2780 Kv motor (which I will shorten to BR2207), and the RC Timer FR2306 2650 Kv motor (which I will shorten to RCT2306).

As mentioned in the video, this motor was recommended to me by rcplanepirate and he gave me the notice when the price dropped significantly from $28.14 USD to $16.10, so I am thankful to him for the info😊  Please click on his name to go to his YouTube channel, he has done considerable testing of all kinds of motor, props, EDFs, etc, lots of great info there.

This motor is a great little motor for use in a park jet from what I saw yesterday over more than a dozen flights.  After I shot the video, I flew several more flights and now rank this one number 3 of the motors I have tested thus far.

1. EMAX 2306;
2. BR2207; and
3. Multistar Viking 2208 2600.

The EMAX 2306 seems to be the clear winner in weight, power, acceleration and top end speed, not by a whole lot over the BR2207, but still better.  The Multistar Viking is just slightly behind the BR2207 in acceleration and top end speed, but weighs the same.  It has about equivalent torque to the RCT2306, but much better top end speed.

This motor is a good fit for a park jet, I will be interested to evaluate it's performance against the DYS BE2208/7 2600 Kv motor I currently use in my RC Powers F-22 and F-18 V5s.  Here is a picture of the two of those motors side by side.  You can see the significant difference in size of the bell and once all the hardware and prop are attached, the Multistar Viking is 6 gr lighter.  That will be an upcoming "fly off" at the field to see which is better😊

As I mentioned, I'm very pleased with this Multistar Viking motor and I'm very happy that I got it on sale.😉  For it's full price of $28.14, if I wanted to add another motor to my collection, I would opt for another EMAX 2306 ($21.99 at Hobby King) or the BR2207 ($16.99 at RC timer) as they are both a bit more powerful, faster and of course cheaper.  If it outperforms the DYS 2208, I would definitely keep a close eye for it to go on sale again to pick up another😊

Another great find and thanks again to rcplanepirate for the recommendation.  Next up for testing will be the Racerstar BR2406S 2600 Kv motor which I will write about my initial impressions in the next few days perhaps after the "Christmas craziness" is over😂

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and safe and happy holiday season, thank you so much for your kind, humbling support on this blog and my YouTube channel, it keeps me motivated and inspired to do more experimenting, testing and passing along my park jet lessons to you.

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

Viking Multistar 2208 2600 Kv motor initial impressions

Hi Everyone -

I recently received my Viking Multistar 2208 2600 Kv motor in the mail from Hobby King😊  It came very well packaged surrounded by foam.  It is regularly priced at $28.14 USD from the Global Warehouse, but fortunately due to a notification from rcplanepirate, I got it on sale for $16.10 USD😂

It comes with one prop nut and four mounting screws to secure it to a quad copter, the motor wires are about 3" long. 

A couple more pictures, if has a very nice finish and the bell spins smoothly.

Before putting the prop on, I took a picture comparing it to the DYS 2208/7 2600 Kv motor as they have the same size stator.  You can see that the Viking motor has much less metal at the top and the bell is very close to the stator.  I couldn't take a picture that would show you, but when I look down inside the motor from the back, the magnets on the Viking motor are narrower, but much closer together than they are on the DYS motor.  When I spin the Viking motor, it spins smoothly, but the magnets feel much stronger than the DYS motor.  After doing a bit more research and from results of my own testing thus far, magnet size and spacing as well as whether the magnets are curved or straight is something I will be paying more attention to moving forward in my evaluations of quad racing motors for park jets.

With the prop, connectors and other hardware on, it weighs 50 gr/1.8 oz which is 6 gr lighter than the DYS motor in the same configuration.  Like the other motors, you will need to provide your own "X" mount and bullet connectors.  

Here are the initial bench test numbers with the 6x4 APC gas prop, Turnigy Plush 60A ESC (timing set to low) and Zippy Flightmax 2200 3S 40C battery.  More details can be found on the motor spreadsheet, quad racing motors have their own tab along the bottom.

50% throttle - 13.5A/164.4W producing 482 gr/17.0 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 29.5A/359.5W producing 836 gr/29.5 oz of thrust.

These numbers are slightly less than the bench numbers I saw with the DYS 2208 2600 motor, but it will be interesting to see when the "rubber hits the road" so to speak at the field.  I am currently running the DYS 2208 2600 with the 6x4 APC gas prop in my RC Powers F-22 V5 and F-18 V5 and it moves them along really well.

I hope to field test this motor very soon to see how it performs relative to the other quad racing motors I have tested thus far😊

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom

Cheers,

Scott

Initial field testing of the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor

Hi Everyone -

I had this little beauty out for several flights today, putting the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor through it's paces😊

Here is the flight video, I had to put is at a link as it wouldn't load directly from YouTube...😒

Here is the link to my initial impressions and bench testing blog post I mention in the video.

Today I was running the Turnigy Plush 40A ESC and Zippy Flightmax 2200 3S 40C battery with this motor with the 6x4 APC gas prop.

This motor performed really well today, as good or better than the bench test numbers I reported in my initial impressions post.  It certainly performed better than the RC Timer 2306 2650 Kv motor in my last video and is probably the highest torque (or at least feels like it has the highest torque) of the quad racing motors I have tested thus far.  Perhaps the high Kv also helps it feel like it has a little extra torque, but it "muscled" it's way through every challenge I presented it with😊  Certainly not to make the RC Timer 2306 sound like a bad motor, it is not, but this EMAX motor certainly performed better than I expected even though it only has 100 Kv more and the stator is the same size.

As mentioned in the video, it has about the best "hole shot" of acceleration when I hammer the throttle.  The one motor that would be the closest in this aspect that I have tested thus far is the BeeRotor Z2207 2780Kv motor from RC Timer.

As I mentioned in the video, where I noticed the biggest difference over all the other quad motors I have tested thus far is mid range speed and efficiency.  At 60% throttle, it felt faster than any of the other setups, to the point I reduced my throws in the roll axis (both elevon and aileron) by about 10% so I could stay smooth on the sticks and "keep up" with the plane.  I've flown with other motors that have about 17 oz of thrust at 50% throttle, but this one just seemed to really maintain it's energy in the range where I spend most of my time when flying.  This motor is putting out 17.6 oz of thrust at 50% throttle and the plane weighs about 19.8 oz of thrust, so that is 0.9:1 thrust to weight ratio, just at mid throttle and I feel like I am getting all that thrust in that throttle range😎

In high speed runs and vertical climb outs, it maintained it's speed and energy really well, showing plenty of torque going straight up, it just kept going straight up with no lag, sag or complaints from the motor.

As I mentioned in my flight video, I have now ordered some Turnigy AE 45A ESCs from Hobby King to try with this and other high Kv quad racing motors.

Watching this video from rcplanepirate, he is getting over 1200 gr of thrust with the same prop on 3S.  Granted his thrust test setup and battery are different than mine, but that should not account for 400 gr difference in thrust I wouldn't imagine, so I can only think it is the ESC he is using which is a Turnigy AE 65A, that is helping with that much increase in performance.  If you fast forward to about 7:50 in the video, you can watch RCPP's test of this motor with a 6x4 APC gas prop on 3S.

So all things being equal since I have field tested all my quad racing motors on the Turnigy Plush ESCs on low timing in either 30A or 40A size, this motor is the best thus far by a slight edge over the BeeRotor Z2207 2780 Kv from RC Timer.  This motor has a bit better mid range speed and efficiency when "yankin' and bankin'" around than the Z2207, "hole shot" acceleration and top speed are about the same which makes sense as their bench test numbers are almost identical.  

I'm excited to keep thrashing this one about, it ran strong all day, no problems whatsoever, and being as light as it is, even 3 gr lighter than the Z2207 motor, EMAX has seems to have really done their homework on getting every bit of power out of each gram of motor weight.  And considering it is rated at 58A according to the specs on the Hobby King link, there is a lot of potential there😃

If you want to see all the bench test numbers for all the quad racing motors I have received thus far, please go to this motor test spreadsheet, the quad racing motors have their own tab along the bottom so you can compare them easily.

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor initial impressions

Hi Everyone -

Christmas came a bit early for me yesterday with the delivery of a couple of Hobby King orders I had been waiting for😂

Three motors and a couple of 6x3 TGS props I will be testing in the future in a 6x3 prop "shoot off"😎

In this post as it says in the title, I will be discussing my initial impressions of the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor.  I paid $21.99 USD for mine at the time of purchase, but shipping was free.  It comes very well packaged in a hard plastic box (which I will probably recycle for putting spare parts in for my flight box😊  The grey stuff is a dense foam to protect the motor and other goodies.  Also some cool stickers that will find their way onto my flight boxes😎

Goodies out of the box.  Not that it is too critical for my use in a park jet, but it only came with one prop nut, most quad racing motors I have purchased come with two.

Close up of the "goody bags", sets of bolts for adapting to 3mm or 4mm thick carbon when mounted on a quad copter frame and a spare bolt and washer that holds the bell to the stator.

I grabbed this picture from the Hobby King website which is linked above showing that to remove the bell, you just need a small Allen key rather than messing around with a C clip or other type fastener, a very cool feature I think.

Once the prop, prop nut, X mount is installed, it is a pretty light little motor at 47 gr/1.7 oz.  In my excitement I forgot to take a picture of it by itself before putting it in a plane, but here it is sitting beside the RC Timer 2306 2650 Kv motor I recently tested.  You can find my articles on my initial impressions, bench testing and field testing of the RC Timer motor on this blog.

The RC Timer motor weighs 52 gr/1.8 oz in the same state with everything ready to fly.  The wires are longer on the RC Timer motor, but EMAX has really focused on keep the weight of the motor very low, the stators on these motors are the same size and the EMAX has only 100 more Kv, so they are close that way also.

Here are the numbers from my initial bench testing using the 6x4 APC gas prop, Turnigy Plush 60A ESC with timing set to low and Zippy Flightmax 2200 36 40C battery.

50% throttle - 16.6A/205.9W producing 498 gr/17.6 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 32.4A/371.2W producing 812 gr/28.6 oz of thrust.

You can find more details as well as the initial bench numbers of the other two motors in the first picture on this spreadsheet, please scroll along the bottom til you find the tab labelled "quad racing motors" to get the info.

I was actually a bit surprised at the low thrust numbers, after watching rcplanepirate's video (test starts at 7:50 in his video) on testing this motor on 3S with this prop, I expected the numbers to be much higher.  RCPP is using a much different ESC (the Turnigy AE 65A) than I am, so perhaps I need to do a bit more research and testing to get the right ESC to optimize the performance of these quad racing motors.  They sell one in 45A that I think I will order and give a try if the ESC can optimize the performance that much more, worth giving it a go😊

However, my "spidey senses" tell me that it will perform very well at the field even with my current setup.  When I spin the motor by hand, it is very smooth, but I can tell it has very strong magnets, much stronger than the RC Timer 2306 motor for example, so I think once at the field it should move my plane along quite smartly😎  

Hope to have some field testing done very soon😊

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott