Bench testing the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor with the Turnigy AE-45A ESC - 17 Feb 2018

Hi Everyone -

I managed to get another round of bench testing done with the Turnigy AE-45A ESC today using the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor.  This testing provided some very "educational" results😊

You can read the full details here on my motor test spreadsheet, if you look along the bottom, you will find tabs for each motor.  All the data below is based on using the 6x4 APC gas prop and Gens Ace 2200 3S 45C battery, links for both of these is on the spreadsheet.

Thus far, the higher Kv motors seem to like 24 KHz PWM frequency for improved mid range power, but I did one quick test with factory defaults for the AE-45 just for reference.

AE-45A ESC Timing 15 degrees, 12 KHz PWM frequency (default)

50% throttle - 13.5A/163.1W producing 530 gr/18.7 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 37.4A/427.9W producing 965 gr/34 oz of thrust.

Thus far, I have tested this motor with the 6x4 APC gas prop on three different ESCs, the Turnigy Plush 40A, HobbyWing Platinum PRO 40A and now the Turnigy AE-45A.  From the spreadsheet, here is the performance data listed from lowest to highest.  Both the HobbyWing and AE-45 have custom settings, the Plush is at factory default.

Turnigy AE-45A Timing 22.5 degrees, 24 KHz PWM frequency

50% throttle - 17.2A/206.2W producing 610 gr/21.5 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 39.7A/451.3W producing 1005 gr/35.5 oz of thrust.

Turnigy Plush Timing low (factory default)

50% throttle - 17.2A/206.7W producing 620 gr/21.9 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 38.4A/435.7W producing 1040 gr/36.7 oz of thrust.

HobbyWing Platinum PRO Timing 26.25 degrees, 8 KHz PWM frequency

50% throttle - 16.7A/201.6W producing 647 gr/22.8 oz of thrust;

100% throttle - 42.6A/507.1W producing 1075 gr/37.9 oz of thrust.

So the HobbyWing amps at full throttle is greater than the base rating for the ESC which I don't normally like to exceed (although it does have a 60A burst), so I will proceed with caution.  I have flown with this prop/motor/ESC combo in cooler weather already and the ESC was a bit warm, so in the summer I might have to be more cautious, find a different setting or use the Plush, more field testing required.😀

So what seems to be interesting as I collect more data with the Turnigy AE-45 and the HobbyWing and experiment with timing and PWM, none of the motors tested thus far performed well at 12 KHz PWM frequency except perhaps the 2212/6 2200 Kv, but I have to more testing with that motor.  As soon as I switched from 12 to 8 in the case of the HobbyWing or 24 in the case of the Turnigy AE, the 50% throttle power jumped significantly on the quad racing motors tested thus far.  The full throttle performance seems to be improved more significantly with the HobbyWing ESC with motors rated at 2700 Kv or more.  The performance with the one motor below 2600 Kv, the Racerstar BR2406 2600 was slightly better with the Turnigy AE and it certainly had the best mid range performance with that ESC.

So I am not going to draw any conclusions just yet until I get some more data collected both on the bench and at the field.  However, by taking the time to experiment with the different performance settings in the HobbyWing and AE-45 ESCs, even if only by a small amount, it appears I may be able to optimize the performance of several motors over the Turnigy Plush.  Not that I am going to replace all my Plush ESCs and I have to remember that I am using V3.1, perhaps the V4.2 that Hobby King sells now has better performance.  I may have to pick one up and experiment😉

Late edit:  Primarily because the curiosity was killing me, I put the 2212/6 2200 Kv motor on the test stand, 6x4 APC gas prop, Gens Ace 2200 3S 45C battery.  I had tested this motor with the AE-45A ESC on the bench and in the air with default settings and it gives the best power to this inexpensive motor thus far.  So I left the timing at 15 degrees and switched the PWM frequency to 24 KHz.

As you can see on the motor spreadsheet, I gained about 20 gr of thrust at 50% throttle, but lost 20 gr of thrust at full throttle compared to default settings.  Quite honestly, since this is a pretty "torquey" motor to begin with, for simplicity I would probably just keep the default settings on the AE-45 ESC for use with the 2212/6 2200 Kv motor😊

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

Cheers,

Scott