ESC Showdown #3 - Turnigy Plush 40A ESC and Turnigy AE-45A ESC - 22 Feb 2018

Hi Everyone -

I was at the field again today for another comparison session with the Turnigy Plush 40A and the Turnigy AE-45A ESCs, this time pushing them both a little harder with a higher Kv quad racing motor.😊  I chose to experiment with the BeeRotor Z2207 2780Kv motor from RC Timer as it has a pretty good amp draw and is close in torque and overall power to the EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor which is the top quad racing motor I have tested thus far.  You can read the full bench test results on my motor test spreadsheet, each motor has it's own page, so please just look along the bottom to find the BeeRotor motor.😊

Here is the flight video of today's testing.

As mentioned in the video, on the bench, this motor paired with the 6x4 APC gas prop produced about 15 gr more thrust at full throttle with the Plush ESC on default settings.  With the custom settings of 22.5 degrees for timing and 24 KHz for the PWM (pulse width modulation) frequency, the Turnigy AE-45A allowed the motor to produce about 20 gr more thrust at 50% throttle.  With the AE-45 ESC, it also pulled about 3 more amps, drawing 38.2A at full throttle.

I flew a total of 6 flights using this motor and the AE-45 ESC, I honestly couldn't see any difference in performance between it and the Plush.  Throttle response was very smooth and the BEC (battery elimination circuit) worked very well, no issues providing power to the servos when being pushed a little harder.  From what I saw today, as long as the custom settings are selected on the AE-45, it and the Plush are interchangeable performance wise.  As I mentioned in the video, my Plush ESC is a few years old and is V3.1, the current Plush sold at Hobby King when you click the link above is V4.2.  The BEC has been changed, but I have no idea whether any of the internal processing has been changed in any way to further optimize motor performance.

I will be shooting a video in the next day or so giving my overall thoughts and review of the Turnigy AE-45A and the HobbyWing Platinum PRO 40A ESCs as they compare to the Turnigy Plush which I have been using for many years😀

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

Cheers,

Scott