Something coooool

[Jeff Wohlt]

I am waiting for moderators to review this but not sure it went or not.

Here is something I have been playing with. 5v fan on the end of a motor. Granted, you need holes in the end plates but that is easy and some already have them.

This will cool the internals during a race and even after pulling cool air thru your motor. Keeping the windings cool with water cans is good but we know the arm inside gets very hot.

Tell me what you think. They can be made for any size motor. I have a little more tweaking to do but it is close. Could you also mount your ESC on the end and blow air on it? Maybe. That is a 12XL it is on. Nothing glued on just sat in there but a little more vac forming perfection and it is right on. It is made with .62 styrene so pretty hard and tough.

[justintime2w8]

Um, just buy a lehner, they have them built in.

[justintime2w8]

Ok, thought it was a Neu in the pic, for cheaper motors that would be nice. Especially those being pushed to the limits.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Some NEU motors do have air holes... but not the new mamba motor. Even if you drill out the other set of mounting holes it will draw air thru.

[justintime2w8]

I meant fans, the lehners have fans now.

[Rumdog]

Thats great, if you wanna dump tons of $$ on a lehner. I dig this fan setup! A fan would be a good addition to any brushless motor!

[m4a1usr]

Looks good Jeff. Been thinking on something like that myself. Would cool down the rotor about as it could ever get. Neu's can be ordered with an internal cooling fan on some models. I know some of the 22xx series already have them right from the factory without special ordering them.

John

[domwilson]

Looks cool....
What do you think of removing the internal fan from some old 700 motors and applying them to a BL Motor shaft?

[Ub Hauled]

Looks cool....
What do you think of removing the internal fan from some old 700 motors and applying them to a BL Motor shaft?

Dom, they cannot take the RPM... they used to blow on the 700 cans sometimes, can you imagine the damage on a high RPM brushless?

[graill]

Neat trick if you have the room Jeff. :)

Jeff creates a big, big question, other than the obvious tooling costs, is why the motor manufacturers among others (esc manu's) are so far behind the times in tech, resting on your laurels to long and they get brown and crunchy.

You high profile racers pushing product need to be beating on manufacturers doors demanding the best innovations. :)

[Jeff Wohlt]

I do know that drawing air in is the best method of cooling. Trying to push air does not work unless it is in an open setting. Remember when we used a 4" piece of PVC with a fan at the rear to cool our nicads? I was always surprised how fast they cooled down compared to just letting them sit.

Once I get some holes in the plates then I will know if it really draws good air. I do know this little fan has some power on 7.4 since it is a 5v fan and the guys told me it would not hurt it a bit but she does spin nicely and is BL.

I just think it is a cool idea and had it in my head for some time. This just a mock up to check fitting,e tc. The production, if I do any will be perfect. Pretty thick styrene for such a small pull so it is very sturdy.

[FloatDaBoat]

I do know that drawing air in is the best method of cooling. Trying to push air does not work unless it is in an open setting.

Sucking's better than blowin' - - HAW !!!

[ray schrauwen]

I like it Jeff. COOL.

Been thinking the same but, you're first to the plate.

Rather have an electrical fan than Mechanical (Lehner), because a 1000Mah battery is payload I can handle.
I'll use them on Neu, whatever. The smaller the better if it can still move air needed.

Good for those big blue KB motors if you drill'em out. Was planning too anyway.

[CornelP]

I was also tempted to do something like this, mainly for a big KD45, but I also found some nice fans for the standard motors:
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=0191941
These will need almost no extra hardware...

[ray schrauwen]

I was also tempted to do something like this, mainly for a big KD45, but I also found some nice fans for the standard motors:
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=0191941
These will need almost no extra hardware...

Thats a nice fan, ebay is a good source too.

[Brod]

I did something similar on a nitro heli conversion a few yrs back.
The Mega motor ran gasping hot before i did the fan job.It then ran cool.
I put 2 12v fans back to back wired in series,which made air flow stronger.
I eventually changed to a Kontronic Tango motor which has an internal fan which ran stone cold.

[Steven Vaccaro]

Cool idea Jeff. What about a small fan and a some thick shrink wrap. You can probably just shrink it on the end of the motor.

But if enough heat is being generated that we need both air and water cooling, shouldn't we also consider moving to a different size or wind motor? The heat is being generated from wasted energy not friction, wasted energy means a slower boat. For example, if you do succeed in cooling a motor from 160 to 120f, the efficiency is still a problem, you've just did a better job in keeping the motor from self destructing. Just something to ponder.

[ozzie-crawl]

i thing i wonder is when a person says there motor is getting a bit hot if its being pushed to hard or just heat soak.
when playing with a data logger awhile back i spent a bit of time looking at heat
i found on acouple of my setups that temps would rise to a certain temperature and fairly much stay there like a petrol engine getting to operating temp
but once the boat stops temps can jump rather fast as the motor/esc heat soak and have no cooling happening
by the time a boat is emoved from the water hatch removed and temps taken there can be a 20 deg diffrence

[Jeff Wohlt]

These are evercool fans.

I like the idea, Steve, but The round part on the motor keeps a flow pulling better and the fan does not sit on the motor. This creates a better pull thru the motor. I think shrink might work but something solid like this keeps that air pulling since the air is channeled from the round part. It may work but I wanted something stronger. The fan is a good 20-30 mmm from the back plate so the draw seems like it would be better creating more air flow.

Beats me...still playing. I like the fact that it can cool the internals down quickly so you can get back out in the water.

[Steven Vaccaro]

i thing i wonder is when a person says there motor is getting a bit hot if its being pushed to hard or just heat soak.
when playing with a data logger awhile back i spent a bit of time looking at heat
i found on acouple of my setups that temps would rise to a certain temperature and fairly much stay there like a petrol engine getting to operating temp
but once the boat stops temps can jump rather fast as the motor/esc heat soak and have no cooling happening
by the time a boat is emoved from the water hatch removed and temps taken there can be a 20 deg diffrence

Good thoughts and info. I never played with the temp feature of the logger. I always figured it was just as easy to whip out the temp gun at the end. But now you've given me reason for changing that thought.

[Rumdog]

i thing i wonder is when a person says there motor is getting a bit hot if its being pushed to hard or just heat soak.
when playing with a data logger awhile back i spent a bit of time looking at heat
i found on acouple of my setups that temps would rise to a certain temperature and fairly much stay there like a petrol engine getting to operating temp
but once the boat stops temps can jump rather fast as the motor/esc heat soak and have no cooling happening
by the time a boat is emoved from the water hatch removed and temps taken there can be a 20 deg diffrence

Wow, I've never even thought of that, yet it makes perfect sense!

[sailr]

It seems to me that a fan is just going to recirculate hot air inside the boat. Doesn't seem very efficient to me?

[Steven Vaccaro]

It seems to me that a fan is just going to recirculate hot air inside the boat. Doesn't seem very efficient to me?

Yes, but dont forget the hull is in contact with cold water, the inside of the hull wont be as hot as the inside of the water. So there will be some cooling effect.

[Drag Boat Bob]

It seems to me that a fan is just going to recirculate hot air inside the boat. Doesn't seem very efficient to me?

Don’t underestimate the cooling power of a fan.

My car stereo amp would repeatedly hit the thermal shut down due to being in a very small enclosed trunk (sports car). Being a black car would cause the area to heat up quickly in the sun, so the ambient was already pretty warm. I added one small fan to blow across the unit and have had no problems since.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Air is better than no air. Yes, air thru a motor will certainly make a difference.

Do you know how many IC motors are air cooled? The heat only builds as the motor begins getting hot...cooling the motor early so it does not reach the high temps keeps the air cooler as well....does that make sense?

[ozzie-crawl]

It seems to me that a fan is just going to recirculate hot air inside the boat. Doesn't seem very efficient to me?

put your self in a small sealed room when its hot and your body heat makes the room hotter, now turn a fan on, the fan is only pushing air that is already in the room but you keep much cooler and the room stays much cooler
same thing in a boat hull.

[sailr]

Very interesting points all! I have some small fans, guess I might try one on a non-water cooled ESC and see how it goes.

[egneg]

put your self in a small sealed room when its hot and your body heat makes the room hotter, now turn a fan on, the fan is only pushing air that is already in the room but you keep much cooler and the room stays much cooler
same thing in a boat hull.

Not the same thing ... wind chill only affects rhings that have moisture to give to the atmosphere. Evaporation takes heat away from things much faster. The room itself is not any cooler, actually the heat given off from the fan motor makes it hotter.

[Rumdog]

Running 3-4 minutes, do you think it is enough time to heat up the cabin in your boat? I'm really not sure. I know that Jay "Fluid" Says that a fan can really keep the temps down, I remember seeing pics of a fan in his sprintcat with a 1527. Ya gotta figure, the bigger thehull, the better air cooling with a fan is going to work. I am a cnc machinist. Every motor that my machines have, some being swiss type lathes with multiple motors have fan cooling. They are just larger versions of the pc type fans, and they work reall well in confined spaces. I know it isn't the same application, but moving air into the motor has got to have some sort of cooling affect.

[egneg]

The fan does redistribute the heat and you are probably correct in saying that for short runs in a confined hull it will help to keep the motor from reaching critical temps.