In an attempt to get some meaningful data on the performance (thus comparison) of brushless motors for FE’s, I am building an evaluation platform that I think may help provide some guidance on brushless motor selection. This goal of this evaluation platform it to be a bridge between Brushless Motor Manufacturer Published Specs, which I often refer to as Brushless Ultimate Linguistic Literature Showcasing Highly Improbable Technology , (BULLSHI* for short), and what we actually see after plunking our hard earned cash.
In a nutshell, here is the concept:
1. Use a 44” Aeromarine Avenger Pro hull at the test platform. It’s wide beam, high freeboard and large internal volume to hold a wide number of LiPo cells makes it the perfect test platform. Most importantly, I have one available. The boat will be in the water connected to the dock via two stainless eye bolts on the back of the Avenger and a stainless cable bolted to the Strain Gauge Force Transducer.
2. Design a universal, easy to change motor mounting system that will handle a wide range of motors from UL1 to Feigao 540’s and 580’s to the New and Castle Creation series and also the new Leopard series of 4074 and 5692 series of motors.
3. Any combination of ESC type, prop selection, and number of LiPo cells/voltage can all be easily selected as the specific test dictates.
4. Use a conventional flex drive that takes 3/16” shaft props and have a wide variety of couplers that connect this shaft to the motor. ( I hope to get Jeff Wolfe to help me on this one)
5. Do the testing attached to a dock in a lake to minimize the restrictions and errors associated with tank testing. (Also lucky enough to have one of these in the front of my house)
6. Instrument the motor/esc system with Eagle Tree monitoring to obtain all necessary performance parameters. (RPM, Amps, Voltage, 3 Temps, Watt-Hrs consumed, etc)
7. Include an Eagle Tree A/D expander module so the force output from a precision strain gauge transducer can measure thrust. (I considered using an inexpensive digital fish weighing gauge but that would neither be as accurate as the precision force transducer and would require an observer to monitor the force output by viewing the fish scale LCD, a big source of error in my opinion.) Preliminary tests on this force transducer show excellent results. I use a 9 VDC strain guage excitation voltage and a 3.7 volt amplification voltage. Maximum force (thrust) recorded is 50 lbs and I have a built in amplifier to provide a 0-5 VDC calibrated output to the Eagle Tree A/D conterter)
8. All data is fed directly into a Laptop where it is monitored via an active Eagle Tree software display page as well as stored in memory.
9. A standardized tabular and graphical form will be established to present the recorded data so an apple to apple, not a grape to watermelon comparison can be made.
10. Have Tony, Mark F, Jeff, Brad, Josh, etc monitor testing and provide suggestions as needed as well as look for constructive input from the FE forum.
Preliminary equipment setup shown in the attached Pics....Ideas and Suggestions?
In a nutshell, here is the concept:
1. Use a 44” Aeromarine Avenger Pro hull at the test platform. It’s wide beam, high freeboard and large internal volume to hold a wide number of LiPo cells makes it the perfect test platform. Most importantly, I have one available. The boat will be in the water connected to the dock via two stainless eye bolts on the back of the Avenger and a stainless cable bolted to the Strain Gauge Force Transducer.
2. Design a universal, easy to change motor mounting system that will handle a wide range of motors from UL1 to Feigao 540’s and 580’s to the New and Castle Creation series and also the new Leopard series of 4074 and 5692 series of motors.
3. Any combination of ESC type, prop selection, and number of LiPo cells/voltage can all be easily selected as the specific test dictates.
4. Use a conventional flex drive that takes 3/16” shaft props and have a wide variety of couplers that connect this shaft to the motor. ( I hope to get Jeff Wolfe to help me on this one)
5. Do the testing attached to a dock in a lake to minimize the restrictions and errors associated with tank testing. (Also lucky enough to have one of these in the front of my house)
6. Instrument the motor/esc system with Eagle Tree monitoring to obtain all necessary performance parameters. (RPM, Amps, Voltage, 3 Temps, Watt-Hrs consumed, etc)
7. Include an Eagle Tree A/D expander module so the force output from a precision strain gauge transducer can measure thrust. (I considered using an inexpensive digital fish weighing gauge but that would neither be as accurate as the precision force transducer and would require an observer to monitor the force output by viewing the fish scale LCD, a big source of error in my opinion.) Preliminary tests on this force transducer show excellent results. I use a 9 VDC strain guage excitation voltage and a 3.7 volt amplification voltage. Maximum force (thrust) recorded is 50 lbs and I have a built in amplifier to provide a 0-5 VDC calibrated output to the Eagle Tree A/D conterter)
8. All data is fed directly into a Laptop where it is monitored via an active Eagle Tree software display page as well as stored in memory.
9. A standardized tabular and graphical form will be established to present the recorded data so an apple to apple, not a grape to watermelon comparison can be made.
10. Have Tony, Mark F, Jeff, Brad, Josh, etc monitor testing and provide suggestions as needed as well as look for constructive input from the FE forum.
Preliminary equipment setup shown in the attached Pics....Ideas and Suggestions?
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