Multistar V-Spec 1808 2400kv thrust test

motor:
Multistar V-Spec 1808-2400kv

power:
3 cell lipo  (12,6v)

proplist:
HQprop 5040 Tri blade ABS/GR
HQprop 5045 Bullnose
HQprop 5040 ABS/CR
HQprop 4040 Quad-blade ABS
HQprop 4045 Bullnose Tri-blade ABS
HQprop 4040 Tri-blade ABS
HQprop 4040 Bullnose ABS
Hobbyking 5045 Tri-blade
Gemfan 5040 ABS
Gemfan 5030 ABS
Gemfan 4045 ABS
Gemfan 3545 ABS
Dalprop 3045 Tri-blade
Diatone 4045 Bullnose ABS
Lumenier 4040 Quad-blade ABS

*updated 29/6/16: added hq40404/GF3545/DP30453
*updated 02/7/16: added luminier 4x4x4

DYS 1306 3100kv thrust test

motor:
DYS 1306 3100kv

power:
3 cell lipo  (12,6v)

proplist:
Diatone 4045 Bullnose ABS
HQprop 4040 Bullnose ABS
Gemfan 4045 ABS
Gemfan 3030 ABS
Hobbyking 4025 ABS
RotorX 3040 Bullnose Triblade

The HQProp 4040 and Diatone 4045 cause the motor to overheat after just a few seconds on max power. These 2 props and all other 4 inch triblades and 5 inch props I used in previous benchmarks are not usable on this motor.

DYS 1806 2300kv thrust test

motor:
DYS 1806 2300kv

power:
3 cell lipo  (12,6v)

proplist:
HQprop 5040 Tri blade ABS/GR
Hobbyking 5045 Tri-blade
HQprop 5045 Bullnose
Gemfan 6030 ABS/CR
Gemfan 5040 ABS
HQprop 5040 ABS/CR
HQprop 4045 Bullnose Tri-blade ABS
Gemfan 5030 ABS
Diatone 4045 Bullnose ABS
HQprop 4040 Tri-blade ABS
HQprop 4040 Bullnose ABS
HQprop 4040 Quad-blade ABS
Lumenier 4040 Quad-blade ABS
Gemfan 4045 ABS
Gemfan 3545 ABS
Dalprop 3045 tri-blade

* update 04/07/16: added gemfan 3545, dalprop 3045, hqprop 4x4x4, lumenier 4x4x4

Multistar 2206 2150kv thrust test

motor:
Multistar 2206 2150kv (aka the baby beast)

power:
3 cell lipo  (12,6v)

proplist:
HQprop 5040 Tri blade ABS/GR
Hobbyking 5045 Tri-blade
HQprop 5045 Bullnose
Gemfan 6030 ABS/CR
Gemfan 5040 ABS
HQprop 5040 ABS/CR
HQprop 4045 Bullnose Tri-blade ABS
Gemfan 5030 ABS
Diatone 4045 Bullnose ABS
HQprop 4040 Tri-blade ABS
HQprop 4040 Bullnose ABS
Gemfan 4045 ABS
Hobbyking 4025 ABS

Ready to benchmark!

The RC brushless motor test bench (version 1) is ready.

The RPM sensor is made with an infrared LED and an infrared phototransistor (TCRT5000L). The IR LED constantly emits an IR light that is invisible to the eye. the phototransistor acts as a switch that is toggled by IR light. Every time a prop blade is between IR led and IR phototransistor the IR phototransistor switches off. In most RPM tutorials this on/off switching is counted during some time. e.g. 100 times a switch off during 250ms equals to 12000 rpm for a 2 bladed prop. But this means you'll only have an RPM readout every 250ms this would slow down my benchmarking.
To calculate the RPM I use the time difference between the switches, or the time difference between the blades. This gives me a RPM readout every turn of the prop. e.g. 4 miliseconds time difference between the blades equals to 7500 rpm for a 2 bladed prop.

Now I have all sensor data for this project. And I can start benchmarking my motors and props. The current PC application is a bit limited. It just start/stops a benchmark cycle and it captures all data. The data can be saved to a file or copied to clipboard. At the moment there is no fancy graph. But this can be done with any spreadsheet application because the saved benchmark file is a tab delimited csv file that can be imported in almost all spreadsheet applications.

RC Brushless motor test bench

My RC brushless motor test bench project is almost finished. I hooked up an ACS 712 30 ampere current sensor. This sensor will read out the current consumption of the motor and send it to the arduino board. I also made a basic voltage divider in order to read out the battery voltage with the arduino board.

I currently have programmed the arduino board to read voltage, current and thrust. With a very basic command set and human readable output it is possible to control the arduino (test bench) completely by hand with arduino IDE serial monitor feature.

But I also created a small PC application that makes it easier to control to board and run a pre programmed benchmark sequence. With this small program it is possible to save or copy the incoming data. This application is created with the processing IDE and is java based. So it should run on every java compatible platform (operating system)

The ACS 712 sensor is a cheap one from ebay. In order to get it to
work well you should add a capacitor on the ACS 712 FILTER pin. To achieve this you will need some soldering skills. Without the capacitor this sensor is useless in this application. I used a 10nf cap.

Next step is to integrate a RPM counter.