This section will detail how to get started with brushless motors and lithium-polymer (LiPo) batteries.
Brushless motors are very powerful nowadays and commodity versions for large-scale hobbyist aircraft can provide more than 10 HP. It is no problem finding brushless motors as powerful as two-stroke gas engines.
Compared to large two-stroke gas engines, brushless motors are in my opinion superior in every way except longevity. Here are some of the advantages:
-Lighter (excluding battery weight)
-No start-up procedure required
-Quieter
-Lower maintenance
-No toxic emissions
Here are some of the disadvantages:
-Motors are cheaper, but the cost of ESC (electronic speed controller) and batteries make them slightly more expensive overall.
-Batteries are heavy, especially the amount needed to get long endurance.
Here are the major components to getting started with a brushless system:
-Motor
-Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)
-Batteries
-Transmitter/Receiver for signal input into the ESC
LiPo is the most common battery type because they have a high energy density, high power, lightweight, and economical. Charging them requires a specialized charger that balances the voltages throughout the battery cells. The motor typically has three wires that need to be fed current in a synchronized manner with the motor rotation. This requires an ESC. The ESC typically takes in a servo PWM signal (50Hz) or higher frequency to modulate the speed of the motor rotation.
TIPS:
Typically brushless motors do not come with connectors for the ESC, and you have to manually solder the appropriate connectors that can handle the expected current usage. The solder joints are important to do correctly, as a bad solder joint can destroy your system. It is very helpful to purchase a jig of some sort that will hold the connectors as you solder them together. There are many videos on how to properly do this on YouTube.
Battery wire length is crucial! This was to me a very unexpected caution, but the wires from the battery to the ESC cannot be too long. Excessively long wire starts to act as an inductor at the frequencies that the ESCs typically work at, and this can damage the ESCs, specifically the capacitors.
Brushless motors are very powerful nowadays and commodity versions for large-scale hobbyist aircraft can provide more than 10 HP. It is no problem finding brushless motors as powerful as two-stroke gas engines.
Compared to large two-stroke gas engines, brushless motors are in my opinion superior in every way except longevity. Here are some of the advantages:
-Lighter (excluding battery weight)
-No start-up procedure required
-Quieter
-Lower maintenance
-No toxic emissions
Here are some of the disadvantages:
-Motors are cheaper, but the cost of ESC (electronic speed controller) and batteries make them slightly more expensive overall.
-Batteries are heavy, especially the amount needed to get long endurance.
Here are the major components to getting started with a brushless system:
-Motor
-Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)
-Batteries
-Transmitter/Receiver for signal input into the ESC
LiPo is the most common battery type because they have a high energy density, high power, lightweight, and economical. Charging them requires a specialized charger that balances the voltages throughout the battery cells. The motor typically has three wires that need to be fed current in a synchronized manner with the motor rotation. This requires an ESC. The ESC typically takes in a servo PWM signal (50Hz) or higher frequency to modulate the speed of the motor rotation.
TIPS:
Typically brushless motors do not come with connectors for the ESC, and you have to manually solder the appropriate connectors that can handle the expected current usage. The solder joints are important to do correctly, as a bad solder joint can destroy your system. It is very helpful to purchase a jig of some sort that will hold the connectors as you solder them together. There are many videos on how to properly do this on YouTube.
Battery wire length is crucial! This was to me a very unexpected caution, but the wires from the battery to the ESC cannot be too long. Excessively long wire starts to act as an inductor at the frequencies that the ESCs typically work at, and this can damage the ESCs, specifically the capacitors.