FastStang

aside from brushless, has anyone tried a gws 400 motor in the e-starter and what are the improvements? does anyone know how many amps the 400 draws?

AtomHeartMother

It's not always a case of what motor is more suited for the job, but what batteries you plan to feed it.
If you up the cell count the stock motor would probably give close to unlimited vertical if the plane was light. But the motor wouldn't last as long. A 400, and the batteries required to feed it, would add too much weight to be effective imho. Then you're also looking at beefing up the airframe so you don't fold the wings...etc. Maybe one more cell and regearing the 370 might be the answer. If you ran the correct drive with maybe an 11 or 12 inch prop, it'd probably go straight up then.
A friend of mine has an E-starter with a brushless 010 and a 3 cell Lipoly battery. The power is awesome. Half throttle on the 010 is like full throttle stock.
If you aren't running Lipo's I would consider it. They also save so much weight, which is so critical on electrics. Anyway, consider regearing the stock motor to swing a larger prop. Top speed will most likely go down but thrust would be better.

FastStang

actually, li-po's and li-ions are the only cells i run. i tried a 3 cell li-po on the 300 and it almost went straight up with the 10 inch prop but the motor lasted about 1 hour. the reason i said "besides brushless" is because the guy at my lhs said the brushless motors will draw way too much current for lithiums. where can you get the brushless you mentioned and do they tell how many amps it draws? i think the li-po's im running are rated at 6c.

YZ-212

Hey FastStang what lipo bats are you using? If your using a 2 cell pack you could parallel 2 of them together to make a 2s2p which would up the capacity and the current capability. A 2 cell pack that can handle 6c when paralleled to a 2s2p can take 12c. Also thunder power batteries the lipo kind can handle 16amps continuous and 20c in bursts I think.
I have an E-Starter with a razor 400 brushless and am using thunder power 2100 3 cell pack and with a 12 x 8 prop the bat sees a load of about 9 - 10 amps and I have no problems with this set up. 25 oz of thrust in a 16 oz plane is fun. Check out espirit models website they have the thunder power packs. A bit pricey, but worth the loot in my opinion.

ps: I grew up in St. Louis and am dying for an Imos pizza. LOL.

YZ-212

Oh yay 2 things. Plenty of vertical and with bulsa ailerons this is a great little plane for 40 bucks.

FastStang

i am using mpi li-ions and fma direct li-po's. i didnt think about wiring them parallel. the li-po is 1200 mah at 6c. i have know idea what the amp rating is on the ions. will the poly, as it is, handle a brushless? i dissassembled it from a 3 cell to a 2 cell because it was pretty mush useless if the motor was going to last 1 hour. i think i damaged the cell i took off because the aluminum wrap tore a little and the most amzing odor filled my house. i had to put it outside, it smelled so bad. im not sure if by that happening, i changed the cell composition or not. i dont fully understan lithiums yet.

also, i use an fma super 30 speed controller for the lithiums to prevent fully discharging the batts. i assume you cant use the same controllers for a brushless since it's basically an ac motor, correct? i am concerned about killing the batteries. ive seen it happen.

ps. yz-212: years ago i used to work for mr. imo.

YZ-212

The stock motor on the e starter draws about 9 amps out of the box. Too much for your lipo bats. The kokam lipos you have are only rated at 4 amps. When I first flew my e starter on the stock set up after the flight my kokam 1020 were too hot and I looked into it. Found out I was taxing the bats past their limits. I expect the 400 motor would draw at least 9 amps if not more. The speed controller for a brushless is specific to brushless motors, you are correct on that. Your best bet would be to purchase some lipos that can handle 9 amps or better thunder power comes to mind here. Or parallel 2 packs together to increase capacity and amp draw capability.

ps: I worked for imos throughout high school for about 5 years.

FastStang

wait a minute...the stock 300 pulls 9 amps? the speed controller i used to use on it was a 5 amp MAX. it never got hot or shut down. are you sure it's 9 amps? also, when you look on some packages of speed controllers, it will tell you what the motor limits are. a 5 amp goes up to 300's. by the way i think gws lies on the motor sizes. i think their 300 is actually a 280 and the 400 is a 370. of course im no expert on this stuff, so i could be way off.

sierra gold

GWS 300 is a 370. GWS 400 is a 380.