coomarlin

My Feedback: (1)

Have been thinking about buying an electric 3D capable plane, but admittedly I know nothing about ESC's, gear ratios, and electric motors. I have several questions.

Is there a guideline for picking motor size for certain weight planes? I see people writing about speed 300 and speed 350 sized motors which I can relate to glow sizing, but then I see stuff written about hacker 18, 20, etc? What size are these motors? What motors would you consider "Bang for the buck"?

How are ESC's rated? Can you use any ESC with any motor? Why are some ESC's so expensive? What is brushless and why are they better?

How do you determine was size gearbox you need?

Is there some kind of faq for eflight? All of the different sizing on motor, ESV's, batteries and gearing make glow flight look simple.

Dr Kiwi

Here is your best starting point:

http://www.ezonemag.com/pages/efaq.htm


Many pages of really good information.

You could also get Bob Boucher's Electric Motor Handbook, Bob Aberle's Clean and Quiet and/or Harry Higley's Entering Electrics - all available from Kirk Massey at New Creations RC ([email protected])

Cheers, Phil

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

Compared to figuring out power systems, glow IS simple Glow is simple because it's based on a fairly small set of factors, namely air, fuel, and displacement. There is only so much power to be had from a certain displacement, and engine manufacturers have settled on a de-facto standard for engine sizes. That means one guy's .40 engine is going to perform similarly to another guy's .40, and the engines are going to be of similar size and weight.

Electric, on the other hand, is wide open. There are so many different factors I can't list them in a reasonable amount of space... Physical size means nothing. The numbering systems used by motor manufacturers are little more than fancy model names; they tell you nothing about what the motor can do. Motors are capable of wide ranges of power; the same motor might work equally well at 100 Watts or 1000 Watts.

The best thing to do is start out reading the electric FAQ Dr. Kiwi recommended. When you set up your first plane, simply copy what someone else has already done on that plane or a plane of similar size and weight, with similar flying characteristics. You can kind of "reverse engineer" the system to see what goes into a successful power system, and perhaps even see why those choices were made.

LowAndSlow

My Feedback: (5)

The software application "MotoCalc" is a great help in determining motors, batteries, ESC's, props, etc. for various airplanes. You can get a trial download at http://motocalc.com. Also, for good 3-d models with reasonable cost systems,see Gary Wright's site http://gwmp.net

Hannu Vuorinen

MotoCalc is a nice tool, OK, but unfortunately it does not include many of new
outrunner motors, wich we use nowadays.

Asanders

I am lost too.. I read some of the FAQ and (it must be my age) could not make much sense...

I have a twin engine scale plane with a 70 inch wingspan.. it currently uses 2 OS .52 4 strokes.... it weighs probably about 10 lbs (havent weighed itr) the motors fly it just fine.. however I would love to convert it to electric for the reliability factor...

any thoughts on what to use?

I appreciate your patience