kaboady

My Feedback: (1)

Can anyone tell me how you hook up two motors to power a plane? I am assuming you would run 2 controllers,but do you Y them off channel 3?

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

You can Y them or set up a mix if you have a spare channel. What radio? Some of them have programming aimed specifically at twin engine/motor operation.

kaboady

My Feedback: (1)

I use a Futaba 9CAP. I have a person asking advice on this and I have never hook 2 motors up. Thanks for the advice.

-pkh-

My Feedback: (2)

Two brushed motors can use a single ESC. Two brushless motors require two ESCs. If they have built in BECs, you may have to disconnect one of the BECs from the receiver. Castle Creations has some good guidelines for putting together multi-motor brushless power systems, check out page two of the newsletter below:

[link=http://www.castlecreations.com/media/castle_scribe_archives/Castle%20Scribe%20CE-03-Mar2006.pdf]Castle Scribe March 2006[/link]

The jpg graphic below summarizes their suggestions:

CBM Racing

If using brushed motors, use a single esc wired with motors in paralell. Good example is a multiplex twin jet of mine. Using one esc, the motor leads are split off to each motor, the + lead splits into two leads going to each motor's + tab, the - lead splits into two - leads going to each motor's - tab. If brushless, go with above from castle creations. If you series wire the 2 brushed motors, you cut the voltage to each motor in 1/2, if paralell they get the full voltage from the battery. Just remember that you will also double the amp draw that way so you need a controller with double the capacity of a single motor setup. Hope it helps some [sm=bananahead.gif]

Zim-uh-tosa

Hey CBM...

If you were to use 4 motors for that same scenario and wire them in series, would the voltage be cut to 1/4??? I have 4 little 3v motors that I need to wire up. The motors are brushed....


Z

-pkh-

My Feedback: (2)

If all four motors were identical, and the loads on all four motors were exactly the same, the voltage across each one would be 1/4 the total voltage. In practice, I'm not sure how well the voltages will match up, and therefore how well your thrusts will match up on either side of the plane. I would guess that it would work OK. A 3S LiPo pack's voltage can vary from 12.6V max to 9V min, so your motor voltages would vary from 3.15V to 2.25V. Not sure how well they'll fly a plane in that voltage range. From what I've seen, brushed plane motors are typically powered a little hotter than they are rated for, to get enough power:weight ratio to fly well. My experience has been that only "slow flyer" type planes do well with brushed motors (Parkzone Vapor, Ember, Firebird Phantom, Slo-V, etc.). If you want a plane that can do some aerobatics, you're better off with a brushless/LiPo power system.

Zim-uh-tosa

PKH..

Thanks for the great info so far....The motors are indeed all the same and run 2.4-3.0 Volts. I do know that these motors have been run successfully in series from a 7.2 volt battery (3.6 volts per motor) without issue. The scenario for where I got this idea was 4 motors on a 7.2 battery but wired so that 2 motors in front are splitting voltage and 2 motors in the rear share the voltage in series as well!! So...As long as it is possible to wire the same four motors to share the entire voltage of my battery and in series, I am golden on my wiring project. Even if my batteries run a bit high on volts I will not worry for now...

In my linked question, I stated that I am not running these motors in a plane. I just wanted to clarify that again. Here is a link to the motors I am using x4...[link=http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tam/tam15317.htm]Tamiya Power Dash[/link]. I wish these motors had an amp rating so I knew how big an ESC to go with???

I really appreciate your help. If you or anyone knows of a way now that I can utilize my DX6i to turn 2 of the motors off if I wish, that would be a nice added feature.

Thanks so much!!

Z