Is it just me or doesn't it seem like the brushless motor plus special controller is way over priced? I can buy a fourstroke ic engine for that is it really that expensive to manufacture these or are they just ripping everybody off I doubt if they will ever sell me one I do just fine with my cheap ferrite motors and cheap gearboxes as long as I don't expect too much and build it right most models will fly on the wing with much less power than stated if everything is absolutly right cg wing incidence etc.

It's all relative to what you like to do. For example, you don't buy a Porsche just to drive to the grocery store. It's made to impress your neighbors and go fast. Same for the brushless motor users, they like to go fast and impress the other flyers. For the rest of us that just like to relax and fly around a $8.00 brush motor and a $4.00 gearbox will suit us just fine. For the flyers with a competitive urge the only way to go is brushless. Can't win on luck all the time, you need to have a little help.

If you want quality you pay for it. Cheap can certainly be fun (I have a bunch of S400s) but how many cheap motors will you have bought before the high-quality brushless has given up the ghost ? They do actually cost more to make and they're not so very expensive if you more reasonably compare them to the better engineered brushed motors like the old Astros.

If you want to continue the analogy with IC, no-one needs a 4-stroke or even an OS 2-stroke. You can spend your life trying to get MDS motors to run if that's what you enjoy. To each his own.

Steve

There are two reasons why the motors are so expensive:

1. New technology is always expensive.
2. R/C is a fairly small market.

To manufacture something as sophisticated as brushless motors and controllers in the relatively small quantities R/C modelers use, it's very expensive. I think the brushless motors we use are hand-wound and hand-assembled. The controllers have to convert DC electricity to 3-phase AC, and contain sophisticated programming that is necessary to make the motors actually function. All this is not cheap.

If you compare a typical brushless controller to a high-end brushed controller, the price difference really isn't all that great. It's like going from a 2-stroke .46 to a 4-stroke .70.

I fly mega motor, I usually buy ESC capable of 12-16 cells, and the Mega motor is not that expensive, lot's of success with this motor, and other BL flyers as well. I bought my first 3 BL. w/ ESC for $140http://www.aircraft-world.com/default.asp

The Big Problem with cheap Can Motors is they are not all the same. Mabuchi cranks them out by the Millions (per week). Most guys who fly Speed 400 Events will buy them by the Bagful and break in and test each one. The Best ones they keep and the rest they sell off to a less than fussy buyer. So how much do they actually spend per motor? If you "push" a can motor you can expect 10-15 flights before you cook it, or at least burn the brushes/commutator. Aveox figures the Bearing Life on their Brushless Motors at 30,000 hours, which is the only part that can "wear-out". All this means is the only time you will ever need to replace a Brushless Motor is if you "cook" it or Crash it Hard and bend the shaft.

Two other things. At last weeks WRAM Show Northeast Sailplane was selling a Brushless Motor/Ballbearing Gearbox setup ( like 480 size) for $49.00 . So prices are coming down. The other one is that Brushless Motor Setups are much more efficient at less than full throttle than the Brushed counterparts. I'm not sure whether this is due to the Brushless being more efficient or it's due to the way that a Sensorless Motor controls the speed. ( or Both ?)

Jim B

Yes, the brushless motors are very expensive. But, if you compare the size and weight to a brushed motor with the same kind of power, you will see how huge the difference is. And, certain brushless motors have a temperature cutoff, so the motor won't burn out for an incredibly long time.

Don't buy a LRK they are cheap I did now I make better than a lot
of them but there are good one's brushless that is. Like was said
you buy a bag of motors and get the good ones. CU