PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

Can somebody tell me the pros/cons of one vs the other?
thanks
zonk

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

Well I'm new to this but from what I read a drive shaft is better than a motor for 1 big reason..no tail motor means no motor to burn out, maybe in flight and cause a crash. Another reason may be weight but I could be wrong.

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

A direct drive is one where the rotor is attached directly to the motor. The size of the rotor is also smaller and spins faster.
A gear drive is where the rotor is attached to a gear, and the gear is meshed with another gear on the tail motor. The rotor is bigger and spins slower.
A shaft drive has no tail motor, instead it changes the pitch of the tail rotor to control the rudder.

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

Tnd 2000 hit the nail on the head! i just converted my colco T-bird 2.0 to a direct drive setup, the prop is much smaller and spins faster.

The advantages
*smaller rotor, further away from the ground, less chance of breaking it ( i broke the old one a lot )
*Less moving parts to break
*No gear mesh to worry about

Disadvantages i can see so far
*The motor turns a lot faster and does run pretty hot, bout the same as my main motor
*the motor is larger, i havent weighed it but i think it is heavier than the whole stock geardrive
*If the tail rotor gets hit on something the geardrive has a pop-off system, the direct does not.

thats a few things i can think of at the top of my head, if i had of been able to find a smalle tail rotor with more pitch i would have stayed with geardrive as my Tbird had a decent size motor and heatsink on the tail factory.

happy hovering

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

I think what he means by gear drive is not a geared motor drive on the tail like most standard micros but a tail rotor that is driven off the main motor by means of a driveshaft. The benefit of this is if you have a fast servo controlling the tail pitch its far more stable and responsive than a seperate motor driven tail could ever be.
Plus a shaft driven tail has the ability to push in both directions which is handy if you were to cut the throttle quickly, which would normaly cause the heli to rotate clockwise. A fixed pitch tail rotor can do nothing to stop this whereas a shaft driven with adjustable pitch can push in the other direction and stop this from happening.
The main dissadvantage with a driveshaft is the risk of damaging the shaft, boom and gear assembly if you have a crash, the other is more robust.

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

Umm i thought he would have been refering to a dragonfly or similar seeing the title of the thread was "PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE" and since the dragonfly doesnt have a mainshaft driven belt or tail drive with collective i assumed thats what he asked for ?:D

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

didn't mean to confuse, GWS has 2 versions of the the dragonfly out now, one uses the a electric motor on the tail running a reduction gear and it also has a smaller -150? size -main motor. the 2nd version also uses an electric motor for the tail rotor but the rotor is driven straight off the motor shaft, no reduction gear, and it also has a slightly larger main motor-a 300 i beleive. I was wondering which would be the better one to own if given a choice between the two. I have time on the glow helies and am aware of the various advantages/disadvantages, of belt vs bevel gear vs wire vs torque tube, but the electric stuff is new too me.
thanks
zonk

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

There is a Dragonfly with both shaft driven tail and collective pitch, its the 22a,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sPageName=WDVW

like I said basically shaft=better control/response vs
second motor=more robust but not good on FP helis at best, plus prone to tail wag due to slow motor speed up/slow down time.

If you are talking about a motor on the tail then I would say the smaller rotor with direct drive, it has a quicker spin-up time and a quicker slow-down time plus the rotors are cheaper and I beleive stronger. The added weight of the bigger motor is nearly offset by the weight of the parts you dont need, two bearings, reduction gear, shaft and bigger rotor.

RE: PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE GWS DRAGONFLY DIRECT DRIVE/VS/GEAR DRIVE?
 

Zonker...I would stick to the direct drive due to lack of ground clearence on the tail...I have the direct drive version and the tail rotor is not far off of the ground.
Also you definitely want the larger main motor.