Is it possible to reverse the direction of rotation on an Align 430L motor? If so, how?

A friend gave me this motor and I am attempting to install it in my Blade 400 as I think my stock E-flite motor is losing power. I installed it tonite but it wants to rotate my main blades counterclockwise instead of clockwise. Is it just a matter of reversing the red and blue wires? I didn't want to try for fear of damaging the ESC (Align 35X) or the motor.

Thanks for any help you may offer.

Jim

According to RCGroups...
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=539786

They say just swap 2 wires... any 2. but your call. I personally would be hesitant... and start REALLY slow when I do.

Post back how it goes.

Jim ~

I just tried it for ya on my Align 430L I swapped the red and black one going to the Castle 45 amp esc and it then went in the opposite direction...


~ Jeff

Nothing to hesitate about....swap any two and you'll be fine.

Skarn

Thanks for the reply's and confirmation. I'll give it a shot later this AM.

Any recommendations on a pinion for it? It has a 13T now but I'm thinking that may be too high. Maybe a 12T or 11T?

Jim

Jim ~

For a Trex which supports a 150t main gear the 13t on that motor will give the best overall power and duration. Not sure how many teeth are on the Blade 400, seems everywhere I looked they don't like to list that info for some reason. I'am running the 13t right now as you saw in my last video, and have ran the 15t for awhile also but the motor really lacks the torque and punch compared to a Common-Sense motor I had in it before. The Align motor is temporary in my Trex just because I don't like the bushings it has compared to other motors which offer ball-bearings and run much cooler.

It does like to get pretty warm so you might want to experiment with the pinion sizes to see what best suits you. The motor is fine for sport flying in my opinion, but anything more its just not going to handle to much more than that.

Here is a calculator to get just a base general idea of what your headspeed will be for your application. Again.... Remember the effeciency of this motor isn't the greatest, so ya might want to consider that into the equation where you can type that info into the calculator.



http://dhrc.rchomepage.com/calc.htm


The Trex 450 SA which support this motor comes with the 11, 13, and 15t pinions...... Hope this helps....


~ Jeff

Thanks for the info and link Jeff. I did reverse the red and black wires and that got it going in the right direction. I know the 430L isn't the best performing motor but I wanted to see if my stock e-flite really was giving me the power issues I suspected. The 430L indeed increased headspeed, confirming what I suspected about the stock motor. Yes it has a 13T pinion compared to the 10T on the stock but it was obvious my stock motor was losing it's punch. This is a temporary implant until I decide which direction I'm going togo in. I'm kind of waiting to see what the price of the 450 SE V2 does once the Pro comes out. I'm seeing about $375 on ebay for a new V2 right now but many of those sellers are upping the shipping to $50+.

I'm going to try to get to the LHS today and see what other pinions he has for the Align motor. BTW, I thought I read somewhere the the B400 has a 146T main gear. I'l have to see if I can find that again. Either that or I start counting them

Jim

I bought mine last year at All E rc and the shipping is free over $100. I'm sure the price reflects it but the deal was good witout the 'free-bay' hassle.

Here is a link to their Align page. You decide:
http://www.allerc.com/index.php?cPat...er&filter_id=4

Marc