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New KDE Direct multi-rotor brushless motors

Discussion in 'Cinestar 8' started by Ozkan Erden, Feb 14, 2014.

  1. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Tim,
    I tested 16, 17 and 18” props on my X8 with KDE 4012 motors at about 25lbs. My results clearly indicated that with my copter, 16” props were going to yield the best results, mostly because 25lbs is the highest that I’ll fly. Usually I’m flying at 21 or 22 pounds, and at that weight it’s hovering at not much above 50%, and that’s with substandard batteries (not going to derail this thread). But I’d strongly suggest buying maybe some cheaper CF props (like Fox Supreme Lights) and testing with those. The Tigers will do better than the Fox props, but at 3x the cost, I wasn’t willing to make that kind of investment for just a few flights. I think I’m going to be very happy with the 16” Tigers when I can actually get ahold of them. And for the time being the cheap Fox CF props are working great. :)
     
  2. Tristan Twisselman

    Tristan Twisselman Active Member

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    Well now I take back what I just said lol
     
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  3. Tim Sessler

    Tim Sessler Active Member

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    Thats very interesting. Thanks for that info, Steve.

    I am surprised to hear that 16" works best for you. Can you explain how they differ from the 17" and 18"?
    Should have the 17" Tiger by Tuesday - very curious to test them!
     
  4. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    I measured my hover throttle and the copter was working harder with the 18” props and 17” props than it does with the 16” props. Remember, the inertia of the prop blades has an effect on the motor’s ability to regulate its speed, and these motors seem to have an optimum RPM at which they work most efficiently. It seemed with the larger props the motors were probably running at too low of an RPM to be very efficient. Or maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about. But my results are pretty consistent.
     
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  5. Tim Sessler

    Tim Sessler Active Member

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    Makes a lot of sense - it just seemed that the performance (at least of the 4014s) with 15" props was far from being usable. Hard to believe that 1" will make all the difference in the world.
    Anyways - I'll let you know how the 17" and 4014 work, once I have them up and running mid week.

    Cheers!
     
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  6. Tim Sessler

    Tim Sessler Active Member

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    Just had the chance to quickly test the 17" props. They seem to be great for the KDE 4014 at 25lbs. Hover throttle is just around 55%, plenty of power and should give some amazing flight times.

    It was fairly windy and I got a good amount of wobble - but that was to be expected as I am still using the 15" and 4012-09 PID values. A quick MK PID calibration should fix that and smooth out things quite a bit.

    I was flying for around 8 minutes - though I am having some weird issue where I am only using about 50% of my lipo capacity (see thread here: http://forum.freeflysystems.com/index.php?threads/understanding-batteries.4096/). So even though I was flying with 2x FF 6S 9,000mAh lipos, I only used around 9,800mAh. Very strange issue - though the exciting part is that once I fix that I should get flight times around 14 minutes.


    Also on another note for everybody that currently is looking for Tmotor CF props. Electricwingman has them in stock and a super fast international delivery. Ordered on Friday and got them on Monday. https://www.electricwingman.com/tiger-motor-propellers
     
  7. Bryan Harvey

    Bryan Harvey Member

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    I'm flying Xoar 17x5's on my X8 with the KDE 4014. My rig AUW is 21.2 lbs and I get about 8.5 minutes flight time carrying 10,000mah.

    Im just getting ready to try 18" carbons to see if I can get any better performance. My theory is the carbons being half the weight of the Xoars should provide some performance boost, and of course the extra inch of wing on the larger props. I think as prop size increases, the swing weight factor of the props increases in tandem, and it becomes more critical.

    But over on this board Mario de Roos tests Tiger carbons against the Xoars and the Xoars win due to better aerodynamics of the blade.
    the http://forum.freeflysystems.com/ind...ger-motor-carbon-fiber-props.1324/#post-18309

    Its unclear to me if the test is of the old Tiger props or the new V2.
    Should I bother trying the Tiger 18" Carbons? It's a pricey test. Steve, how do you rank the Fox carbons? Balancing difficulty?
     
  8. Tim Sessler

    Tim Sessler Active Member

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    Hm... thats interesting. With 21lbs you should get quite a bit longer flight times. What batteries do you use and how many Ah did your 8.5min flight use up?

    The Tigers are definitely a bit better than the Xoars - at least in my experience. But at the same time it won't make a huge difference for flight times. One of the biggest benefits for me is that they are much more sturdy and dont break/chip as easy as the Xoars.
     
  9. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    The Fox "lite" props came balanced fine, and I've left them that way. But I'm not super meticulous about that.
     
  10. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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