The motor test stand

In my quest towards getting better efficiency and more performance/flighttime out of my power systems , I decided to build myself a “Thrust stand”.

This contraption is going to be quite simple;

2 pieces of wood which I pre-drilled

Screwed together

Since I had a box of old T-Rex 450 parts I decided to use the main-shaft and bearings

Screwed on a baseplate

I screwed on a simple stopper to keep the arm from tilting forward when transporting it

Done! The motor mount was constructed from a piece of aluminum I had laying around.

The power-meter is of the Turnigy brand and has a built in PWM generator which means that you don’t need a transmitter+receiver to run the tests.

The RPM meter requires a non florescent light source to do accurate readings. I use a LED flashlight to achieve that.

Overall I’m very happy with my thrust stand. It’s a great tool for comparing performance between setups and maximizing efficiency.

Here are some test results that I took for the FunJet setup;

Motor: Warp 4 3-turn 2580kV
ESC: Mystery 40A
Battery: 3s OEM 25-35C 2200mAh LiPo

APC SPEED 400 – 4.75*4.75
Thrust: 500g
Amps: 29A
Voltage:10.9V
Watts: 316W
RPM: 25000
Calculated pitch-speed: 180km/h

APC SPEED 400 – 5.25*4.75
Thrust: 660g
Amps: 34A
Voltage:10.7V
Watts: 364W
RPM: 23000
Calculated pitch-speed: 166km/h

APC SPEED 400 – 5.5*4.5
Thrust: 760g
Amps: 34,1A
Voltage:10.5V
Watts: 358W
RPM: 22800
Calculated pitch-speed: 156km/h

APC SPEED 400 – 6*4
Thrust: 1000g
Amps: 35A
Voltage:10.4V
Watts: 364W
RPM: 22000
Calculated pitch-speed: 134km/h