HACKER NO MORE!

[AZ ChopperCam]

done with the Hacker motors in my Raptor. I had an A50-12L. I ran a test flight about an hour ago and after 8 minute flight of hover only the Hacker was 160-180°. Ambient is about 78°. In the dead of summer my Hacker topped otu at 215° sometimes. That's HOT.

now get this! I then switched to an Actro 24-5 and changed gears to Raptor 30 gearing. I end up with about 125 more RPM on the head and after 8 minutes of hover...


drum roll please.....


94°! YES I said 94°!

Power is slightly better with the Actro and I also saved a few ounces as the Actro is lighter.

So the Actro is a spendy motor but damn... the temps are amazing! Out here in Arizona this motor is a must on an AP ship.

The Hacker is going in my 1/4 Scale Taylorcraft and I'm even considering running an Actro in my Logo 10 now.

I'm sorry Hacker but your motors put to use in an AP ship are a NO-GO. Especially in warm ambient temps. I never realized it until I got the chance to compare to a "real" motor. Hmmmm... lets see... less power, heavier, and 85° hotter??? goodbye Hacker! Hello Actro!

[PaulH]

I wonder if anyone has tried an AXI motor on a heli that size? The 4130 series look like they would be a good match. They're $150, half the price of the Actro.

[askman]

from all the previous test, axi are known to run hot as well. you really can't beat actro for cool running power motor. actros are just great motor for demading job.

[AeroMattics]

Dennis,

Which Actro motor would you be considering for the Logo?

[AZ ChopperCam]

not sure yet... something in the 1100 kv range so I can keep the similar battery/pinion config.

Maybe the CL5 which is 1000kv?

I'll keep the Hacker in the Logo until it warms up again out here around next April/May.

[askman]

on clarification, actro helicopter motors are great for cool running. the reason is that they have great cooling. non heli motors are not as good for heli. so, at least be aware of it.

I've been running the latest zpower z30-800 motor on my logo 10, and it is running very cool. this is early production sample that gary got. it seems like a winner for good price. they will have z50 and even z70. since gary is going to be the distributor, he is giving them lot of input on the design. I have second gen z50, and will be trying it on raptor. I have z50-600T that I've been running, and it worked fairly well (due to large fan) the whole brushless motor field is becoming more competitive and we will see better product at lower prices. :)

[rroback]

I switched form a pletti to an actro 32-4 on my maxi, and it is wonderful. cooler, longer flight times, me=happy.

[GGoodrum]

The motor Andre is talking about is actually one of the Z30A-800 samples they sent me to test. I have one in mine as well and it runs very cool. Gobs of power too. The "regular" Z30 and Z50 motors I've been using work quite well. The power of the Z50 is very similar to an Actro, a NeuMotor and/or a Hacker. Even at over 25k rpm, they run a fairly cool, maybe around 140F on a 90-degree day.

The new "A" models have a newly designed "core" that improves airflow and has some wiring improvements. The net result is they are a ton more efficient. The idle current ratings dropped 20%, pretty much across the board. It is very hard to get these motors too much above ambient, which is a good thing. :) The Z30A-800 in my Logo 10 ran about 108F after 9 minutes on a 90 degree day last weekend. the "regular" Z30-800 that I did have in it ran about 135-140F in the same sort of ambients, which is not bad.

I decided to carry/distribute these, mainly because they had such good performance for an "affordable" overseas motor. What was pleasantly surprising was their willingness to make improvements to make these work better in helicopters. The first manifestation of that was the external fan they added in the last major change they did. I had simply mentioned that the reason the Z50T works so well is because of the huge fan it has, and it would be good if they had a bigger fan on the "regular" Z50. they have also made a few minor wiring improvements but the new core design made such a big difference, we decided to use the "A" designation to differentiate them from the original. They will also now be blue instead of red, and they will have the logo and nomenclature laser-etched on the fan plates:

http://www.tppacks.com/photos/Z-Power-endcaps.jpg


The Z10A, Z20A and Z30A motors will be shipped by early next week so I should finally have them by the end of next week. The new cores for the Z50As won't be ready until the end of next week, so it will still be a couple of weeks before I get them.

Anyway, I think these motors will do well in our AP applications, especially if you are planning to use a123-based packs. The Z30-800 is a good "fit" in a Logo 10 with a 10s pack, and the Z50-600 with two 10-cell packs in parallel (i.e. -- 10s2p...) will work quite well.

-- Gary

[dreslism]

Sweet,

How do I switch out the blue caps for the red ones on my recently purchased z30? :wink:

[MLaBoyteaux]

Hey DJ,

Can you see a reduction in the average maH your using per minute versus the Hacker? I remember you posting you were using around 330maH/minute I think on a 10S setup? If the motor is cooler, then more of the energy should be going to do work instead of converting to heat.......

The A50-16S I'm using never gets over 150, usually it's around 145, but if the Actro is more efficient and lighter, it sounds like a great choice. Maybe the bearings will hold up better, too.

[AZ ChopperCam]

the bearings will hold up better no doubt. My 12L bearings had all the grease cooked out of them and that's what was causing my lockouts. Once I figured this out and relubed them lockouts stoppped.

but with the actro, if it never gets above 130° on a hot summer day the bearings will last MUCH longer.

I am seeing 360mah/min with the actro which is higher but I'm also spinning the head 125 rpm higher and I'm using 710mm blades. The 330mah/min with the hacker was with 680's. Given that I suspect the Actro is indeed running more efficiently... as you say, the physics of it proves that... less heat in motor means that energy is converted to work in the rotor system.

I really wish I would have tried one of these motors 6 months ago. Would have saved me alot of trial/error time and R&D testing the smokin hot Hackers.

[Teej]

What'd you do for connecting the pinion to the Actro?

Get an 8mm actro and drill out the 6mm adapter?

I suspect that motor would do really nicely on my 10s setup...though I'd probably be pulling more than 360mah/min to do it.

[AZ ChopperCam]

I have the 5mm Actro 24-5. Gary at tppacks.com sells an install kit for this motor with a 5mm pinion adapter. Also his sandwich mounting plates for this motor have holes for 3mm screws and not 4mm like the Hacker.

[GGoodrum]

Actually, the plates will still work, but you might have to use washers on the screws. All you need is the 5mm pinion adapter. The technique for installing any motor with these plates is to let the motor "hang" from the installed pinion/pinion adapter, to get the motor centered, and then you tighten the motor screws.

-- Gary

[AZ ChopperCam]

Love that Actro so much that I bought another to put in this project.

http://www.acehobby.com/ace/TTR3837.htm

Scale MD530. It's been about 5 years since I've done scale heli's and back then it was like a black art. This one ought to be easy!