well, that's an annoying thing to do ...!
But definitely rewarding.
My test bench was actually the arducopter arm, on which i mounted the prop to be balanced.
i hesitated how to balance them, as ordering a balancer now and waiting for it to arrive for a month would piss me off....
as i tried to run an un-balanced prop, the vibration were so noticeable that i decided to test it on the frame itself.
the before and after difference is HUGE.
and finally this is the testing setup:
Comments
i was thinking that too,
actually i ran the motors only, at full speed, they were perfect - no vibrations at all.
when adding the shaft and prop and spinner, and running slowly, it seemed like the spinner is not perfectly centered....
then i decided to associate a shaft and spinner to every prop, balance them on quad, and keep them together so i have prop+shafts pairs balanced.
the most complete way will be balancing after tightening the prop on the motor, sanding the prop without taking it off the motor, so the tiny gaps (micro) between the prop and the shaft couldn't change while removing the prop....
but eh, let me fly it before that :)
No one is arguing that it is "wrong" to balance off the quad. I was just saying that balancing on the quad can be considered a more complete technique.
It will account for motors that may not be "perfect".No matter how perfect your motors were out of the factory , they are only new once. Unless you have NEVER crashed , which is a very very small subset of pilots. The most likely reason you are replacing a prop is because of a crash of some sort. Making assumptions about the motor condition after an event , is not the safest assumption to make.
Similar to how you can have your car tires balanced off the car , or on the car. On the car is more complete , but requires a bit more work to do properly.
i thought i would add to this. found a reasonable priced magnetic balancer.
http://www.hobbypeople.net/index.php/rc-airplanes/airplane-propelle...
@ Dany Thivierge
I think it can be argued that balancing the prop while on the quad is more precise .. Perhaps precise is the wrong word. More 'complete' maybe. .
While its on the quad , you are balancing the whole "system" .. when off all you are balancing is the prop. And really , thats what needs to be balanced. Not ONLY the prop, but the entire rotating mass of prop + shaft + motor.
Thanks Dany.
TCIII,
I have the cheaper props because they came with the frame kit.
http://store.jdrones.com/product_p/ac1245bl.htm
after upgrading to Hexa, i will probably order these ones which are said to be stronger
http://store.jdrones.com/product_p/ac1245comp.htm
Nice job... :)
you might still want to order a prop balancer... it's quite useful and I guess more precise. would be fun to see how balanced or unbalanced your "balanced" prop is really... :)
Cant wait to take it to fly, you are running out of things to do... where is that TX? hahaha