We are now shipping the RCbenchmark Series 1520. It measures overall efficiency, current, thrust, voltage, and motor speed. The device communicates with our open-source software, which displays and records data, and controls the motor manually or through a scripting system.
Whether you want to increase flight time for aerial photography, or performance for racing, the tool will help you obtain the data you need on your motors, propellers, ESCs, servos and batteries quickly and accurately.
A year ago, I posted here asking if people would be interested in a low cost, automated thrust stand. My colleague and I, both recent graduate from M.Sc. Mech. Eng., developed the Series 1580 dynamometer, and we obtained excellent feedback from a large number of businesses and universities. Many hobbyists asked us for a simpler, more affordable tool. We heard you, and we are now offering the Series 1520 for $165.
Get it at $149 if you order before March 1st! Additionally, for a limited time, we will refund an additional $40 if you post a video review about our tool, which will lower the product’s price to only $109. Check the product page to see if the offer is still valid.
Here are the specs:
Voltage (0-35 V)
Current (40A continuous, 50A burst)
Power (0-1400W)
Thrust (±5 kg)
Motor speed (100k RPM)
Overall efficiency (%)
USB interface
ESC manual control
Three servo control ports
Output data to CSV files
Real-time sensor plots
Automated tests and recording
Powerful scripting abilities
Safety cutoffs
We want to offer more than a test tool. You might also be interested in our ongoing video tutorial series on motor and propeller theory. For more more information, check out our website or the Series 1520 product page. I will be available here to answer questions on our tools and on motor and propeller testing.
Comments
@Charles,
motor thrust stand can be easily redesigned as suggested earlier to remove any shielding obstacle.
You don't have to pay thousands of dollars per hourse to use a wind tunnel
since you can build $5000 mini wind tunnel to test small drones at OpenFabLab.
Mounting a motor to a tube shaft is a smart solution to your free air flow shield obstacle, air flow turbulences problem.
Tools for hobbyists or for kids should be designed to be freee of bugs.
@Stephen With the factory calibrated load cell, your will obtain absolute values of +-5g, and you can use your own test weight to perform your own calibration, which will give you absolute values of +-1g. The thrust resolution is excellent due to the 24bits ADC. The current sensor precision and accuracy is more than enough for the 500g range. You can check out the datasheet for exact specs, the power sensor is an ISL28022, and we coded it to rescale its ADC depending on the current measured. The shunt resistors are 0.5%. It you need more precise information, you can contact me and we can help you obtain the exact numbers.
@Darius The motor mount it designed to support the load of motors with a thrust of up to 5kgf and a pattern of the size typical to those motors. Physically, it cannot be much smaller and still support the load and pattern those motors. If you are testing smaller motors and propellers, it is recommended to separate the motor from the mounting plate, or install your own motor mount directly on the load cell.
If your are paying thousands of dollars per hours to use a wind tunnel, your can certainly use a custom aerodynamic shroud and motor mount to minimize the drag and get the best absolute values in lab conditions (which will be different from real outdoor conditions). Nevertheless, as a tool for hobbyist and designers, the Series 1520 quickly provide excellent data to compare ESCs, propellers, motors and batteries.
Oh, and I highly recommend you do not engage with Darius. Check out his post history.
Hi Charles,
How about smaller motors in the 500g thrust range? What is the resolution/accuracy for small thrust and current draw?
Looks great, I may ask my lab or employer to get one.
@Charles,
you cannot offer market product with bugs.
I develop vertical axis wind turbines and have build wind tunnel to test small drones,
1000w wind turbines since drum attached propellers have to match local wind conditions.
I use 1000w 3-phase direct drive generators.
You need to redesign your thrust stand, remove steel shield obstacle, mount a motor to
the shaft or tube and move sensors from propeller to get sensors protected against resonant vibrations of your mounting stand.
Shaft should be fixed to move in one axis only, protected against rotating.
"
The motor mount will always have an effect, and it is important to quantify this effect.
"
You are not correct. There is no other way to study stell part shielding effect
than to mount it for test N.1 and remove it for test No.2.
More obstacles, more turbulences, faked thrust results.
Since you cut your stand from steel plate with laser, you can easily redesign it
to meet basic motor thrust test standards.
@Marc Thanks, we will keep this in mind for the future.
@Tobias For small motors and coaxial setup, you have the option of using your own motor mount (which could be your quadcopter arm or a piece of wood).
The motor mount will always have an effect, and it is important to quantify this effect. There will be a video in our tutorial series about propellers, but there are two things to consider. Most of the thrust comes from the area covered by the tip of the propeller. Secondly, the recommended configuration for testing is in pusher mode. The effective area from which the air pulled is larger than the area covered by the propeller upstream. Nevertheless, I will change the first picture, it is a tiny motor/prop setup that should not be installed this way...
nice work, but even with the large prop the mounting plate is in the way of the airflow. Also: what about coaxial arrangements?
Charles, well it seems that you may be able to use your hardware with this project. Maybe you should ping the person doing it and and see if it can be adapted...
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