Blogs

I was invited by OttawaDrones, a group of FPV flyers and drone designers, to do a short presentation about our dynamometer. My objective was to help them make quads and drones that fly longer and are more powerful.

I decided to do an introduction to motor and propeller theory, efficiency, and testing. I wanted to give the audience an intuitive understanding of the equations, so that they can design better, faster and more efficient quads. I tried to make this talk different and interesting by talking about the theory while giving concrete examples and showing real test results done with our tool.

Here is an overview of the talk:

• Problem: Why test motors and propellers?
• Stalled motor as a resistor
• Stalled motor as an electro-magnet
• Moving motor and back EMF
• Mechanical power and heat losses
• Motor timing
• Propeller definition and parameters affecting efficiency
• Motor and propeller selection
• Questions

We got to demo our tool after, and we talked with really cool people! I really recommend going to one of their meetup if you have a chance. They have great projects, and you can do some indoor FPV flying in winter!

I am planning do a series of tutorials discussing more in depth each topic mentioned in the video, so your feedback and questions are very appreciated. I will do my best to answer!