Originally Posted by
billjacobs
One of the problems in r/c is that no one leaves things alone. If you are supposed to gear the motor in a certain range and watch the temperature, everyone tries to gear it within 1 degree of the critical temperature looking for an edge. If you are supposed to charge at 5 amps, people charge at 8 amps, etc. Because brushless motors are fairly consistent in speed between the same model motors, and because they maintain the same performance over time, maybe the key to brushless and even competition is to have restricted gearing?
Saying that brushless is not reliable is the same as saying that nimh are not reliable because of the IB cells. More details are needed.
Originally Posted by
Johnny Wishbone
Once the tuners start to tinker with the brushless technology your going to wish that they come up with some "new" motor, so they don't have that artificial advantage that you guys seem to think they, "the tuners" have with the brushless, just the same as brushed is now.
Your going to get start seeing differnet rotor diameters, different magnet power level rotors, wye versus delta wind coils, different types of wire coils, different types of magnet material rotors. SO yes your right, no more com lathe, that will now have to be a unimat so you can cut your rotors. No more magnet zapper, you'll need a rotor zapper. No more brushess, yup you got us on that one. A PC so that you will be able to play around with changing the firing of the hall sensors within the motor itself, and not just the speedo. May as well get some of those fancy ceramic bearings. Check into getting one of those brushless dynos since all those motors are so equal, just to be sure. The list goes on and on, will brushless and LiPo be the saving grace for r/c, NO, its just the next phase of a never ending development.
When I started there wasn't even external bruhed motors, and the best battery you could buy was 1100 mah, Sanyo, Panasonic, Saft where the big names in batteries, they didn't even have ball diffs yet, so if you think that what you wish for is going to be the answer, your sadly mistaken, its just going to be the next, in a long line nexts.
I'm not posting this to start a fight or any of that stuff, I just want the new people to know that, its not just going to be a "one battery pack, one motor" shangrala world that all the brushless/LiPo want the newbies to believe in. Its going to get real advanced in technology real quick.
Both these post illustrate that racers will do what it takes to go faster. Brushless is a way better technology in that the motors are much closer in power. That being said, there are freak motors out there. I have seen several in the short time since brushless has gotten big in my area. It's not as bad as what goes on in 27t stock racing, but there is still a variance, and there are faster motors.
Originally Posted by
billjacobs
There are several reasons that brushless hasn't taken over yet:
1) too many racers have too much money invested in brushed motors and support products (speed controllers, lathes, dyno's, brushes, springs, can zappers, etc.)
2) too many tuners make money from brushed motors
3) spending money on brushed motors ensures a speed advantage that goes away with brushless
4) since most top drivers are sponsored, they run what their sponsors give them, and since roar relies on the manufacturers for their support, race sponsors, etc, roar also does what the sponsors tell them (to a point)
5) their is no brushless equivalent to any brushed motor. Even if their peak power output is similar, a brushless motor will pull fewer amps from the battery, won't heat up as much, and will be much more consistent throughout the run
6) the inefficiency in brushed motors helps justify higher voltage nimh batteries which are continuously released, helping the matchers make money
Like everything else, it all comes down to money and competition.
Since you are obsessing with the issue of money, perhaps you'd like to contemplate the upcoming Novak race which will be all brushless. Now in the foam tire 13.5 and 10.5 classes, unless they have changed their minds, all 10.5 and 13.5 motors are allowed. That means you need to:
*get a sample of each motor to see which is the fastest
or
*try to discern from internet postings which ones are slow, and hope that the posters have a clue, so you can pare down your choices
or
*Just buy a Novak, since everybody mostly runs them, and say to hell with all this fooling around.
That's after you figure out which speedo is the best, though it seems that choice is a bit less daunting.
This also does not take into consideration rotor changes or any of that.
Again, I'd say brushless is a heck of a lot better than brushed, just because QC is way above machine wound stock motors. It does have it's own batch of problems, and isn't perfect, but it is a great improvement.
As for #6, do you not think that voltage makes brushless motors faster too?? It does my friend. The Lipos will also be figured out eventually too, don't worry about that. It IS racing after all. And it will cost you
