Hi all I have a small electric trainer the (west wings beguine) its auw is just under 800grms wing span 1050mm and chord 150mm so wing loading is circia .5grms/sqcm and I'm running a dualsky "XM PR.25" and a 1320mAh 15c 3s xpower lipo from dualsky esc is one of their 40A jobs with an 8x4 apc prop it pulls 110w cicia 65w/lb my prob is that any larger prop prob won't have enough ground clearence (see photos in my album "my electric hack") can i get more watts out of it by increasing the pitch. it does fly in this configuration but i feel a little more would give it better authourity
Timbo is the best person to answer this, but I would suggest a 4s battery, giving more rpm's and therefore less amps through the esc on that motor and prop, for a small increase in weight, assuming the esc can take the increased volts. If you over-pitch or over dia the prop, you are risking frying the esc or motor, as the motor will continue to try and turn at the same rpm's per volt, so sucking more and more amps through to achieve it.
good point eric but the motor is drawing less than half the rated amps of the esc and the extra exspense of 4s batteries is one I'm trying to avoid and my current lipo charger is quite small and only handles up to 3s
You can put more watts into it for sure, and increasing pitch is one way to do it. However, you should really be asking yourself whether that is the right approach, increasing pitch will only make it fly faster, for less time. If speed is what you want ( and why, when this is only a trainer ? ) then fine. If however you want climnb and thrust then more watts via more pitch will not give it you. If as you say, you are inputting 110 watts, from a 3s Lipo then thats a current of around 10.5A, and your battery is only really good to about 13A ( at 10C which is about right for a 15c battery ). Sure your ESC is plenty big enough, and your motor is good for maximum 35A and a constant of around 20 25A, but it is a fairly low Kv motor, designed to swing large props. As Eric says, be careful as you start increasing props ( pitch or diameter ) as this will increase current a lot - as will going up to more cells. This model was designed around basic brushed stuff, and an 8 X 5.5 prop was recommended, - you will be able to goto this size EASILY on that motor, however I think your 1320 mahr battery is the weak link in your powertrain.
Just re read your post timbo where did you find the prop recomendations because i couldn't find it on my plans as i recall and wot do think about a wing area increase to reduce loading as it is slightly over weight according to the orriginal specs
its become some thing (unintentionally) of a test bed for ideas started as a 3 channel parkfly chuckabout that was a pig to keep up so determined to make it work now has flaperons and a bigger motor tried out stuff like mass balancing on elevators and all in all its getting much easir to fly