Budget vs Tmotor props experiment results.

[Pumpkinguy]

I decided to do a little bench test on 2 brands of 16" props.

Tmotor CF 16x5.4 props are about $45 each and have a double wall style of airfoil with a cork core.

Foxtech Supreme Lite CF 16x5.5 props are no longer sold but they were about 1/3rd the price as tmotor and have a single wall style airfoil.

Both props were balanced by me on a dubro. The tmotor required very little balancing, the FSL a little more.

Motor, U7-490kv with T80A esc. Makeshift test rig using digital gram scale and inline watt/volt meter. Smart phone for vibration and sound testing.
I will note, both props had the exact noise level in decibels and my vibration readings were very close. Tmotor was only marginally better. There was no obvious winner in the vibration tests.

Efficiency.

Each prop was tested with a fresh battery. I dialed up the thrust as close as possible to the following thresholds (1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000 grams of thrust) and took note of amp draw.

1000 grams Tmotor 1028 grams @ 6.04 Amps..............FSL 1003 grams @ 6.67 Amps
1500 grams Tmotor 1482 grams @ 8.86 Amps..............FSL 1497 grams @ 10.87 Amps
2000 grams Tmotor 2021 grams @ 12.87 Amps............FSL 1992 grams @15.26 Amps
2500 grams Tmotor 2514 grams @ 17.42 Amps.............FSL 2515 grams @ 20.79 Amps
3000 grams Tmotor 3054 grams @ 22.24 Amps............FSL 2979 grams @ 27.40 Amps.


My conclusion of this highly unscientific test.

Tmotor will give you longer flight times I believe at least 10% and possibly up towards 20%.

Will tmotor give you better footage on a properly built and balanced rig with proper vibration isolation and a well dialed in gimbal??? I'm not so sure.

Cheers.

 

[Hexacrafter]

Can you post the weights of each prop...
The T-motor engineers I have spoken with say the added efficiency is somewhat due to weight. This is especially true with multicopters that are having to use motor energy to continually speed up an slow down the mass of the prop. I do find it interesting that a constant speed bench test also showed such a large difference in efficiency. Are they both the same pitch... In reality... Not in print? Also, I find it interesting that the slightest variations in prop geometry can have very real impacts in lift & and efficiency .
Thanks for the interesting test!

 

[Pumpkinguy]

They all have quick release prop adapters so that's how I weighed them. Tmotor is 2 grams less. My scale doesn't read in tenths.

 

[scotth]

I had not such great luck with the Supreme Lites. Blades balanced after a little work but about half of the hubs.. impossible. Looked to me like the holes were not on center. Though some would argue balancing the hubs isn't necessary.

 

[Pumpkinguy]

I bought the lites for load testing and my original trials. Far better to break them than the tmotors.

I use the tmotor washers on top of the props. See pic attached. Forget about the hub balancing. Try getting these centered properly. Impossible. The kde ones were worse because they we larger in diameter. The bolt holes in them for the m3 screws need to be a much tighter tolerance if you ask me but I don't know that it creates much vibration as it is centered on the motor axis. View attachment 26087

 

[MadMonkey]

I switched to APC 18X5.5MRs from T-Props and knockoffs, and they seemed much quieter and smoother. No testing for me though... I didn't fly the other props much but the APCs seemed to be more efficient as well.