Here's another staple of the 2204 2300kv class motors for comparison. This one is a MultiStar Elite 2204 by HobbyKing, who very kindly sent it over for testing. As always, please give me any feedback on ways to improve it or make it the comparisons clearer. Once I've done the full bank of motors, I'll do a document sumarizing the direct comparisons.
Check out the full list of motors in this series here
Now on to data!
Summary
This motor has become rather common as well in the lower cost starter quad market. I've been seeing them pop up pretty frequently on the forums and social media. I was interested to get these and see how they stacked up. There were some interesting things here. The first thing I noticed was that the windings were using a thicker gauge wire and were wound very neatly. I was quite impressed with the windings for the low price point on these motors. The motors are quite light, and seem suitably well built. The bearings are smooth, and most of the motors had no play from the factory. I was sent a 4 pack and actually bought another 4 pack when they were on sale as well. Out of the 8 motors I received 2 had some vertical slop from the factory. That can be fairly easily fixed with some spacers, or by carefully tapping the shaft back into the motor bell. Not a deal-breaker given the price of the motors, but something to watch for. Also one of the screws I that came with the 5mm prop adapter used to attach the adapter to the motor had the hex head filled in with material and was unusable. Looked like a missed pjunch on the machine that manufactured the screw. Unfortunately only 4 screws came with each adapter, so if I hadn't have had extras from other motors, I would have been one screw short on that adapter. Most of those are minor issues though, and don't impact the overall performance of the motor. As I mentioned I bought more of these and I've been runing them on one of my primary quads for a while now with the GemFan 5x4.5 bullnose props, and I've been pleased with their performance in the air. They're quite light, and they aren't crazy on current draw and provide decent power.
Now on to the bench results!
Test Results
These are very decent performers on the spectrum of 2204 motors. Only the RotorGeeks 2204 and the SunnySky 2204 beat them out. They provide decent performance and efficiency, especially at the price point. They do best on lighter weight 5" props and handled 4S with ease. On the 5x4.6 Gemfans (5x4.5 HQ prop equivalent) and the King Kong 6x4 they definitely started loosing torque and you could audibly hear the loss of RPMs under load. There was a lot of heat and a strong smell of resin from the coils on these tests as well, so I would be cautios running those props on these motors. It's worth noting that they should unload significantly in the air, but I would definitely check the motor temperatures and the windings regularly if you choose to run a heavy prop on these.
