A low-cost offering from TBS, focused on efficiency, weight, and cost-saving.
Check out the full list of motors in this series here
Summary
Published: Jun 6, 2018 by quadmcfly
| Tested KV: | 2690kv |
| Weight: | 30.1g |
| Stator W: | 23mm |
| Stator H: | 6mm |
TBS has now put several motors on the market, including the Steele motor that hit the bench last year. The Master Pilot series is in line with their previous releases, a motor focused on efficiency and economy rather than the max power and expense offered by many of the other options on the market. The motor is a typical open-bottom design, with a single wire wind, tight air gap and arc magnets. The bell has a retaining lip to prevent the magnets from slipping as well, which is critical on modern high-torque motors. It comes in at just over 30g, which is a reasonable weight for the stator size. To reduce weight, the motor uses a 3mm internal solid steel shaft retained with a circ-clip, along with an integrated aluminum prop shaft. I have a few minor complaints about this motor, but none of them are really deal-breakers. The motor mount is 16x19 (or 19x19 campatible with the Steele motor pants on recent shipments) rather than the 16x16 on most current motors and the prop shaft is shorter than usual, which means low profile prop nuts will be required for most props. Also the lack of a anti-slip grip means that the nuts will need to be tightened harder, which in turn increases the chances of stripping the threats on the aluminum shaft. Those aren't so much issues, as much as simply factors to keep in mind when making a motor choice.
Results
Given TBS propensity to focus more on efficiency and a specific throttle curve over power, the results here are quite impressive. This motor puts out some strong performance without breaking the bank in terms of current requirements given the right prop choice. Even on dual blade 5" props it easily broke 1400g at around 33A. The mid-loaded tri-blades approached 1500g in the mid-to-high 30A range, just tapping 40A on the 5x4.5x3 v1s. This motor should be capable of pushing heavier props, but the heavier loading will show reduced benefit for the Kv with efficiency losses, narrower thrust and RPM gains over lower Kv competitors, and rising current. Given the design constraints this is a strong motor from TBS with an ideal application in light-to-mid weight 5" props on a flexible range of builds, from light weight racers to heavier freestyle setups.
