November 23, 2011

Blade Msr Motor Upgrades: Are Brushless Motors Worth the Effort?

The motor in the Blade Msr is a brushed motor. Many people asked either it should be upgraded to a brushless motor instead. This is a very tasteless question, but I find that most people who ask don't know the disagreement between the two. I'll give you my understanding on either or not I think the Msr motor should be upgraded later on in this article. But first, lets look at the differences between brushed and a brushless motors.

We'll start with the brushed motor. A brushed motor has an armature with coils of wire wound nearby it to create two electro magnets of opposite polarity. On the exterior of the armature are two permanent magnets, also of opposite polarity. If you were to apply power to the armature, the north and south poles of the armature would rotate until they lined up with the south and north poles of the permanent magnets. At this point the motor would stop and just sit there in that position. This is where the brushes come in. The armature has what is called a commutator which contribute two contacts, one for each half of the armature. There are then "brushes" which caress the commutator and contribute power to the armature. As the armature and commutator rotate and the magnetic poles begin to line up, the connections between the commutator and the brushes are reversed so that now the armature has to rotate someone else half rotation in order to align the magnets. After this half rotation the polarity of the electricity is reversed again as the commutator rotates and each half now contacts the opposite brush. This cycle repeats itself over and over again which gives us our rotating motor. The nice thing about this system is that a constant Dc voltage is adequate to keep this motor going.

Brush Dc Motor Controller

As you might have guessed, a brushless motor does not use brushes. Instead the brushless motor has a bisected permanent field magnet at the rotor. Each half has a distinct polarity. nearby the exterior of the rotor are three coils which form three electro magnets. Each coil is energized one at a time to attract the permanent magnet on the rotor. As the magnet aligns with the first coil, it is de-energized and the second coil is energized to continue the rotation. This cycle continues to keep the motor rotating.

In most cases the brushless motors are far more desireable because they are lighter, they don't want physical contacts (like the brushes on the commutator) and in general, brushless motors are just lighter and more efficient.

So, given the differences between brushed and brushless motors, people often ask how to upgrade a Msr to brushless. But before inspecting this there are two more things to take into account.

Coreless motors. The Msr uses a coreless motor. That means that the armature windings are not wrapped nearby a core which is used to incorporate the electro magnetic field. This reduces the weight and provides lower inertia for faster response. Vibration and electrical noise are also greatly reduced by eliminating the core.

And finally, the Msr does not have the controls critical to control a brushless motor. The brushed motor plainly requires a constant Dc voltage to operate. In contrast, the brushless motor has three detach coils that need to be powered independently at a spoton timing to keep it running. The Msr plainly does not have a controller capable of doing this.

Now, it is inherent to upgrade the motor and barnacle on some electronics to handle the timing and power delivery to the three coils. While it is possible, it isn't easy and you have to think just how much correction you will gain. The truth is that these motors are so small, light and effective as it is, that it is very unlikely that you will observation any gains after performing this upgrade.

Blade Msr Motor Upgrades: Are Brushless Motors Worth the Effort?

Regulated High Voltage Power Supply Basic Stamp 2 Module