Who makes the best 5" Motor? AOS Labs 5 inch Motor Testing

[@ChrisRosser]

If you're a manufacturer (or a pilot!) and would like to send me a motor to test and add to the AOS Labs charts please get in touch on aos-rc.com 👍

[@xforce9927]

Do you want to test whoop size motors as well? I'm thinking of maybe 0802 to 1102. RCinPower has a promising 1002 btw

[@BBFPV]

It is called Teslameter since 1970 imao i think 🤣

[@ariafpv]

I'd like to see how Xnova motors perform as they are pretty much without competition in their price range

[@RyanEssonYoung]

Manufacturers are scared... :) Amazing content and delivery. Thank you.

[@MactacFPV]

Hey Chris - I sent you a message. I run Camera Butter.

[@baggszilla]

Unbelievable work Chris like always!! We need a video showing us how to flash our BLHeli_32 ESCs to AM32! Thanks and Cheers!

[@CgitEinsteins]

in other video, mr steele says aos frame is complete b*llsht and in this video, you say mr steele motor is b*llsht this is elegant wars.. love it

[@marcosmartinezgarcia]

Chriss revenge to Mr Steel talking bad about AOS 5. xDDD

[@sykkel_martin]

Just facts 🤓🔥 Love this

[@steamvogue]

I personally also dislike all from Steele . Blown up overrated pilot .

[@lemonsquareFPV]

Well, now we have the AOS5 V2 :p Chris did a great job in making it able to fit basically anything you want, that’s why I have borrowed his bottom plate for a tube arm 6” freestyle build.

[@bugsy742]

@@steamvogueoverrated? Nah mate you’re talking out your arse there! Rosser ain’t gunna suck you off bro! 🙄

[@tristanfpv30]

@@steamvoguehe is probably better than you

[@RecursionLabs]

Glad to see others focusing on motor and propeller testing. Great work! The message that's been propagated saying that motors and propellers of the same size and pitch have a negligible difference is so untrue. One observation I've made when measuring Kv is that it is very important that you do the test really quickly (burst and measure) since heat will build up under no load and start affecting the accuracy of the test. This is probably less of an issue on larger motors with a lower Kv, but it makes a huge difference on smaller ones.

[@lemonsquareFPV]

Great point, I work on FPV motor design and can tell you that there isn’t really a standardized KV test. Some manufacturers use KV as a feel and not directly measured. Some use spin up at different voltages and Some are like me and measure Back EMF at different RPMs :p LoL It’s all over the place, having worked with almost every company, it’s funny. Some also don’t measure and bracket magnets and take specs as gospel 😂 And some have a hard time winding consistently :p It’s honestly a mess… that’s why I carefully spec my motor designs, even then, I still test everything, because I have been bit multiple times :p

[@hanelyp1]

Would it not be performance with the motor warm that matters more in flight?

[@dutchfpv7010]

Separating the science from the hype. Phenomenal work. You continue to confirm our suspicions and open our eyes to new information to put to use. Please keep doing what you're doing. It really empowers the community.

[@0120shrey]

This is exactly the kind of testing we needed in the community! An interesting test could be you putting the best motor-ESC combination against what was available back in 2014, Emax MT2204 and a simonK ESC, and similar combinations

[@billyocean9236]

Amazing testing. Truly clinical. I am thankful that the hobby has your support and interest.

[@alexanderg-p3z]

A lot of weights gave their life for this device. Exceptional video by the way!

[@spikester]

You are absolutely amazing, thank you for keeping the hobby honest, sensible & authentic with transparent testing.

[@spikester]

Motor quality control could be tested by testing the same motors of different batches, I am curious how different it will be out of a batch of 10.

[@bugsy742]

@@spikesterthis! 👍🤝

[@DoNtRuNFr0mME]

For someone that’s looking to build a new quad I appreciate these reviews.

[@MrChangCJ]

thank you for doing this, and sharing your results so freely. this pushes the industry forward as OEMs know they are under scientific scrutiny.

[@NomadAerial]

What I would really like to see is a vibration by RPM generated. I’ve noticed that some motors are way smoother and easier to tune for than others. Get a motor that causes a vibration close to the root resonant frequency of the frame and it would be terrible. I’d love to see that metric.

[@mhe0815]

This is so awesome, thanks for going through the trouble of performing all these tests and getting us all that data! On a sidenote: This must feel pretty darn ironic but good for you, given how Steele talked shit about the AOS 5 when it came out...

[@2J.Racing]

Absolutely brilliant content! We are lucky to have a guy like you performing these awesome scientific tests and publishing the results. This will hold manufacturers to their word.

[@Marcus2750-u1t]

We are I say that every video not to mention a great content maker….. the vids are always smooth and great quality!

[@ActiveFPV]

That is a great job. I had a tested alot of motors for the auto industry before I retired and your dyno really brought back memories.

[@HeroRc]

Chris, thank you for all the effort. This is a liquid gold kind of content. It would be also useful to see the price adjusted score

[@k4x4map46]

man you hitting all points--I was just thinking about durability vs. the tight airgap!! amazing!!

[@MCsCreations]

Really interesting results indeed, Chris! 😃 Thanks a bunch for all the testing!!! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@merlin_fpv]

Well done, Chris! Long time fan here, and this is my favorite and most interesting video you’ve posted yet. Perfectly executed. I’ve been flying the wasp major on all my freestyle quads for over a year. It’s a fantastic motor and it’s hard to describe to the feel of it. This quantitatively explains it.

[@housinit]

RCInpower have been my favorite motors since about a year after I got into quads, so like 5 years or so. Now I can see some data that proves it wasn't just a placebo effect. Thanks Chris!

[@madtoffelpremium8324]

Seeing how solid the Emax Eco 2 is, I wound love to see how the other budget option, the Xing-E, performs.

[@KwaddawK]

Would love to see specifically the Xing-E pro 2207 1800kv. They are my go to motor, they look and feel great and come in at the low end of the price range. Lots of people running them now.

[@kandredfpv]

Awesome video as usual Chris. Correct me if I'm wrong but as a budget drone builder my main takeaway is that the Emax ECO 2207 gives a really good balance of responsiveness, torque and efficiency which IMO is decent value for money. It might be worth normalising those scores by cost. 💸

[@ChrisRosser]

That is correct. The ECO II 2207 is a solid budget buy with good performance in every category.

[@chrisbee5481]

Try the tmotor velox v2207.5 motors. Cheap and more premium than emax eco

[@SpringHaIo]

To get an exact comparison of air gaps you could measure the stator and rotor diameters with calipers. I'm glad you're doing a true inertial dyno test in addition to the usual prop testing because it really does give you more objective normalized data. How many averages did you do for each run? The data still looks a little blocky on some graphs and the efficiency one is pretty hard to decipher. Cheers!

[@edrone_]

One of my favorite series from you is your thorough motor testing videos. This is exactly what our community needs to keep everything fair and honest. The results surprised me as well. I have been using the Emax Eco motors for a while now and since their performance is pretty much middle of the road I'm quite happy with the results from that especially considering the price And I usually break motors a lot lol. Great video and you explained everything so well. 👏👍👊

[@NickRO19]

Great video, very informative. I'm looking forward to seeing the testing of the RCinPower V4. Also I'd like to see some more testing on the Xing2 1855kv which was a motor you used on your AOS5 BNF, and the ones I bought for my own build on your frame. Videos like this drive motor manufacturers to bring better products or at the very least, make their prices more competitive. Thank you and great job Chris! I think what people would like to know straight up, is what is the best motor for each style of flying. Best for racing (performance), freestyle (durability and performance) and cinematic (consistency and smoothness)

[@z-collector7518]

Thank you for all the hard work! Great test, very informative video. Mr. Steele must be shitting bricks by now :)

[@modquad18]

Might have to change his name to Mr Styrofoam

[@chrisegal5481]

A pleasure to watch! The most impressive Motor-test-video by far. Thanks a lot

[@RideNFly_FPV]

Thanks for all the work you're putting into this Chris! Great information and I love how your enthusiasm comes across.

[@RyanQuellet]

Very informative. Please test the Five33 1960kV 2207 motor most of us use for 5in racing (it's also a spec motor for freedom spec)

[@jeffbeasley8235]

Great work. You're a huge contributor to the community. Products will continue to get better as independent technical testing happens more and more. One quip -- your audio is out of sync just slightly at times, just enough to bother me. A quick clap to sync audio and video would help!

[@albertatlinguasoft]

Very interesting and extremely useful. Scientific approach. A few more parameters I would like to measure : 1. a motor noise (not sound, but gyro); 2. durability of a motor.

[@sendorm]

Great video as usual. Thanks. Can you make a tutorial video on flashing AM32, not many videos for all in one esc's.

[@jakeman1251]

Absolutely changing the game

[@antonioalemar5406]

Once again Chriss, you knocked it out of the park. Absolutely brilliant and next level testing and analysis. Love it!

[@slowentropy4531]

Amazing video, all things aside I really learned a lot from just the way you explained your wet up and method. Awesome work mate. Cheers and may 2023 be a great year for FPV :)

[@radfield6089]

would love to see similar testing in the 0802 size, very cool.

[@jameswho5517]

Solid info Chris, love Labs!

[@justhackitfpv]

Thanks for using Skystars AM_32 ESC for your test glad you liked it so much

[@WEEBER13]

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC RESEARCH! 💯❤

[@erikvf7]

Great video and initiative, Chris! Really appreciate. I hope this motors list gets bigger and bigger with more brands, and also the cheaper ones as well.

[@AB-sk4kz]

Keep going Chris, massive thanks I really enjoyed the video.

[@sakarrc5001]

Thank you for sharing the knowledge and performing highly scientific tests for us. It would be great if you could test 2807s on the market for all of us that are in love in 7 inch builds. Cheers.

[@josephshackleford1]

Great video, thank you so much for the tremendous amount of work that went into this.

[@dinosabic5383]

This is amazing! Wow. Thank you so much for all you do!

[@xORLOCKx]

Data to back up my love for Tmotor! Thanks for all your work!

[@scrimdog3328]

Not 30s in and I can't tell you how excited I am to watch this. Content the people want 🤣

[@wade4501]

Excellent work as usual Chris but I'm lost a bit regarding the Kv of these motors. I cannot figure out exactly how you normalized or accounted for the Kv variance if you supplied a fixed voltage throughout your tests. I used to design lightweight BLDC motors a life time ago for a completely different industry (primarily slotless and ironless). I had access to an accurate sub mNm dyno, a high resolution thermal camera, and several other interesting equipment but the Kv got me during testing and comparison every time. I finally settled on efficiency times power density plotted against RPM as a quick and reasonable indication of a particular design's performance. Just about all aspects of a motor's performance (including thermal performance) was neatly squeezed into one simple graph without any dependence on Kv or supplied voltages. I don't know much about FPVs (yet... I'm learning) and I'm not sure if that'd necessarily be a good measure of performance for quadcopter motors... would it? One other small observation if I may. The noise level on these little power houses is horrendous compared to ironless designs. I believe their ear piercing shriek is mostly due to laminations expanding and contracting from rapid flux reversal. Unfortunately, the Ironless designs couldn't compete with the amazing power density of these little guys.

[@MichaelRogersJesusrules]

Heaps of fun,probably not so much compiliing the vid but that was great, i loved every minute. keep up all your cool work and thank you for sharing, cant wait for your next.God bless!

[@irgtk]

Absolutely correct on the air gap if you want to wring out the most performance from your motor. Of course the trade-off is durability and longevity of the motor.

[@ilkkasorsa9778]

..It buzzes like every other motor I've ever heard... 😄 I believe this civilized but thorough reaming of Mr. Steele's product is purely coincidental.

[@k4x4map46]

very comprehensive testing and analysis that's for sure!!

[@BombayDroneCompany]

Hey Chris. Great work there. Possible for you to also include XNOVA to compare to the test

[@leahcim501]

XNOVA motors are the best and have been forever.

[@rossturner9340]

Nice testing, great to see the wide range of motors featured here too! You mention the AM32 firmware has a different performance on the FPVcycle motor vs using other firmwares, it's curious the stout v4 motor sits at the bottom. Given the ethix motors are often seen running with fettec/ kiss at least for Steele, would be interesting to see if that changes any results of the motors here to see if there is a benefit or disadvantage to run specific firmwares with different motors. Correct Spec sheet is very valuable info but I also wonder if there's an optimal setup for each component to be used with, like an f1 car works well together by itself, but take any of the well performing parts alone and put them on your Holden Barina, well maybe the car looks cooler in the parking lot. If the feel of one complete setup works better for a person over another, bring on the Permutation testing 🤣

[@Brian-S]

I love the 2107 gtsv3 been flying them for a year now and I just love how responsive they are

[@skyweaver3199]

Rcinpower 4 life. Awesome video man. But your going to make my go-to motors out of stock everywhere. We have been trying to keep it a secret. Shhh

[@MindRiderFPV]

Amazing content as usual. I need to try those RC. Next 7” motors?

[@davidcerva9864]

Such an awesome video. You really know you are talking about.

[@samuelfpv6603]

amazing testing, thanks for bringing knowledge to the fpv comunity, I wonder if the low power and torque of mr steele's motors do actually improve throttle control by making it less touchy (kinda of smoothing out stick inputs), also could the more linear torque curve make them feel more linear and predictable?

[@ChrisRosser]

A less powerful motor always has more resolution because the same movement of your sticks is a smaller change in thrust. You can achieve the same effect with a throttle limit on a more powerful motor (and gain efficiency).

[@samuelfpv6603]

what about the more linear torque curve? wouldn't it make them feel more linear and predictable? (more similar response times across the whole stick range compared to other motors)

[@lemonsquareFPV]

@@samuelfpv6603 that’s likely how Steele designs his stuff, to feel good in the air. I actually do torque curve optimization… I made a spreadsheet that calculates my transmitter curves from thrust stand data, so my throttle stick is directly proportional to thrust… this way, I am not thrown off when switching between builds with different torque curves. Helps with control, and I can have hover at under 10% so I have more stick resolution, yes I am sick 😂😂😂 and I optimize everything 😜

[@jotham123]

Hi Chris, have you tested APD ESC's?

[@VadimBryksin]

Awesome work! Thank you!!!

[@ugpfpv361]

Thanks for all you do!!! Also would love to see the hyperlite eco motors added on you next round!

[@hanelyp1]

Also to consider: - permiability of the steel field keeper the magnets are mounted to, and the armature. - eddy current losses in the armature, magnets, and field keeper.

[@airdronelongford2027]

Thanks Chris

[@sarahdaviscc]

Great video. Love your scientific approach.

[@olegvorobyev1474]

You're the best!

[@dominickeen6091]

Great video! Would be interesting to see testing on bl heli as well

[@b.w.oostdam8875]

Thank you so much! Very very interesting content!

[@mlentsch]

p.s. this is friggin' gold. Thanks, Chris!!

[@DAKARTECH]

Thank you so much

[@silverfish27]

I know you are more focused on freestyle, but on racing the five33 2207 motors are extremely popular. I believe it will be very interesting to see them tested along!

[@Brian-S]

Pretty sure they are made by Rcinpower lol

[@BikeGuyFPV]

@@Brian-S XNova makes the FlyFive33 motors, not RCinPower.

[@PowerThumb.]

I'd love to see a test of a AMAXINNO motor!

[@danielnoname8352]

Awesome test Mate 👍

[@Malik.essadi]

Thank you. Wish you included the xing2 2207 motor

[@fluoxethine]

We need extreme 8S / 12S motors for 5''. Good that Gaoneng finally made 1300mAh 8S batteries.

[@kennykobi]

Also does the fact that the magnets are soft mounted with the Mr Steele motors. With that white spacer holding the magnets. instead of being connected right to the inside of the metal inside the bell. Also wouldn't the equi distance magnets pull from the one directly across making it demagnetize faster, same with it being directly connected to the metal bell. flyfishrc is using silicone dampers now also. If you can eleminate the vibration within the motor. Then win win along with your frame. regardless of how much more power they generate.

[@aaron6516]

Very cool and interesting... I am glad you explained how the air gap can impact durability. The wasp motor may be perfect for racing, but you may not want to take it Bando bashing. Very cool information!!

[@robertgosz4281]

Very valuable. Thanks!

[@armandrone9016]

Hello Chris, I rewind motors here in Brazil, regarding KV precision, it is very complicated for the kv factor to be a precise value, because the number of turns that is given in each coil is always an integer. What I have noticed is that in the same stator, for example, in a series of four coils 2 are wound with 10 turns and two with 11 turns, of course there are stators with all the coils the same, I just wanted to show you how the manufacturers arrive to different KV values.

[@FPV_Gizmo]

I am going to ask the question everyone is thinking, but no one is brave enough to ask. "how do you keep your work area so tidy!?!?!?!?!?!" lol great content, thanks.

[@nateteator3901]

Would you expect lower performance if you used an MR30 motor connector instead of directly soldering? Could you compare an MR30 or MR60 connection to the data you collected?

[@ibnfpv]

This is one if not your best compression and analysis of fpv hardware 👏 I suggest you to add compare to the xnova brand as it is counted as one of the best if not the best motor manufacturer with less promotion and more actual good products Also it would be nice if we can measure the amount of electric noise or vibration for each motor to Better understand which is the most “smooth” Keep up!

[@camelisator]

Well, that confirms my choice of going AM32 and RCinpower gtsv2 last year for all my freestyle build. Amazing work Chris I love how you bring evidences and facts to the table, keep it up.

[@coilockerfpv]

I hope one of your next videos is how to flash AM32 to a Blheli_32 board

[@DoctorrMetal]

Super informative! And great timing for my new HDZero build :p

[@dave3883]

This is an awesome video. Thank you! (headed to patreon) 👍👍

[@chriscflint]

Hi Chris, great video. I noted that the Mr Steel motor (worst performing) and the best performing both had what appeared to be "single solid stranded" wiring and not what I have seen on some motors which is multiple stranded wiring. And like you I believe the air gap and magnet type can only be the difference in outputs. As an aside I believe the multiple stranded wiring to be better (assuming the same cross section is arrived at) in that it is more flexible so easier to install and it generally less prone to vibration cracking of the insulation. Your comments on this would be appreciated.

[@user-rs8zg8ey2b]

Love the ROASTING of Mr Steel of his over inflated prices of his sub par brand equipment, now we know what Mr "Steal" means, well done, funny how every other brand surpassed his brand. I bet the $15 rcx nk series would even beat his, great motors with jap ezo bearings. You earned a sub for the excellent technical video.

[@jlarson42]

Super interesting and informative video. I'm a big fan of Xing motors, but I'm definitely going to check out RCinPower motors for my next build. I am surprised by the performance numbers of Mr Steele's motors. But they're built to what he wants in a motor and they certainly don't seem to hold him back. I'd love to see tests on motors that racers have listed such as Minchan and Captainvanover. 2207 2100kv 6S motors, that'd be awesome. Happy flying Chris. 🤙😎

[@MrAlekoy]

I think the Stout is built to be, well, stout. I would guess that the larger air gap and steel between the magnets makes it more likely to survive a crash.

[@jlarson42]

@@MrAlekoy that does make sense and fits what Chris says. He certainly makes good use of what performance is available. 🤓

[@modquad18]

Nice work! Would also be nice to see a vibration analysis and consistency of all params across a 4 motor sample group.

[@10fantic]

I have a set of rcinpower 1204’s on a 3” qav and they’re shockingly good 4s. They handle the 3” prop where most people use a 1404, and they’re efficient, getting 5 minutes flying all out, 6.5 cruising. I will be using RcinPower again on my next build.

[@pimenett]

Interesting...I'm actually flying 3'' 1404 on 4S. What KV did you choose for your 1204?

[@DennisRiessbeck]

I can verify this, my rcinpower 1204 5000kv motors handle much better compared to betafpv 1404 4500kv motors I also have. And the difference is huge. Since then I have bought better 1404 motors and threw the betafpv ones away.

[@jdnic1]

Motor winding more towards the magnets and more compact winding makes a difference too. That's what I noticed when buying motors. That's why some motor like the stanfpv 2203 have a lot of torque, despite being flat. Taller motors tend to have more compact windings than a flatter motor. Hard to describe it. But if you build a coil a longer coil have less pull than a coil that's short or compact.

[@AL3XFPV]

Love these tests! 🤓

[@Stepanhuge]

Nice video and data collection! blog link is broken

[@aphinion]

Wow. Until 27 minutes ago I thought the only thing I need to pay attention when it comes to motors is stator size and KV... and then pick whatever I optically prefer most. Guess it's not that simple after all! The one motor company I am missing though is XNova. It seems practically every racer is flying these and also the five33 motors are rebranded/custom xnovas. I put them on all my newer freestyle quads too and am really happy with their overall performance, but I also noticed they run really hot even with a super quiet quad, so I'd love to see where in that chart they would end up! And I know which motors to throw on my next pink AOS5 now XD

[@user-rs8zg8ey2b]

I have the RSR Dyno for 05 brush motors I used in the 90's, on 6s nicad pack a mod motor was hitting north of 50Krpm, yea, it was scary if the arm threw a winding.

[@macrokernel13]

Thanks for the great work you are doing and special thanks for taking into consideration Smoox 2306 😉

[@GC-sg9jv]

So certain ESC firmwares are a factor with max accel/decel. That's a good find.

[@terpsquirter7107]

Good test but why no xnova or demon power?

[@FPVSlice]

I was hoping to see results of the Geprc speedx2 motors. But perhaps in a future video 😁 They have an interesting take on the formfactor (taller stator, more narrow motor) -> to improve responsiveness in theory. This would be an interesting test for sure, maybe it looks good on paper but not in real world scenario. I've been using them for a while now.

[@ChrisRosser]

I believe they are a rebrand of the GTSV3 2107 from RCinPower

[@FPVSlice]

@@ChrisRosser hmm interesting, it's just that the speedx v2 has 7,5mm stator height instead of 7mm? Slightly more power i suppose?

[@ChrisRosser]

@@FPVSlice The GTSV3 2107 plus has a 7.5mm stator height as well. RCinPower use 'plus' to mean extra 0.5mm stator height.

[@FPVSlice]

@@ChrisRosser 👍👍