A go at a Foamie

My replacement LE2204 arrived so I set up my test rig again.
First I put the A2212 1400Kv motor on with a 30A ESC & the 7.5" prop & ran it up to 50%. No problems.
I then put the second (not the one that was on the other day) 6" prop on & wound it up in steps to 100%, This took 7.2A, 80W & generated 280g thrust at 95dB.
I then put the new LE2204 1800Kv on with the 12A ESC that came with the original motor. Something erratic was happening at start-up so I swapped the ESC back to the 30A one.
That ran OK so I stepped it up to 100% where it took 8.4A, 93W & gave 280g thrust & ran ok.
The battery was getting low so I took the prop off & put the 12A esc back on.
I had tried reading the instructions the other day but struggled so I had another go, having found a PDF file online which I could zoom in on.
I got to a better level of understanding but could make no sense of the beeps, even with my hearing aids in. The motor ran ok with no prop on.
So now the question is was it a dodgy prop that caused the failure, a dogy motor or a badly set-up ESC?

The ESC is n EMAX SimonK
 
 

It is worth noting that the Simon K firmware in the ESC is specifically designed for multi rotors where the stability function of the flight controller issues motor speed "adjustments" at a far faster rate than any human can do on the throttle stick.
I have Simon K ESCs that work on a single motor plane without any problems as the "factory default" setting has the multi rotor specific options set to "off". All the programming options can be set by the use of the transmitter throttle stick and the beeps but care is needed in order not to accidentally program in something you don't need or want.

It was jerky, sometimes in both directions.
It was behaving at the end when i didn't have a propellor on but the battery was down to 11.4v so I had to stop. I'll have another go this afternoon when I've got the batteries charged up.

How do you set it to default?
Does the C2 Throttle Range Procedure without then trying to alter any parameters set it to default?
I have trouble with the beeps, the size of the print & the language in the instructions.

I had another go yesterday with the LE2204 on the test rig.
Starting with the yellow 30A ESC:
With the 6 x4 folding prop it ran up to 100% stick, taking 8.8A giving 300g of thrust.
With the 7.5x4 folding prop it ran up to 100% stick, taking 11A giving 400g of thrust.
It ran fairly smoothly in both cases with acceptable vibration.
Putting a 6x3.5 fixed prop on, it sounded better & at 100% it took 8.2A & developed 400g of thrust.
Switching to the black "SimonK" ESC;
With the 6x3.5 fixed prop, it ran fairly well at 100%, taking 7.6A & giving 400g of thrust.
Putting the 6x3.5 folding prop back on it became very erratic. At start-up it was jerky, giving a series of jerks before sometimes picking up speed & sometimes cutting out.
As I took the stick up towards 100% the vibration increased until I had to hold the arm of the test rig (the safe end outside of the safety screen) for fear of what it would do.
I took a reading of 8A but that was the only reading I was able to take before I decided to abandon the test.
My conclusion is that the black "SimonK" cannot handle the folding props.
It may not be that its ultimate fate will be as Eric suggested earlier but it looks like I need a better ESC and/or better folding props.

The ESC is from Aliexpress & it came with a page of programming instructions for a SimonK ESC.
Looking at various retailers they all seem to be selling the same package of LE2204 & "SimonK ESC". In a review on one of them someone has commented that "It is not programmable". I would go along with that. It seems that its throttle range can/has to be set. After it cuts out the range setting has to be repeated before it will run, but I cannot do anything more with it. During setting the throttle range it gives out a series of ten beeps.

It doesn't look like the images of an Emax SimonK ESC online, it is just enclosed in black heatshrink.
I'm going to have to look for a decent 12A ESC or use one of my yellow 30A ones.
I don't know how ESCs work or how the poles are wired. I haven't found anything on the internet with more than a basic idiot's guide. Fifty-odd years ago we were taught "Universal Motor Theory" which I didn't understand & as the target was to pass exams I concentrated on what I understood & could answer questions on.
I've just tried looking UMT up, all I got was Universal Motors which have commutators & brushes.
 

I served my time with A.Reyrolle of Hebburn, who you've probably heard of, and during my time on the shop floor did basic hand & machine tool training and worked on various switchgear & relays but by the end was on the electronics side, the move from valves to semiconductors was just starting. After a brief stint developing a battery charger for fork lift truck batteries which incidentaly detected full charge by the rate of change of voltage (not just absolute value) as is done nowadays. Then I moved into controls for machine tools as it changed from NC to CNC & programmable controllers were just being introduced.

Which is a long way to say motors were peripheral to my activities & just had to be the right voltage,
power & frequency which depended on where it was connected to & the speed was a function of the frequency.
Now these brushless motors have a specification of RPM per voltage which I find difficulty in getting my head around. Its a different animal from what I'm used to!

The descriptions for the ESCs by different retailers have obviously just been copied from the manufacturer's speel which was itself probably not complete. Everything now seems to be orientated towards drones & overcomplicated for a fixed wing aircraft. Its like modern cars, most of the bells & whistles are unneccesary & after you get the car back from its servicing you have to switch them off.

With some electronics, particularly the more modern stuff, understanding how it does what it does can be a blank you just have to accept "it does what it does". If it doesn't work properly there is no way you can do anything with it anyway!

I have managed to find a Simon K 20A ESC that to the best of my knowledge I have never used. It was still in its wrapper. No programming of any sort (not even throttle range) just connected it up to a 2822 motor, a servo tester and a 2s. 
It did play a bit of a tune but otherwise "armed"  and ran the motor as normal. Even very slowly!

The only odd bit was if the throttle was "snapped" to full too quickly the motor "cycles". Just closing the throttle a bit and then applying full throttle allowed the motor the reach full power.

I would have to say if your motor runs up OK with limited vibration on a fixed prop but not on a folder then it is the folder that is "duff". Most likely the folder hub is not giving the same pitch each blade.  I would also suggest if the motor runs OK but start to jerk after a few runs then I would consider either the battery is getting low or the ESC is over heating.  If the ESC is over heating then leaving everything disconnected for a few minutes running should return to normal. If the battery is getting exhausted there will be no improvement after a "rest".         
Hope this helps. 
 

I haven't had time to run the motor today as I needed to charge the batteries which takes nearly 2 hours apiece & you have to guard them so I had to do something nearby.
I did have a look for an ESC & the one I looked at was the same as in the video, £7.55 for a 12A one.
.

I don't sit & watch it with a stop watch but it must take getting on for two hours by time I go & check it.
I only discharge them down to 11.4 (3S) off load.
The charger is only single rate so at the moment as long as it doesn't incend it that's OK.

 

I had one burst into flames in my shed in Cyprus but i was working on the bench near it and managed to get it outside quickly, it was on a a piece of metal that i just picked up and dropped the lot outside, 
Not a good thing to happen but i still kept charging in the shed