Prop Balancer?
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Ok so I finally made a video of my own. Please check this out. This is what I've been trying to articulate with words but must be failing miserably. I think I prove in the video that the hub is causing my issues. Would love to get your opinion Earl.
I think you did a good job @nuggetz on you video and explaining what your were doing to totally balance your prop!
I'm still learning my self and havint really balance a prop yet do to waiting for my balancing rod and holder to be shipped this week to me from Amazon.!
So I've been watching videos and reading on the forums to try to understand how to balance my Props before my shipment gets here!
And I really enjoy your video because you took the time to put All the information all in one video !!! Good job..!
I wish some guys on YouTube would of did that!! I pretty well had to spend hours watching about 10 to 15 different kinds of video for Prop balancing to get the information that you put all into one!
I think your Video is right..and that's how I'm gonna do it!!
Thanks for taking the time for sharing it with us...
Fly Safe
Fly Smart
Fly 3DR
Hi nuggetz,
I see what you are saying, but I just disagree with the reasoning. In the end, I think you are just adding weight to one side of the prop, but doing it up where weight makes less difference.
Here is another way to look at it. The Solo props weigh about 12 grams total. The center of the hub is pressed aluminum. I would guess the remainder of the hub is maybe 5% of the hub weight? And that total remaining plastic (not the aluminum) part of the hub would be very small, and in the miligrams range The aluminum part of hubis are very uniform and unlikley to be out of balance, and if they are you would have much bigger problems.
Now... Think about how out of balance the hub "could" be based on the total weight, how much is aluminum, and look how much weight you are adding.... Keep in mind, modeling clay is quite heavy in comparison to the plastic.
The weight that matters is in the wings. If you were to add weight at the tip of the wings as opposed to the hub, it would make a larger difference as to the balance of the prop. That is why you are adding so much weight. It is up where it makes less difference.
Think what would happen if you put tire weights at the center of the tire instead of out at the end of fthe rim..... Now think about how much lead you would need to balance a tire if the weight was placed near the hub.
What i know for sure, is that I can take any Phantom or Solo prop, and balance the prop to the point that it will sit still anywhere on the balancer by sanding the top. Not actually sand that much, and typically do it in about two minutes. Given how much they "could" be out of balance, that also makes sense. They are fairly precision made... Especially in comparison to the amount of weight you are adding.
As I think I mentioned (and I showed in the video) I always test at 12;00, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 6:00, 7:30, 9:00, and 10:30. When I can do that, That is what shows me the prop is balanced. My experience with the resulting quad performance and video coroborates that.
That advice though is worth exactly what you paid for it
And your mileage may vary.....In the end, if it works for you... do it.
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Thanks for chiming in Earl. So if I understand you logic correctly I should be able to get the same results by adding weight to one of the blades or removing more weight from the one I initially started sanding? . I think the aluminum part of the prop in this case is not balanced and is contributing to the balance issue. I will remove the bit of clay and add tape to the lighter side of the blade that trails when the prop is in the 5 o'clock position and see what happens. Also do you disagree with my assessment of both blades weighing the same since they are able to sit horizontally and when flipped 180 degrees? Gravity runs straight up and down which is why I can't get myself to understand and interpret the behavior of the prop while horizontal.Hi nuggetz,
I see what you are saying, but I just disagree with the reasoning. In the end, I think you are just adding weight to one side of the prop, but doing it up where weight makes less difference.
Here is another way to look at it. The Solo props weigh about 12 grams total. The center of the hub is pressed aluminum. I would guess the remainder of the hub is maybe 5% of the hub weight? And that total remaining plastic (not the aluminum) part of the hub would be very small, and in the miligrams range The aluminum part of hubis are very uniform and unlikley to be out of balance, and if they are you would have much bigger problems.
Now... Think about how out of balance the hub "could" be based on the total weight, how much is aluminum, and look how much weight you are adding.... Keep in mind, modeling clay is quite heavy in comparison to the plastic.
The weight that matters is in the wings. If you were to add weight at the tip of the wings as opposed to the hub, it would make a larger difference as to the balance of the prop. That is why you are adding so much weight. It is up where it makes less difference.
Think what would happen if you put tire weights at the center of the tire instead of out at the end of fthe rim..... Now think about how much lead you would need to balance a tire if the weight was placed near the hub.
What i know for sure, is that I can take any Phantom or Solo prop, and balance the prop to the point that it will sit still anywhere on the balancer by sanding the top. Not actually sand that much, and typically do it in about two minutes. Given how much they "could" be out of balance, that also makes sense. They are fairly precision made... Especially in comparison to the amount of weight you are adding.
As I think I mentioned (and I showed in the video) I always test at 12;00, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 6:00, 7:30, 9:00, and 10:30. When I can do that, That is what shows me the prop is balanced. My experience with the resulting quad performance and video coroborates that.
That advice though is worth exactly what you paid for it
In the end, if it works for you... do it.
Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk
Yes. That is my experience
I understand, but disagree. Given the construction, if these were molded incorrectly to the plastic it would be more than out of balance,. Again, I go back to the tire balance analogy. You have to add a huge amount of weight that close to the hub. I'm not even sure how you would do that in a practical way, or how you would take that much weight off the other side. if you were sanding the hub, there would be no plastic left....
OK. FYI: I have seen the stickers and tape approach, but I am not a fan. In addition to stickers absorbing water, tape can wear or get peeled off, and both are at one concentrated spot on the prop. I believe sanding acrosss the entire length of the prop to evenly distribute the weight works better.... Maybe that is the difference.
I do.... Sortof.... It is "possible" that they could be balanced, but unfortunately we are dealing with more than gravity. we also have friction, and a somewhat imperfect balancer. Your rod and machine will grab at spots, and one spot as a test simply isn't enough. My experience is that when you can place the prop at 3:00 and 9:00 you are getting "close" but often not close enough
That is when you work at 12:00 and 6:00. When you have both of those, you work at 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, and 10:30. My experience is that you take less off with each permutation. On occasion, I have even taken to much off, and had to take some off the other side (somewhat like I did in the demonstration) to get that last bit..
Again, your mileage may vary...
Here is a big question... I am almost positive you could not take that amount of weight off one side of the hub, and still keep the integrity of the prop... There just isn't enough there... So.. assuming you were going to add that amount of weight to the hub, how would you do it? As I mentioned, clay is quite heavy, and still you had a fair amount, and obviously clay won't work.
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If i can also put my 2% in
I think that both of you are talking about the same wagon, just a different colors.
Balanced is balanced either way you look at it.
What's at debate here is procedure to achieve that balanced state.
The procedure to accomplish this task is very important indeed. I have found that trying to balance the hub, from the vertical position errors, may lead to lessen the integrity of the prop.
Some props, the center of the hub, need to be reduced by more than half of the diameter of the exciting material available. in turn, that leave much less of the plastic surrounding the aluminum hub,
in case of impact. this will result of the prop separating from the Aluminum hub.
I must discard these perfectly balanced props, as they can leathery explode, given the right circumstances.
As for balance the Blades,
i experimented several different procedures, not to bore anyone sanding so far is the best.
I tried spraying the prop blade with “rubberized paint as to counter weight, worked but, I suspect, that the content of this “rubberized paint” will over time. degrade
This spray method is promising, but more testing needed.
So for me, balancing our Props to a point of perfection, still eludes me.
I think that both of you are talking about the same wagon, just a different colors.
Balanced is balanced either way you look at it.
What's at debate here is procedure to achieve that balanced state.
The procedure to accomplish this task is very important indeed. I have found that trying to balance the hub, from the vertical position errors, may lead to lessen the integrity of the prop.
Some props, the center of the hub, need to be reduced by more than half of the diameter of the exciting material available. in turn, that leave much less of the plastic surrounding the aluminum hub,
in case of impact. this will result of the prop separating from the Aluminum hub.
I must discard these perfectly balanced props, as they can leathery explode, given the right circumstances.
As for balance the Blades,
i experimented several different procedures, not to bore anyone sanding so far is the best.
I tried spraying the prop blade with “rubberized paint as to counter weight, worked but, I suspect, that the content of this “rubberized paint” will over time. degrade
This spray method is promising, but more testing needed.
So for me, balancing our Props to a point of perfection, still eludes me.
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So in a Nutshell...are we basically all trying to say..Don't worry about balancing the hub ..just concentrate on balancing the prop ?
At this point, I would balance prop in the horizontal position only. Due to the possibility of too much material being removed from hub, Can cause separation.
That said, there maybe other option available to balance hub, if in fact, the hub causing the vertical balancing test failures.
this is my opinion, on test I done.
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I Tottaly agree with you..Iv learnt so much and still learning from the kind people Iv met on this forum...I don't know where I would be with out them...
Very Grateful
Fly Safe
Fly Smart
Fly 3DR
There are many ways to add weight to the hub. Believe it or not I've been balancing smaller props for toy drones with great success by using UV activated resin. I suppose if a substantial amount of weight needs to be added one could embed a tiny ball bearing into the resin and cure it..
I understand what you're saying about sticky spots and friction causing the props to hold position but in this case I double checked that isn't the case by removing the rod off the balancer and reseating it and giving those balance wheels a spin.. I really don't think friction is skewing my results here.
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N
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I am familiar with both UV cure and spray cure resin. That is going to be a LOT of resin, on a small hub....
In any case, I think we are at the finish....
We both know what the other means. In the end, do what works for you.
Cheers
Ordered the EJH Rod from Carolina Dronz in SC on Sat. Had it in my hands in SoCal on Weds. They ship fast for the $3 shipping fee. Carolina Dronz, you guys rock! Thanks!
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It's the rod, not the hub. The rod is not perfectly straight. It's happened to me.
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No the rod I have is very much straight. I tested on a different rod and get similar results so I'm pretty sure that the hub is much heavier on one side
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Well that is strange.
When I skimmed thru this last night I don't recall any discussion about whether you get the same results with a different prop, but that's obviously the next thing to test. As others have pointed out the physics don't make much sense. If the hub was out of balance I'd expect a very slow drift compared to your video.
If it's not an flawed balance rod, then perhaps the aluminum hub is lopsided (not perfectly set and flush level to the blade plane). Personally, I would just throw out that prop rather than try to add or subtract weight from the hub.
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