Inexpensive Replacement Motors for Solo

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I replaced my stock motors with surplus Iris motors that were made for 3DR by Tiger Motor. They are a 2213-950kv and are very high quality motors. I got mine from Multirotor Mania for $10 each. They fit in the motor pods but you must ream out the hole a tiny bit to clear the larger C clip on the bottom of the Tiger Motor.
These motors have adapters for spin on props so there are CW and CCW versions. The motors are, of course, the same and only the prop adapters are different.

I don't like spin-on props so I replaced the stock motors purposely to get T-Motors 12mm two bolt prop system.

These motors work very nicely with carbon 10x45 props on the Solo. I will use FCmodel 20L2 folding prop hubs, once they arrive, with Graupner R-Fold props.

Cheers
 

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That's quite the deal. Since your flying 1045 props, what kind of flight time are you getting with these 950's?

And why do you not like spin on props?
 
I just got this Solo and installed all the mods so I have not done flight time tests yet. But my eCalc predictions show a similar 18 minutes. But I built a XuGong folding quad with the same motors and the same AUW as the Solo and it also gets 18m although it is running 11x4.7.

I was very impressed with how nicely tuned the Solo is right out of the box. I have a lot of other Arducopter buillds and none of them fly as stably as the Solo. It is a little tame but that is desirable in this craft.

I have a prejudice against spin-on props because with large >15" props in windy conditions, where the multirotor had to make sudden moves to keep in place, it can rev a motor up and then stop suddenly and the momentum of the prop can unscrew it. Not pretty. I am sure it is much less likely with a 10" prop but I am not willing to take a chance at damaging another aircraft that way.
 
Cool, 18 min would be awesome. Look forward to hearing of your actual results. I can only imagine how much inertial is in 15" props, the 10 and 11's seem to be no issue off of Solo stock motors.

I have T-Motor MT2216-12's installed with 1045 APC, it's a 800kv motor. I'm getting roughly 15min when landing at +20% battery. My one motor cost more than your four.... Even so, the upgrade was the best investment I made to Solo, no regrets.
 
I'd also be interested in the noise level/smoothness compared to stock. Thanks Mike!
 
I have been building for a couple of years and initally I had a lot of trouble with failures of ESC's and motors. When I finally switched to Hobbywing Xrotor ESC's and T-motor I never had a problem again. I am dubious of high priced items these days because so much is just the same junk with high priced lipstick on it.

But in the case of T-Motor they are noticeably smoother. They use larger bearings and shafts. The windings are clean and uniform. But I am still a cheapskate and I take advantage of surplus like the 2213-950kv from 3DR. I bought 10 when they were dumping their stock at $5 per motor. But even at $10 from Multirotor Mania, who did the same thing, they are a good buy. I also get them surplus when someone is not doing a build or for some reasoning getting rid of new motors.

I kind feel bad about intruding over here because the Solo was always designed as a tool for cinematographers but now that the Open Solo project has brought it back from the dead it is a target for the DIY crowd. It offers features that are just not cheaply available to the DIY community. My Holy Grail is to have HD Video, RC Control and telemetry over one transceiver radio, which the Solo offers, but it is very hard to find in the DIY arena. Usually we have to have three radios on an aircraft to do the same thing, which poses problems.

So I am using another donor Solo to build a 680mm quad with Solo guts which should have 25m of flight time, at least that is what I am shooting for.
 
I'm having a hard time finding prop adapters for these 2213 motors. Anyone have a link to a source ? I see a lot of 3 screw adapters, but these motors use only 2 screws. Mine all came with CCW (no choice), so I need some CW adapters.
 
Cool, 18 min would be awesome. Look forward to hearing of your actual results. I can only imagine how much inertial is in 15" props, the 10 and 11's seem to be no issue off of Solo stock motors.

I have T-Motor MT2216-12's installed with 1045 APC, it's a 800kv motor. I'm getting roughly 15min when landing at +20% battery. My one motor cost more than your four.... Even so, the upgrade was the best investment I made to Solo, no regrets.
Still take my T-Motor out every once in a while & they still perform flawlessly.
 
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I have been building for a couple of years and initally I had a lot of trouble with failures of ESC's and motors. When I finally switched to Hobbywing Xrotor ESC's and T-motor I never had a problem again. I am dubious of high priced items these days because so much is just the same junk with high priced lipstick on it.

But in the case of T-Motor they are noticeably smoother. They use larger bearings and shafts. The windings are clean and uniform. But I am still a cheapskate and I take advantage of surplus like the 2213-950kv from 3DR. I bought 10 when they were dumping their stock at $5 per motor. But even at $10 from Multirotor Mania, who did the same thing, they are a good buy. I also get them surplus when someone is not doing a build or for some reasoning getting rid of new motors.

I kind feel bad about intruding over here because the Solo was always designed as a tool for cinematographers but now that the Open Solo project has brought it back from the dead it is a target for the DIY crowd. It offers features that are just not cheaply available to the DIY community. My Holy Grail is to have HD Video, RC Control and telemetry over one transceiver radio, which the Solo offers, but it is very hard to find in the DIY arena. Usually we have to have three radios on an aircraft to do the same thing, which poses problems.

So I am using another donor Solo to build a 680mm quad with Solo guts which should have 25m of flight time, at least that is what I am shooting for.

Thought I would pass on some learnings (and almost-learnings) from my attempts to upgrade stock 3DR motor pods. (I'll leave out my attempts to change bearings, since I have not invested in an appropriate bearing installation tool, and so far the results have not been good.) After soldering in four motors as were used on the 3DR Iris, I was impressed with the relatively quiet sound. Of course the pitch of the sound was higher because they are spinning at a higher speed, all other things being equal when compared to the stock motors/bearings. This may be relevant to a later comment.

As someone else noted, if you can find a source of adapters (only two mounting screws) to match these special motors, you will find that the color of the adapters is opposite of the colors used on the Solo (see photo). And if you do enough of these mods, you may rediscover that the Solo motor pods are hardware-keyed (see image) to prevent users from inserting a "silver" pod into a Solo body arm designed to hold a "black" pod. And of course you must pay attention to the direction that the motor is supposed to be spinning, which is opposite of the directional arrow on the pod. If the motor is spinning in the wrong direction, then reverse any two of the three motor wires. By now you may wonder if all of the trouble is worth it. After all, once you've tampered with a manufactured product, there's a chance of introducing a new problem(s).

Now look at the attached image of four propellers. From left to right are: (a) stock 3DR Iris; (b) stock 3DR Solo; (c) stock APC; (d) stock Master Airscrew. Don't try to use stock Iris props because they won't fully seat on the adapter (shaft is too long). The other three props attach with no problems (CW and CCW).

On the bench using Mission Planner to test the motors, everything sounds great. Outside with props on, powered up and ready to launch, everything sounds great.
However after launch there is a noticeable, rhythmic, rotational shake in the Solo. Maybe not bad enough to overcome the gimbal, but not a good thing. The shake is most pronounced with the MA props, less so with the APC props, and even less with the stock Solo props. Twice I have swapped out the modified pods with new stock Solo pods (apparently with "good" bearings, at least for now), and both times the Solo looks and sounds great with the stock pods. Not so with the modified pods. So... maybe one of the modified pods has a problem. Maybe the whole set of 950 Kv motors introduces a problem. Maybe there's a parameter value(s) that could be carefully changed to reduce the shake. Maybe someone has seen this problem before first-hand, and has found a solution! :) Those IRIS motors do sound nice.

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Sounds like something is misbalanced...the props?

I use T-Style two bolt props so I don't need adapters and I use carbon props but I have no vibration problems.
 
Sounds like something is misbalanced...the props?

I use T-Style two bolt props so I don't need adapters and I use carbon props but I have no vibration problems.
Wish the answer was that simple. All three types of props had been balanced and work great with the stock Solo motor pods. All three types of props exhibit the odd vibration with the modified pods. I'm wondering if there's a PID adjustment or yaw parameter value that must be modified to use the 950 Kv motors.

Maybe one or more of the adapters is out-of-round.
 
Wish the answer was that simple. All three types of props had been balanced and work great with the stock Solo motor pods. All three types of props exhibit the odd vibration with the modified pods. I'm wondering if there's a PID adjustment or yaw parameter value that must be modified to use the 950 Kv motors.

Maybe one or more of the adapters is out-of-round.
The mystery appears to be solved. I checked the adapters and they were not out-of-round. Then I noticed an unusual frequency of "Calibrating Sensors" messages on the controller display. I repeated the IMU calibration process, and the symptom that I was seeing stopped. And the Solo hovered nicely in strong gusty wind. This is the first time that I've seen this problem occur in almost two years and several Solo systems. Now I'm looking forward to trying out a set of those nice carbon fiber, T-Style two bolt props...
 
The mystery appears to be solved. I checked the adapters and they were not out-of-round. Then I noticed an unusual frequency of "Calibrating Sensors" messages on the controller display. I repeated the IMU calibration process, and the symptom that I was seeing stopped. And the Solo hovered nicely in strong gusty wind. This is the first time that I've seen this problem occur in almost two years and several Solo systems. Now I'm looking forward to trying out a set of those nice carbon fiber, T-Style two bolt props...
ALERT! Before you bolt down the first of four Lumenier carbon props... take a close look at the thread length of the four screws provided. The package that I received included four 10mm screws, which are 4mm too long. If you use those screws, the ends will contact the motor windings. The screws that I received with adapters for Iris motors were 4 mm thread length, which is too short. 6mm screw length should be just right. (I didn't lose a motor, but came close, realizing my error just in time as I inserted the first screw.)
 

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