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Rubber Band Motor Weight
Posted: February 18th, 2012, 9:18 pm
by Kag
Just looking for some advice on creating the rubber motor. I'm using a .125 width rubber band, but since there isn't a weight limit on the rubber motor, It's a little unclear to me what weight would be optimal. Right now we've got a 2gram motor, but I was wondering if it would be better to use a heavier motor or if that extra weight would make the helicopter to heavy and just decrease the flight time. Any advice for motor sizes/weight would be appreciated!
Thanks!

Re: Rubber Band Motor Weight
Posted: February 18th, 2012, 9:31 pm
by chalker7
Kag wrote:Just looking for some advice on creating the rubber motor. I'm using a .125 width rubber band, but since there isn't a weight limit on the rubber motor, It's a little unclear to me what weight would be optimal. Right now we've got a 2gram motor, but I was wondering if it would be better to use a heavier motor or if that extra weight would make the helicopter to heavy and just decrease the flight time. Any advice for motor sizes/weight would be appreciated!
Thanks!

So this totally depends on your own helicopter and its performance, there is no perfect flying mass. Adding or reducing weight without changing the width of the rubber band will not effect the torque at any number of turns on your rubber band, only the overall number the motor can hold. Basically, if you are landing with a lot of extra turns at the end of the flight, you might as well cut your motor down (to, say 1.5g to start) to reduce the overall mass of the helicopter and only use the turns you need. On the other hand, if you're basically deadsticking (running out of turns mid-flight), you should definitely increase the weight/length of your motor so you can put more turns on it.
Re: Rubber Band Motor Weight
Posted: February 18th, 2012, 10:02 pm
by Kag
Thanks! That definitely clears things up for me! I hadn't realized the weight of the rubber band actually affects the number of turns not torque.