VESC FOC EFFICIENCY vs. REGULAR BLDC ESC (Fixed Wing UAV Propeller Tests)

Hello Everyone,

Here is a bench test summary of an efficiency measurement comparing a Flipsky 4.20 Mini VESC (Hardware 4.10) versus an Eflite 40a BLDC ESC.

The main Observation of this test is to measure changes in Wattage consumption changes while comparing the FOC method versus BLDC.

Measurements were done using a Turnigy V3 thrust stand and Power Analyzer

Test Motor - E-Flite 1300Kv Motor 10 Ultimate 2 (E-flite Model EFLM108018)

Test Load - Aeronaut Cam Carbon 10x4 Folding Propeller

Test #1           ~500g of Static Thrust @ 3S Battery Voltage - 11.27V

Eflite ESC - 504g thrust @ 80.5W

Flipsky VESC - 502g thrust @ 73.2W
 

Test #2           ~500g of Static Thrust @ 3S Battery Voltage - 11.13V

Eflite ESC - 503g thrust @ 80.9W

Flipsky VESC - 503g thrust @ 75.3W

Conclusion:
After 2 tests, the average Thrust to Watt consumption is:

Control ESC - 6.24 g/W

FOC VESC - 6.77 g/W

Therefore resulting in an ~8.2% efficiency gain @ 500 grams static thrust just by using the new VESC.

Here is the UAV Fixed-Wing Efficiency Project

Airframe - E-Flite Opterra 2 Meter Wing

Flight Controller - Pixhawk 2.4.8 w/ uBlox GPS

Software - Ardupilot (Arduplane 4.0)

Telemetry - Either 915MHz USB Radios to Laptop, or Raspberry Pi 4G Companion Computer

Ground Station - Foldable Laptop with Mission Planner (by Michael Oborne)

The mission of this UAV is to explore every technical method of increasing flight duration.

This is accomplished by testing new methods of power system design and implementation, testing new batteries, and optimizing the airframe and flight profile.

Thanks for reading!

Jordan Brock

Where I Document my Projects:            https://discord.gg/ZDh2J4CdCB

Where I Film my Projects:             https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxTmFpicui6OEBg_0G1VxCQ