Update 9/2/2012: Here is the AEO 8-blader in the Mini F-22 on 3S:
3S has plenty of power and is nice and light! Winds have been out of control for weeks, but I’m sure slow flight is improved with the lighter battery.
Update 8/28/2012: On 3S with a true 100% throttle, the AEO powered Mini F-22 is a noticeably stronger with better sound than stock on 4S.
Battery life is about 20% less with the same mAh 3S vs. 4S battery, but that is attributable to the extra power and could be throttled back for about the same flight time and performance per mAh.
Original article follows:
When the fan in my Mini F-22 literally disintegrated, I looked to my parts shelf and found this brand new AEO 50mm EDF/motor combo patiently waiting to fly. At just $17, I bought a few for no reason; now I know why.
The only trick to wedging the EDF combo unit into the Mini-F-22 is the fluted inlet doesn’t fit into the EPO ductwork, so I had to dremel the lip off with a cutting wheel. Easy enough.
I’m glad I decided to played with this micro jet upgrade, it turned out to be a lot of fun! The Mini Raptor is such a great little flyer and so low priced, I can easily forgive the cheapo stock fan blades for vanishing after being subjected to my ‘unauthorized’ 4-cell 40C upgrade.
The AEO unit ships with an 8-blade, instead of the Mini F-22 stock 6 (I think it was 6)-blade fan, for around 33% more thrust per spin.
Here are the manufacturers numbers:
The increase aerodynamic fan power results in less overall noise per ounce of push, a noticeably more pleasant jet whine/whistle, and more air “whoosh” (albeit at lower volume) than the usual EDF banshee scream.
In fact, thrust is so high, that my 4-cell Mini-Raptor upgrade needed to be rolled back to 3-cell operation. The AEO unit ran on 4-cells just fine, but I found myself dialing down the RPM limiter (via throttle End Point Adjustment) to just 50% of full throttle to keep Amps in check at 22. The stock ESC is only rated to 20A.
A brief zoom to 100% throttle on 4S recorded 39A and over 550W, way beyond spec.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking and only brought a 4S battery selection to the field for a quick test flight before the forecast winds went absolutely nuts. So the video below was taken with a 4S 1000 mAh 40C with the throttle end point limited to just 50% of full throttle power. I think the end result might be much like running on 3S and limiting the power flow to 22A with a similar, but higher fraction of full throttle set with an EPA.
As tested with a 50% throttle end point limit, thrust was still very strong and easily above 1:1. Speed was up, helped by strong winds. This little EDF unit really cooks. Next flight I’ll test it on 3S at closer to full power. Or maybe I’ll also upgrade to ESC to one of my $9, HK 30A specials. I think I still have 2 or 3 of those sitting around in the original packaging.
Overall, this whooshing, whistling little dynamo EDF/motor combo gets an easy A+ for excellent performance and even better value.