For those of you that have used both motors, which do u think is the better of the two.

now my team owns no less than 14 motors, mostly maxon, but in recent years we have obtained some from faulhaber. i would firstly like to say that faulhaber makes good motors, however, maxon are far better. when the fauls are geared right and properly fitted - ie the sleve isnt halfway up the shaft - they are fast, but the maxons will never fail no matter what you do, and they can be made to go just as fast if they are set right. plus they dont fall to pieces.MAXON!!!!

Both motors have their benefits. In the next few days, ill explain these in detail, with reference to motor data sheets and terminology. Ill give you guys a detailed explanation of all the data sheet terms, and what u need to look for in a motor.

Here are the datasheets for the current most successful motors from both faulhaber and maxon.
The maxon 4.5volt 10watt with extremely low terminal resistance produces heaps of starting power when used with a maximiser.



This is the now most commonly used faulhaber.



I think if geared properly the maxon would be a winner.

Also the maxon motor weighs nearly 60grams more, so for really light cars, the benefits could be offset by extra weight.

OK we know the mini-motor 2232 is the new good motor that everyone uses, but i just noticed that it doesn't even have ball bearings in it . Why doesn't it come with ball bearings? and how much difference will we notice if we had ball bearings installed?

Data sheet states that ball bearing are optional. If you want ball bearing on the motor itll pobly cost more because its an option and you have to get it specially ordered.

under heavy loads ball bearings have less friction compared to bushes but im not sure by how much.

Pulled apart a maxon.. here are the pictures.
Biuld Quality seems better than faulhaber.

Ian Gardner from Victoria has just finished testing of the Maxon RE25 118740, and he just confirmed it is currently the best available motor for solar car. Current estimates are a 0.5 - 1.5 second decrease in lap times. The motor provides up to 80% more torque per RPM compared to the faulhaber 2232. Although it weighs 75grams more, he stated the benefits easily compensate for the extra weight and more.

The official results will be released in his latest car design hints due in the next few weeks.

I'm looking for help with solar boats. My school competed in melbourne and had the fastest primary boats in full sun, but we dropped off in low light. What's the answer?

maybe you need a higher torque motor for lower light conditions?
What motor did you use, and what was the voltage of you panel?

primary boats are limited to motors worth less than $20. ours were hobby motors from scorpio. our panels were new, also from scorpio. voltage varies slightly but up to 6v

In low light conditions, you may need to connect your panels in parallel to get the extra current required by your motor.
In low light conditions solar panels put out bugger all current.

A solution I saw for this was a switch that allowed you to switch your panels between series and parallel. Something like in the image below.

Hey unussapiens, great diagram.

Cheers.

Hello solinvicta,

Because you are running without electronics, you will need to match your load (motor) to your solar panel to make use of all it's power. To receive this maximum power for different light levels, you will need to change your boat configuration.

In the case of a model solar boat, this is most commonly done by changing your propeller and/or, as Tony and unussapiens have mentioned, rearranging your panel wiring configuration. Less common options may be to change motors or gears (if you aren't running a direct drive system).

If you have the Scorpio panels that I am thinking of then the configuration has been more or less determined for you (series) and so a propeller change will probably be the easiest way to go.

The easiest way to determine your best setup for a particular light level is to just do some testing with your boat if you can. Because your boats are doing well in good sunlight, it sounds like you may need to reduce the size or pitch of your propeller in lower sunlights.

If you haven't already had a look, the Tasmanian website (http://www.tassolarchallenge.org) has a help file titled "Model Solar Boat Help" written by Ian Gardner on the CHALLENGE HELP page. This is a very useful file and I recommend that you have a bit of a read.

miseli