How to Measure Motor Thrust Data – Turnigy Thrust Stand

by Oscar

Basically, to measure motor thrust data, you need a watt meter for measuring voltage and current, a thrust stand for thrust, a good ESC and a servo tester (or a spare flight controller). This is a watt meter I am using.

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Looking for ideas what tools you should get for building your quadcopters?

Not long ago I made a DIY thrust measuring stand, but the result wasn’t particularly satisfactory due to the simplicity. So I decided to go for a relatively more professional solution for some more accurate motor/propeller data.

Hobbyking happened to be doing a sale on this Turnigy Thrust Stand so I bought it. Here we will have a quick review on this product.

It’s made of aluminium I believe, so it’s not very heavy only around 600g. Cheaper for delivery, but you will need some kind of stabilization or weight to hold it in place during a thrust test. It provides screw holes on the bottom plate so you can simply secure it on a wooden table i guess.

tunigy-thrust-stand-2 tunigy-thrust-stand-3

Basically it’s nothing more than a weight measuring tool. The maximum thrust it can measure is up to 5KG.

It has a LCD screen that runs of two AA batteries. The battery holder is under the screen panel.

tunigy-thrust-stand-battery-holder-under-lcd-screen

It comes with two motor mounts, and they cover most of the motor sizes: from 12mm to 56mm.

tunigy-thrust-stand-motor-propeller-mounted tunigy-thrust-stand-motor-propeller-mounted-2

I really like this thrust stand, it’s cheap, sturdy. Only problem I have with it is the scale accuracy, it doesn’t return to zero after a test.

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5 comments

Albert 18th February 2016 - 5:34 pm

Just got mine thrust stand yesterday and tested emax mt1806 motor. I used gemfan 5030 props, two different 16A ESCs (calibrated before measuring) and a fully charged 3S 1800 25C lipo. I am getting a max thrust of 190g. This sounds way to low. How can I check if my thrust stand is faulty or is there a way to calibrate it?

Reply
Albert 18th February 2016 - 7:44 pm

I finally figured it out. My thrust stand was calibrated wrong. I calibrated it and now I am getting better results. (about 325g thrust with 1806/5030 gemfan)

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Ben 28th February 2016 - 4:16 pm

I just tested mine and it needs calibrating – how did you manage to calibrate yours?

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Jasson 29th June 2016 - 10:25 pm

How can I recalibrate it ?

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gervais 17th September 2015 - 1:12 pm

Hi, the Turnigy Motor thrust stand doesn´t work precise at all. Its high precision bearings ar 0.2mm off and its shaking like heck. Its sensors are not linear and the wiring quality looks like the cheapest 1USD stuff. Only thing i like is the idea and the look. I´m going to return mine.
BR

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