installing E300 on the Phantom 2 (non vision)

[BBoyko]

Hi guys,

I have been using this forum to source many of my mods and tweaks to my quads. So far I have been both successful and partially unsuccessful But as they say - we live, we learn.

I got to a point where I want to experiment with a little bit more payload on the bird (additional 150 - 300 grams, and got to thinking that I may need more powerful motors. I started readin on the T-Motor set, but some discussions led me to the DJI Tuned propulsion system E300 and was able to find some youtube videos on people flying such rigs. However, I have not so far found any videos or guides as to how the installation is meant to be made on the bird. Beyond the soldering (cause I believe the provided power boxes are not used on the Phantom), does it require any further hardware or software tweaks? And most important of all - will this indeed bring better lift capabilities (even at the price of shorter flight time?)

Thank you in advance
B

 

[Brewsky666]

I do wonder as well. So if some one can shine some light in the darkness... :idea:

 

[EMCSQUAR]

It can be done but you're going to lose your LED's (E300 ESCs have no lights) and have to add an external LED. Also E300 ESCs are a tight fit in the arms. Depending on what's loaded on your Phantom stock settings are usually enough - some folks say they're even lowering them.

 

[OI Photography]

You can get just the E300 motors by themselves and connect them to the Phantom's stock ESC's.

However, I'm not sure any motors you can put on a Phantom are going to give you the headroom in lift you're looking for. What's your target total weight? 1350g is where you want to be, and you can still get usable flight times at 1500g, but going over that is starting to ask too much from this platform.

 

[Brewsky666]

Ok thnx for the headsup. Will not go there. Got some T-motors laying about that are compatible with the P2. If I have some spare time I will fix my old P2, that I crashed a short time ago. Now I am flying with the stock motors and stock props (went back to 1.08 so first flights with stock equipment)

 

[ElGuano]

Just in case you're wondering about the free space inside the shell with an E300 ESC swap (this is on a P1):

 

[BBoyko]

Hey guys,
thanks for all the hints and pictures. I am finally putting this together in my mind.

The expected weight that the bird should fly with is around 1420 - 1480 gr, so I assume that this will give me enough time to do the shots I need.
As per the LEDs - in all honesty, after the bird is about 100 meters away, I am not seeing them anyway and the only use of them is the pre-flight checks, configs and calibrations (which does not mean they are not important). I was thinking I will solder the motors to the stock ESCs as per OI Photography's comment and see how the bird behaves and later on if time permits, play with the E300 ESCs.
Putting external LEDs if I use the whole E300 kit, is a great idea, but you can assume I have no idea what lead I should use to get these lights out.

with your help I am now more convinced to experiment with the E300 kit and will give it a go

As a next question, I think of using the this thread for advice on using the Phantoms battery to power an external transceiver (sunhans 5.8 - will strip it from the aluminium case and put a fan on it for cooling). Would you advice that I play with the phantom's battery supply, or that hides too much dangers?

B

 

[ElGuano]

Hey guys,
thanks for all the hints and pictures. I am finally putting this together in my mind.

The expected weight that the bird should fly with is around 1420 - 1480 gr, so I assume that this will give me enough time to do the shots I need.
As per the LEDs - in all honesty, after the bird is about 100 meters away, I am not seeing them anyway and the only use of them is the pre-flight checks, configs and calibrations (which does not mean they are not important). I was thinking I will solder the motors to the stock ESCs as per OI Photography's comment and see how the bird behaves and later on if time permits, play with the E300 ESCs.
Putting external LEDs if I use the whole E300 kit, is a great idea, but you can assume I have no idea what lead I should use to get these lights out.

with your help I am now more convinced to experiment with the E300 kit and will give it a go

As a next question, I think of using the this thread for advice on using the Phantoms battery to power an external transceiver (sunhans 5.8 - will strip it from the aluminium case and put a fan on it for cooling). Would you advice that I play with the phantom's battery supply, or that hides too much dangers?

B

A couple of thoughts:

Why upgrade to E300s? The motors are great, as are the ESCs, but a P2 essentially has E300-class components (motors, ESCs, props) already. If you have 200+ hours of flight time on your bird and it's time to replace motors/bearings, that's one thing. But you're replacing same with same.

I replaced the LEDs when I did the E300 ESC swap. You can do it a number of ways, but I wanted to get extra bright and visible lights that mirrored the NAZA LED output between orientation colors.

Tapping the battery leads to power peripherals is absolutely A-OK. If your 5.8ghz vtx runs off 3S power (~12v), you can take it from just about anywhere on the P2 motherboard: where the battery leads connect to the motherboard or where the ESCS do:

Don't take a soldering iron to the actual battery unless you know what you're doing, but you can tap from the mainboard easily.

 

[BBoyko]

ElGuano,

My confidence grows by the hour
As per the E300 motors - I don't yet have that many flight hours (but am moving fast toward them). But are really the E300 motors the same as the stock motors? WHy is it that I read the specs of the so called "tuned propulsion system" and am reading a better lift per axle and better behavior especially with the props it comes with? Is it all a marketing trick?

The picture with the power outputs is extremely helpful. I was indeed planning on tapping to some of the power wires/solders of the board and not to the battery itself. The vtx uses 12 V, so it should be fine running off the new solders. It is extremely comforting to know my options now.

B

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Your timing couldn't be any better -> https://store.dji.com/product/e300-4

 

[rilot]

To get more lift you either need to spin the same size prop faster or run a larger prop.
The E300 motors are 920kV which is the same as the P2's stock motors. They will spin the prop at the same speed for a given voltage and provide no more lift than stock.
You are limited to 3S batteries with the P2 so there's no way to get more RPM by increasing the voltage to 4S either.
You can't run larger props than 9" so you're out of luck that way too.

There really is no point in putting the E300 motors or ESCs in a P2. All you are doing is adding to the weight.

 

[BBoyko]

...aaaaand i bought one kit

I am a little bit reluctant to show my pre-mod bird, but during the configuration and upgrade, I will try to show some pictures.

Thank you all!

B

 

[BBoyko]

rilot,

all this info is very important, but seems I am stuck with new motors for the P2


B

 

[ElGuano]

ElGuano,

My confidence grows by the hour
As per the E300 motors - I don't yet have that many flight hours (but am moving fast toward them). But are really the E300 motors the same as the stock motors? WHy is it that I read the specs of the so called "tuned propulsion system" and am reading a better lift per axle and better behavior especially with the props it comes with? Is it all a marketing trick?

The picture with the power outputs is extremely helpful. I was indeed planning on tapping to some of the power wires/solders of the board and not to the battery itself. The vtx uses 12 V, so it should be fine running off the new solders. It is extremely comforting to know my options now.

B

It's not a marketing trick, the new motors are a LOT better than the old ones. The thing is, the E300 and the Phantom 2 were launched around the same time. DJI simply decided to make the P2s with the same improvements (that's a good thing). That said, I have a P1, a couple of P2s, and an E300 P1 and other multis. I DO think there is a difference in the retail (black) E300 motors. They're a LOT quieter in idle than the P1 or even P2 motors. Flight performance when loaded seems about the same though.

So, I did the upgrade and I like it. I'm not trying to discourage you from doing so, but want to make sure you know what you're getting--you shouldn't expect much (if any) payload or flight time increase from the E300 on a p2

Your timing couldn't be any better -> https://store.dji.com/product/e300-4

Yeah, with the new lower pricing on the E300 and E600, these are really awesome upgrade/replacement options! At $20/motor, why bother going through the trouble of replacing bearings when you can just swap out the motors after 2-300 hours of flight? Well, that's still a significant cost on a E600 hex, but for a Phantom <$100 for a new set of motors (or $120 for a whole setup including ESCs, props and hardware) is a great deal.

 

[BBoyko]

So here is something strange ElGuano,

as I am still waiting for the E300 kit, I went on the side project to try and power a 12v 2amp 5.8G amplifier through the P2 board. As you can probably guess - it didn't even blink.
at the same time, I tried the DC out of the Black Pearl (as it reads this is 11.1v at 1amp) and the amplifier works flawlessly.

So my question is, do you see anything wrong with how I tap into the P2 power board or is the bird running much lower amp (>1000mili amps) and as such, does not have the juice to power the amplifier?


B

 

[Fyod]

I'm wondering in the case of buying the whole kit with ECSs, how do you retain function of the LEDs?

 

[BBoyko]

I was wondering about the same thing and even beyond that - if I cant retain the LEDs, is it critical? What is the vital information the LEDs tell me beyond the iOSD mini, sound, etc alerts?

B

 

[Damon]

Why not keep the new ECSs modules in box and just mount new motors to old ESCs in Phantom. You could either solder direct or solder 3.5 female bullets to old wires so you can change out future motors, plus the bonus of being able to disconnect motors for maintenance?

 

[OI Photography]

as I am still waiting for the E300 kit, I went on the side project to try and power a 12v 2amp 5.8G amplifier through the P2 board. As you can probably guess - it didn't even blink.
at the same time, I tried the DC out of the Black Pearl (as it reads this is 11.1v at 1amp) and the amplifier works flawlessly.

Can you show a pic of where you tapped in to the P2 board for power, and how you connected that to your vTx?

 

[BBoyko]

I was running a wire directly from the power jack of the wi/fi amp to the V+ and Ground point on the main board (as per ElGuano's) photo.
The same wires I later ran to the Black Pearl DC OUT and it ran just fine. So I was left wondering about the 2amp requirement of the sanhans amp.

Does this help?

B