Tri blade propellers

Peter Patricelli · Oct 15, 2013

Marty and others,
The grey props were bought directly off GWS Props.com (http://www.gwsprops.com/3_blade_props.htm) and are marked HD9050-3 or HD0950R-3 for $2/prop. There is no GWS mark on them. They look identical, except for the color, to the black set I bought elsewhere, for more $, which are marked identically HD9050-3 but also have GWS on another blade. The GWS website says they are currently only available in grey. The performance seems the same.

The 9 x 4.7 carbon fiber props (awaiting new set, broke one outright and chipped top of blade on another) have no manufacturer inscribed, bought from China....I can supply website. I got better results with these than the 3 blades.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281155137915?ss ... 1497.l2649

I wish I could easily supply total bird weight but I currently only have an electronic scale from benchrest shooting that maxes out at 200 grams. So I am just assuming the 800 gms listed weight for a bare, batteried bird and then adding known weights from there. I will get a better scale ASAP but still won't happen for a couple of weeks.

I already asked the question in another thread whether others flying stock motors were getting xcellent results with the 9050-3's and got a lot of positive replies....so the motor upgrade IS an advantage but not the whole story. That is why I asked if there was anyone else NOT getting good results with the 3 blades.

martcerv · Oct 15, 2013

Its all good peter its not like Im selling these or anything, just like how you are wondering how others are getting better results I am wondering how yours can be so much worse then mine. Even though I am happy with these I will still keep giving most props I can get my hands on a go. The funny thing is of all the props I have ever ordered the only ones I replaced were the carbons similar to yours, these triblades and stock DJI as they are the only ones so far I have found giving decent enough performance to actually fly them.

The GWS site the prop looks black to me in the pic, looks like the same props funny how they dont have GWS on them. Maybe the ones with GWS markings are actually Chinese copies.

I am quite impressed with how smooth these 9050's can fly also after proper balancing as this video is an example in calmer conditions. Not flying flat out but covered just under 6km on the flight cruising mostly around 15-17 m/s a little manual mode early then just went to atti for most of the flight.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahu_QauUu0c[/youtube]

I get your issue with weight and it was one of my later purchases to get some good digital scales, I never really weighed a fully stock phantom but its supposedly very close to 800g with stock battery. I wasn't sure if your load weights were with or without battery but now its a bit easier to understand. Your heavy setup is therefore close to my light setup and so you probably havent reached the point where the 9 inch carbons reduced lift starts to hurt, still odd that your getting shorter times at much lower weights. Using 2200's the other day flying to 11v with some pretty slow flying just getting between trees and such with top speed around 10m/s same as gps full speed I was getting 7 1/2 to 8 min and 10 1/2min + with my 2700s. I did order a few zippy 2800mah batteries too as I much prefer the larger capacity batteries especially if flying a bit further out. When pushing hard in manual or atti on its limits I lose around 2 minutes on the 2700 and 1 1/2 min on the turnigy 2200's.

Mindflights · Nov 20, 2013

Hey to all,

I just bought the GWS HD-9050Rx3 triblades but they dont fit on my Phantom's motors...
Does anybody knows how to fix that?

Cause I read about a lot of people using them.

Thanks

PJA · Nov 20, 2013

I reamed them out with a needle file. Bought it at Home Depot. Then I added the 8mm inserts for a tighter fit... It worked for me.

The hardest part is balancing them... I'm still having a hard time getting it right...

Mindflights · Nov 20, 2013

PJA said:
I reamed them out with a needle file. Bought it at Home Depot. Then I added the 8mm inserts for a tighter fit... It worked for me.

The hardest part is balancing them... I'm still having a hard time getting it right...

Thank you very much.
I finally did it put the 8mm in the base of the motor and the 06 at the top fore tightening them but in my first flight with those I noticed a lot of tiny vibrations in Roll and Yaw axis.
I suppose it is cause of the handmade job and the lack of balance. Any idea how to balance them?

Thanks

PJA · Nov 20, 2013

martcerv (our resident forum tri-blade expert), explains it well in a post I wrote last week here:

http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3911

martcerv · Nov 22, 2013

Not much of an expert but I learned a tough lesson, dont fly props that have done some tree trimming. These props are quite fragile but as they are cheap best to avoid using them if you see any damage.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-w8sMMbRQ[/youtube]

I did inspect the props after my brush with the tree but must have missed a tiny fracture that gave way at about the worst time.

EMCSQUAR · Nov 22, 2013

I recently did a comparison of stock props vs tri props -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tccMBb815s

What I came away with was - stock props on a "loaded" Phantom seemed to perform better with gains upped and the idle speed bumped up one level above stock setting vs tri blades. On a side note - tri blades worked great on Phantom that was bone stock but prop wash seemed to be exaggerated when loaded with gimbal and and additional accessories. I too had an issue with tri prop failure at a much lower height and no contact with anything. Always inspect props closely, might make it part of pre-flight checks.

Mine weighs in at about 1280 gs - (gimbal,FPV, landing gear,GTU 10)

martcerv · Nov 22, 2013

Your getting a lot of shake there with the triblades, have they been balanced? With so much shake I'm not surprised they would fail without contacting anything. How did you team the hole out as this may also be off center and then the props are pretty much useless.

Even though mine failed ive had many flights without issues and those failed after impact earlier. If your getting that sort off shaking you need to make sure they are balanced properly before looking at gains. Any prop so fast or as those seen to be week shake everything to bits and fail quite easily if a motor doesn't fall first.

boat chaser · Dec 15, 2013

I can't go back to stock after using the properly balanced tri blades. They are quieter, faster with more lift and flying time.

martcerv · Dec 19, 2013

boat chaser said:
I can't go back to stock after using the properly balanced tri blades. They are quieter, faster with more lift and flying time.

Im still using mine, will try vision props at some point but unless they fly better I will stick to these as thats the only reason I fly them and a well balanced set of these does pretty much all I need better then all others I have tried so far.

MonsieurAnon · Mar 6, 2014

How would a P2V owner go about converting to tri-blades?

That is, without buying new motors as well to suit the threading.

fizzviic · Mar 6, 2014

I've used tri's before and really liked everything except having to remove them in order for my P1 to fit it's case. I have now fitted Vision style props but have not tested and compared them as yet due to the weather not cooperating lately Only drawback is that I will have to remove these new props as well...I may have suckered myself into replacing two of the motors so that I can use the self-tightening props, LOL :mrgreen:

Hiway · Mar 6, 2014

MonsieurAnon said:
How would a P2V owner go about converting to tri-blades?

That is, without buying new motors as well to suit the threading.

While I am sure that the stock rotors are widely stated to be better- you could simply find the set of triblades you want that fit, and then buy a set of CW and CCW nuts from a Phantom v1.2/v1.1.1/etc, or replacement set (they sell them on ebay in smexy red and blue anodized) and use those to tighten the props down with.

MonsieurAnon · Mar 7, 2014

So the stock 9" blades are preferred? I'm contemplating carrying an additional 300g on my P2V and I'm looking at these in the vain hope that I can generate more lift.

WTFOver · Apr 3, 2014

Re: Tri blade propellers. ARE THEY QUIETER?

martcerv said:
Here is a basic flight test to show battery life in regular flying here in GPS ATTI and Manual modes this flight, I also fixed up some vibration issues I have been having after a crash a little while back. I had to replace one motor and as I did that I also did a proper motor balance for the first time. They werent that far off but I got them a little better and its probably the smoothest it has ever got.

Using default battery levels in NAZA I got 10 minutes flying my FPV setup with these triblades and a 2700mah battery all up weight was 1157g. Stability is pretty nice too and this wasnt just hovering as I flew around the neighborhood covering a couple km at least in the flight but I dont know exactly. Using a 2200mah battery I can do 8 1/2 minutes with this setup and it even lifts my 3D setup at around 1300g fairly easily with good run times only about a minute shorter with the same type of flying.

I have a Phantom 2 w AUW of 1400gr. I can go 5km if I watch my battery. I had a question: When flying I go from 100-200 meters up, primarily to mask the wild bees sound. Have you found the tri blades to be quieter? I am looking for more of a silent running type blade setup.