Brushless motors have simply been too problematic, and quite frankly, we’re done with them. To recap, brushless motors require external driverboards which takes up more space. Electronic speed controllers (ESCs) require high voltage and generate noisy signals, which was unreliable for driving the brushless motor.

Hence, Jin Feng and Arthur went to Sim Lim to test out some brushed motors. We realised that at our scale, brushed motors should work well. 

After confirming the new fan shaft diameter based on the new brushed motors, Jin Feng and Jedidiah went to 3D-print three selected blades, including “best” (4B V3A) and “second best” (4B V3B) and “long boi” (4B V3A Asymmetric). These blades were selected based on efficiency tests documented under Flow Simulation: Phase 2.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Gabriel were figuring out the electronics and they realised a voltage regulator was still needed as the Arduino requires 5V, but our battery only supplies 3.7V.