[Anthony B]

Ok I admit - I am an OLD phart. I love the 60's and the 70's from Led Zeppelin to slot cars.

So a while back I saw brushless motors making an appearance and thought this is for those &()*(* who race wing type or GP 12 cars (as I did in the 90's). Again to be honest, I am not sure I can follow them on the track any longer as they are blurs. But not for me - give me a 16D Mabuchi any day.

Now I see NSR are introducing them into their range. SO will they become mainstream? Could they ever race on sectional track? What do you think?

PS how do they work - I see they have a 'controller' that is needed to work......   


   

[KensRedZed]

In simple terms. The controller converts DC power (2-wires) to AC power (3-wires). The windings are stationary, and the magnets spin around or inside the windings. It's been in the RC aircraft hobby for many years. All brushless motors have an amazing power to weight ratio. You barely got 60% efficiency for a regular brushed motor. You can get 90% efficiency with a brushless. That makes a huge difference in power and flight times for RC planes.

The friction of the brushes really slow down a regular DC motor. They also create gobs of heat. It's not the best way to transfer power.

They have high dollar DC brushless motors too. But only for industrial use.

[Kevan]

The 'controller' aka E-com (or ESC to us RC'ers) is a small box of tricks fit inbetween the motor and guide leads that converts single phase DC to 3 phase that brushless motors require.

It seems most normal slot car controls work like normal.

If you zoom into that NSR brushless motor you can clearly see there's some very special stator windings going on there...that's probably the first bespoke brushless motor specifically designed for Slot cars rather than an off the shelf drone jobbie.
There's two types of brushless motors, inrunners and outrunners, that's an outrunner where the outside of the casing rotates attached to the motor shaft.

A lot of us slotters use very mild motors the equivalent of which doesn't exist in drone brushless motors.

One thing to bear in mind, every car will need an E-com, maybe some time in the future when tracks are (maybe/possibly) wired to suit brushless motors that brushless hand controllers will become available so that cars don't need an E-com.

I'm not expecting brushless to take over our hobby because it'll get 'expensive' and won't suit most of what us hard body racers need.

Feedback I've read from this years ISRA worlds - why do we not see these events being heavily advertised on the popular forums before the event rather than accidentally tripping over it on Youtube or FB - is these motors don't have much brakes as these guys lift & coast.