Drive Calculator 3.3 is now available from www.drivecalc.de

Drive Calculator is a tool that can be used for DC motor analysis and as an aid in the selection of the complete power system for electrically powered model aircraft. The application comes with a SQL database that contains separate tables for motors and drive configurations, batteries, ESCs, gearboxes, propellers and stators.

Drive Calculator is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

I warmly recommend studying the manual to make the best possible use of the software.

New features in this version:

• The new search and filter function lets you select motors by their KV value. This function may help you in finding similar motors in case your motor is not in the database.

• Simplified use of the "virtual dyno" to create power constants for propellers based on motor measurement data.

• In case a propeller's thrust constant is not available in the database, Drive Calculator displays an estimated thrust value.

• You can change the number of cells by dragging the mouse cursor vertically anywhere in the diagram area while holding the left button.

• A warning message is displayed if the supply voltage exceeds the limits of the ESC.

• Drive Calculator for Linux does not crash any more during a database update.

• Fixed a bug in the database update code that occasionally warped the motor computation results.

• New algorithm for evaluating more than 3 sets of motor measurement data achieves closer approximation.

• Re-designed motor calculation reliability rating displays more meaningful results.

Have fun.
Christian

Hi Christian,

Thanks for posting the link.

I have one request. I see that you did include parallel packs on A123 cells. Something I wanted to ask before is if it is possible to have an option on all cells to have a choice of parallel cells available, next to the normal cell count.

Hi rebell, at this time DC supports entering parallel packs as regular database entries. The option to choose the number of parallel cells without having a database entry would require some modifications. Maybe I can do that for the next application update.

Christian,

Thanks for the Drive Calculator. It's going to help choose a motor/batt/prop for my next plane. You've put a lot of effort into this program, looks great.

Today I have added a shell script to the Linux versions, which solves the display problem with some distributions. Simply launch the script instead of the application. It installs a suitable GTK theme and then starts up the application.

Excellent! Finally something that works on my Mac!

--
Mike N

First of all, thanks again Christian for another great release. (Yes, Twmaster, it works perfectly on the Mac!)

This may be in the manual and I just missed it, but I wondered if importing data will overwrite records that are already there, based on a timestamp, or what? I have a couple of motors entered in version 3.2 and I'd like to import them into 3.3, but leave any newer records already in 3.3 alone.

Thanks!

--Van

Originally Posted by van-c

First of all, thanks again Christian for another great release. (Yes, Twmaster, it works perfectly on the Mac!)

Yep. Motocalc under Win98 via VPC was very painful to use.

Thanks again Christian!

--
./Mike N

rebell

I added 2P A123 to my database selecting "new battery" in the drop down menu. First I copied the parameters of the single cell A123 then I doubled the amp and weight figures and halved the resistance. You can do the same for 3P, 4P as well by dividing the resistance of a single battery by the number of parallel batteries.

I have to say what a great service you are doing for the R/C aircraft electric community. Thank you so much for such a great program that gets updated regularly and the best part is its FREE!!

Originally Posted by van-c

I wondered if importing data will overwrite records that are already there

No, it won't. From the manual: "The import function compares the components' names and offers the selection of all items that are not contained in the target database." So you cannot select components that are already in the target database.

Christian

Drive Calculator 3.302 is now available on www.drivecalc.de. This version fixes two bugs (see the Readme file). The database as well has been updated.

Christian

Hi all!
Recently downloaded the latest version (3.31). As I'm musing the idea of rewinding an old BM2410/8 (TP) I pulled it up from the database to run the numbers but every time I choose the reconfigurator it automatically switches my motor choice to RS-LRKxxx. I should add this auto-change happens no matter which motor I use as a base. Never had this happen with previous versions. Been a while (about a year) since using this app so I'm hoping it's not just me zoning. Any insight appreciated.

I'd like to offer a big Thanks to Christian as this app has proven very useful in past use.

Cheers,
golem


*EDIT* Hmmm, just noticed this action only happens on "production" motors. If I plug in any of the "custom" motors and choose reconfigurator it works as expected. Should I assume this is as designed? Thanks.

Hi golem,

designed indeed. The reconfigurator needs parameters like stator dimensions und winding properties to work with. Other motors are not eligible for the reconfigurator.

Ahhh, thanks for the clarification Christian. Guess I was assuming that in order for any of the motors (production or custom) to make the list all those parameters would've had to have been known whereas, it seems, only electrical values are really required for the calculator to perform its magic.

I just noted, as an example, while looking at the Scorpion 3014/16 in the motor editing dialog it has all but the stator thickness value specified. With this it will not allow use in reconfigurator mode, if I modify and save the motor profile with the addition of 14mm value for stator thickness it automatically allows for use on reconfigurator mode. Nice.

Just thought I'd be a little long-winded here as it might be useful to others (like me) in the future. Thanks again for this very useful application.

Cheers,
golem