Motor Mods: Blade 180/-3240 Stryfe, XP180 RS Pusher

Got a few more mods and experiments done, both involving some form of 180 motor.

The first one was overhauling my Stryfe, which until now had been set up with Barricade motors and IMRs. I purchased a Turnigy Graphene 1000mAh 65-130C 2S, the same one often used for XP180 builds. It's completely overkill for ordinary 3240s since a pair of those will only draw up to ~45A at stall, but graphene is awesome and it wasn't all that expensive anyway. I purchased these 3240s about a year ago for about 6AUD each including postage, a very good price for legit 3240s. If I were to do a 180 build nowadays, I would just get a set of Hellcats, which are not only easier and more reliable to acquire (and probably cheaper), but also have far more torque for pretty much the same current draw.
Regardless, this Stryfe turned out really nicely. It spins up very quickly, and this set of stock flywheels seems to be very well balanced. It's quite accurate and produces quite a harmonious noise. As far as I can tell, it gets typical top level Stryfe performance with stock flywheels. I used a blue BSUK motor cover for it. The motor cover design is a bit boring, but it does the job fine. I think personally I prefer orange motor covers, I like the contrast of them. I normally would have gone with a Jase3D cover, but I was making an order at BlasterTech (who stocks some BSUK parts) for...

...an XP180! This is one of the specially manufactured XP180s ordered by BlasterTech. Differences with ordinary XP180s include: the complete lack of unnecessary wires and other components (including the annoying pinion) and a longer axle. While they are still painfully expensive (17AUD for a single XP180 from BlasterTech), these really are absolute top tier motors. The magnets are ludicrously strong, easily the strongest I've ever seen/felt in a 130/180 sized motor. While I personally probably won't be ordering more any time soon (based on the extremely high cost, my excess of motors and my ease of access to MTB's motors), I can certainly see why people love them. Among other things, it also just looks really cool.

Unlike what most people use them for, I'm using my XP180 as a high speed pusher motor. It's in my Bullpup RS and so runs on 3S, but I've wired in a 1N5404 diode to drop the voltage to the pusher slightly (0.8-1.1V depending on current draw). These are the results:

I absolutely love this thing. The insane amount of torque means that the pusher pretty much always stops perfectly, despite being set up on "dead centre". I have had a lot more trouble with pusher overrun with my -3240 and -3250 pusher experiments. It behaves almost entirely like a standard 3 switch Rapidstrike pusher ("live centre"), without the drawbacks of the standard 3 switch setup. I can fire off 1 and 2 darts reliably with absolutely no pusher overrun, which is incredible at this ROF. At close to storage charge (~11.7V), the XP180 with a 1N5404 diode for voltage drop (so more like ~11V or less to the motor) is achieving around 13dps. At full charge, it'll probably achieve something like 14dps, and without the drop diode it could probably achieve up to 15dps or so. Assuming the XP180 doesn't toast itself or break something else, I'll be keeping this motor setup. It's perfect for me, reasonably high ROF yet still perfectly controllable with minimal pusher overrun.

Unlike some of the motor experiments that I've done, these ones have been a resounding success. My newly 3240'd Stryfe seems to be working very well, and my Bullpup RS has a quite a fast yet very reliable and controllable pusher. Naturally both are pending actual combat use, as I have questions about the XP180's longevity on slightly-less-that-3S, and combat conditions may expose flaws in my Stryfe that are not apparent in casual use.