Prop Balancing - Is It Really Worth It ?

[pyrophantom]

Been reading with interest the pros and cons of prop balancing and wondered if it really is worth bothering with on the vision with the standard DJI props ?

Those who say yes you should do it, argue longer flight times, less vibration means better pictures video etc

Those who say no don't bother, argue that sanding down a blade or adding weight alters the centre of gravity of each side of the prop which then invites instability in the prop anyway

So what do folks think ? Are we really just talking marginal differences which in reality do not affect performance to any noticeable degree ? I can see both sides of the argument, but there must be other things which affect flight characteristics as well as the props, so is it really worth doing ?

Interesting arguments from both camps I thought ?

 

[Pull_Up]

I know what you mean. There's a school of thought that says unless you are going to balance the motors as well as the props then you're only doing half the job. Half my stock props were pretty well factory balanced, half were out of balance. FWIW I sanded the unbalanced ones until they were lined up.

Have I noticed any big differences? No, not really. For the unbalanced ones that I corrected then there will be less vibration for the motors to deal with so it could well extend the life of the bearings a bit, but that's unquantifiable. I didn't have any jello to begin with (I don't think anyone has with their Vision out of the box) and it's hard to notice any change in video quality given the camera isn't really stabilised. It might help if you plan on adding a third-party gimbal and find you get jello there, but as I say if your motors are out of balance...

 

[pyrophantom]

Yes that's why I asked the question because if there is an issue at all with say video quality due to instability then really you are taking on quite a job trying to eliminate all of the possible causes and to me that falls well beyond the remit of an aircraft of this price. For the money I think the performance is really quite acceptable and don't want to tinker with something which isn't too much of a problem to a novice like me.

For very experienced users who shoot a lot of video, I would guess they would be flying different platforms anyway where such issues made measurable differences in performance.

Is an interesting subject though, but all it did for me is open the box and made me think of all sorts of potential instability problems, but why go there. The P2V is what it is for the price and I have been quite impressed with it so far.

 

[skyhighdiver]

Is an interesting subject though, but all it did for me is open the box and made me think of all sorts of potential instability problems, but why go there. The P2V is what it is for the price and I have been quite impressed with it so far.

I wonder the same I purchased a rod from this sight balanced the prop to a t one way
then turn over on the rod and its off again ( put blade on left side then right side )
don't understand why would run level balanced one side then off the other ( maybe my rod is not perfectly balanced around)
and usually only takes one little piece of tape to change the balance so is it really worth the effort

 

[jimdenburg]

Here's a little vid. that shows how much of a difference balanced props can make. After a few crashes, I had blown through my first 2 sets of props so I ordered some on e-bay--cheapest I could find, about $15/set of 4. After flying with the new blades, I realized quite a bit more shake and worse--the dreaded jello, especially with the gimbal tilted most downward (see about 1 min. in on the left vid). So I picked up a Dubro balancer at the local hobby shop, took everything off the bar except for one of the weighted cones, and I put the small piece of rubber tubing at the end of the rod. It wasn't the perfect set-up, but provided just enough friction to hold the prop solid and get a decent reading on the balance and adjust for it. 3 of my blades were off (the silver ones WAY off). After balancing the jello was pretty much eliminated. There's still a bit more shake than I had out of the box, but I believe that's because my shell also suffered some damage in my crashes (a new one will be in my future), and so as of now I am officially flying with duct tape! Overall I have to say I was amazed by the results and how out of balance my replacement blades were!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj8PxfIRSdQ[/youtube]

 

[skyhighdiver]

Here's a little vid. that shows how much of a difference balanced props can make.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj8PxfIRSdQ[/youtube]

so did you sand them down or add tape to lite side

 

[EMCSQUAR]

I'm a believer in prop balancing. At first I doubted it also, but after balancing first set of stock props I did notice a significant improvement in smoothness. It almost sounded different also

 

[jimdenburg]

I sanded off the heavy side. For $25 I'd say worth it.