Propellers

[djipilot]

Hi all, I have been looking at getting carbon fiber props for my phantom 2 v+. I would use them when I fly for fun rather than using them all the time. I have been looking at props on Amazon but they all seem to have poor reviews. Do you guys have any good recommendations?

 

[msinger]

They have poor reviews because they perform poorly. DJI makes the best Phantom props, so it would be best to stick with them.

While not 100% carbon fiber, DJI does sell black carbon fiber reinforced props. You can find them here:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/#PropsV+

 

[N017RW]

Props are part of a tuned propulsion system.
Making changes can result in unusual or erratic performance.

YMMV.

 

[sdtag]

I bought some on Ebay just to try out. The first set I received had one prop with a bad thread. My second set was all good. I tried them out last weekend. They are very stiff. They don't flex hardly at all like the stock ones do. I thought I would notice a difference in flight, performance, noise, something. They might be a little noisier but that's about it. I didn't notice any performance gains (or losses) at all.

 

[Pacmanfever]

Don't buy the knock-off OXOXOX cheap white props either, they're very poorly balanced. The first Phantom I bought used off Craigslist was unstable and I noticed the prop tracking was way off but the props looked like regular DJI props.

Then I read about the markings on them, genuine DJI props say DJI, the look alike knock-offs say OXOXOX and they're horrible.

Just changing to a real DJI set made a world of difference, perfectly stable, longer flights, quieter. It was like night and day.

 

[Maranatha Photography]

I'm not from Missouri (The show me state), but I am one of those people that has to check things out for himself.

No matter how many of these posts I've read were people said they Carbon Fiber props aren't as stable, to just stick with the stock DJI ones........

In the back of my mind, I always figured they had to have done something wrong.

I mean, if the blades are the same size and pitch.....with the exception of being stiffer.....there's no reason the CF ones should be less stable.....thus I just assumed the people who experienced problems with theirs were not balancing them properly.

So, I ordered a pair and they were advertised on Ebay as being already "balanced".....the shipping was fast, and to my surprise they actually were fairly well balanced right out of the package.

With that being said.......they immediately felt actually heavier to me than the stock 9450s that my Vision 2 V3.0 came with.

In addition to Photography, I'm also into archery and fletch my own arrows....so I have an extremely accurate scale....and started weighing them.

Not only were they on average 46.05 grains (about 3.02 grams) heavier than the stock DJI 9450 props.....but there was a huge variance from one prop to the next.

Here's what they weighed in grains from heaviest to lightest:
249.2 ---- 16.4 (grams)
248 ---- 16.32 (grams)
246.6 ----- 16.23 (grams)
242.2 ---- 15.94 (grams)

That's a difference of 7 grains (nearly a half a gram) from the heaviest to the lightest.......and not a single one of them was within a half a grain of any of the others.

Compare that to my stock props: (DJI 9450s for Vision 2 plus v3.0)

201.2 ------ (13.24 grams)
201.2 ------ (13.24 grams)
200.2 ------ (13.17 grams)
199.6 ------ (13.13 grams)

Since they were at least balanced......I was curious how much difference it would make to the flight characteristics that the individual props were not well matched to each other.....and I threw them on the quadcopter and gave it a short test flight (just went up to 30 feet and attempted to hover in GPS mode with 12 satellites)

It was extremely unstable......wobbling badly and bouncing all over the place...someone with less experience likely would have crashed it......I had to coax it in very carefully and hand-catch it...because there's no way it could have made a gentle landing.

I have to say it DID make it more "responsive".....vertical takeoff was much snappier...and corrections I made when it wanted to fly off in one direction or the other, were indeed more immediate.....but it wasn't suitable for video or for letting a beginner fly your craft.

There's a part of me that still wonders, if I were to sand down the heavy ones to make them all match....and give the balancing an even finer tune than what they currently have...and make a few adjustments to the gains....if I might get something that flies as well as my stock DJI props......but then there's the smarter side of me that asks...what's the point?

I'm returning my CF props and will stick with authentic DJI props going forward......Part of me is glad I at least tried them for myself so I can say for sure that I know why I prefer the stock ones...instead of just because that's what everyone else said.
However, another part of me is very grateful that I didn't crash it.
If my wife, or another inexperienced pilot had been at the controls, I doubt it would have come down safely...that's how unstable it was.

 

[Pacmanfever]

I think it's a guy thing, put carbon fiber on something and it has to be better right? Actually cast resin carbon fiber is a bad idea in this case, there is no way to get linear uniform flex resistance so the tracking goes bad resulting in more drag and then everything gets unstable.

This YouTube video did a nice comparison with a really good presentation:

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

+1 to the suggestions against use of xoxo props without balancing. Ran my own rest to find they cased oscillations on phantom. Spun them off and put on my spare set of dji props to find oscillation was gone. Same craft, same field, back to back. Figured it was a good time to test them as my returned phantom was propless...

 

[djipilot]

Just dyed my props in rit dye, I think they look great!

 

[RoyVa]

Cool, bright Blue would be cool too.

 

[PaganLinuxGeek]

Dying the front a different colour would aid in orientation. Darker colours might help reduce the light bars when camera is forward facing.

 

[George Lisi]

bought carbon fiber props. thrust definitely greater. this caused a landing crash. as my phantom descended - it started into a "toilet bowl" rotation and crashed 100' damaging the camera and gimbal. I use only dji props now.