RS2205 2300KV, or Why You Don't Cheap Out on FPV Drone Motors

 

What are they?

The EMAX RS2205

They are 2205 sized motors (22mm stator width and 5mm height), used primarily in FPV drones. I believe that they are a copy of EMAX RS2205 "Red Bottom" motors, which were popular in 2017-2018, but it's 2024 at the moment, so why would you ever buy these Chinese copies of an old motors? It's only one thing - their price. At 15$ per set (4 motors) they're the cheapest motors for a 5" FPV drone, but are they worth it or will you have to throw them out in the trash and buy a new set of motors?

They're normally priced at 17$, but you can get them at 15$ on sales easily

What's included?

Packaging is really simple and won't protect them from postal services

The packaging is really simple - there are four motors with nylock nuts, red are clockwise and black are counter-clockwise, so don't mix them up! There are 4 sets of cuphead M3 screws, for which you need 2.5mm HEX screwdriver. I found them to be too short for arms which are thicker than 5mm, so you might need to buy them separately. 

Tests

There won't be any science-grade lab tests, but only my personal experience and thoughts!

Installation process is the same is any other motor - screw it on the arm, route the cable, cut and solder, and we're not going to stop there.

Vibrations

These motors have awful vibrations, I was surprised that Betaflight didn't freak out, but flew surprisingly OK. You can watch a video of vibration test right here.

Other issues

I had some more issues with them, one of the motors didn't start properly, others had terrible vibrations, and that motor just stopped mid-flight and didn't start, so had to walk get it. What if this happened near people?

Performance

They are lacking absolutely ALL top-end, so the best I was able to push them was to slowly "cruise", but no acro or freestyle, because they're just not providing the power you need. Test flights were made on my pretty lightweight build, coming at around 600g with battery, and it still was underpowered, so if you want to fly with GoPro, it's not gonna be any good. 

Summary

They are ultra-budget motors, which have awful quality, terrible performance and so on, I would even say that they are dangerous to use. Should you buy them? Definitely not. Cheaping out on motors so much may cause serious problems to your drone, such as crashes or flyway's, or even harm people around, so fly safe and use quality gear! They're so bad, I won't even place a link for them! Cheaping out so much is not worth it! Here are great budget motors you should buy instead:

click.aliexpress.com/e/_EJvGQ5L