Basics of Electrics (without Math)

Revised January 29, 2010

By Albert Tejera Tejera Microsystems Engineering, Inc. (TME) Makers of the re olutionary !trema "ithium #harger an$ %attmeter www.the!trema.com
(This document may be copied and distributed as long as the entire document is left intact under the creative commons license. redit must be given to the author and all lin!s must remain intact. opyright " 200#, T$%. &ll rights reserved. The most recent version and updated copy of this document may be do'nloaded from '''.the(trema.com)

*nderstanding the basics of electronics is essential to electric po'ered aircraft, cars and robots. +aving this understanding 'ill allo' you to e,periment 'ith your motor, gears, prop, 'heels and battery to ma,imi-e the performance. This discussion on the fundamentals of volts, amps, ohms and 'atts 'ill hopefully be presented in a fun and intuitive 'ay. .ften the math used to teach the fundamentals of electricity, tends to turn off most people to the point 'here they s!ip over the material. That is a shame because the concepts of electricity are really not that hard to understand. /n the real 'orld electricity beha es ery much like water flowing $own a gar$en hose. 0es it1s that simple2 3e have all had e,perience 'ith ho' 'ater flo's do'n a hose 'hich ma!es relating to electricity much more intuitive. &o then, what is a 'olt( 4et5s start 'ith this magical 'ord 67.4T8. 3hat the hec! is it9 3ell, at the core of electricity is this tiny little thing called an electron. They can move around freely in metal ob:ects called conductors. 3hen you manage to move lots of e,tra electrons into a piece of metal, the electrons get a little cramped. ;or no', forget ho' they get cramped in the first place. (+int< it is usually due to a chemical reaction or moving magnets and coils of 'ire.) =ince electrons all have the same negative charge, they tend to repel each other. This is very similar to a bunch of tiny magnets 'ith all the =outh polls facing each other. The more electrons you cram together the more they 'ant to repel each other and the greater the pressure they force upon each other. This pressure is measured in units called volts.
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>ut 'ait, you may as!, ho' can 'ater help us understand volts9 3ell that is simple, volts is li!e 'ater under pressure. $ore volts, more pressure2 =ay you have this big tall 10,000 gallon tan! of 'ater on top of a house, the higher you fill it, the more the tan! 'eighs, and the more pressure is available at the bottom of the tan!. The 'eight of the 'ater ma!es the 'ater 'ant to get out of the tan!. $ore 'ater and 'eight gives the 'ater more pressure. 3ith 'ater, 'e measure pressure in terms of its 'eight in pounds per s?uare inch or @=/. 3ith electricity 'e measure the pressure in terms of 7olts. =o the terms @=/ and 7olts are units of measurement for 'ater and electricity respectively. =o the ans'er to the ?uestion 6'hat is a volt98 can simply be ans'ered li!e thisA 7olts in a battery is li!e 'ater pressure in a tan!. The more pressure (volts) you have, the easier you 'ill be able to get it to move through even the smallest hose ('ire). >ut let1s not get too far ahead yet. =o far, in understanding volts, nothing is moving yet. 3e haven1t turned on the faucet. That comes ne,t 'hen 'e loo! atB.. &mps2 )* 'olts are easy to un$erstan$, so then, what is an Am+( /f a volt is the pressure of electricity, then the ampere (amp for short) is the flow of electricity. /t is no 'onder they also call it current2 %lectricity flo's through a 'ire in much the same 'ay that current flo' do'n a river. >ut for the sa!e of our discussion 'e are going to tal! about ho' 'ater flo's do'n a hose. /t is easier and more meaningful to e?uate a garden hose to a piece of 'ire. 4et1s get bac! to our tan! and let1s place a shut off valve at the bottom of the tan! so that 'e can let 'ater out and empty it all the 'ay if 'e 'ant to. onnected to the shut of valve 'ill be a hose. (/ promised you it 'as coming didn1t /9) The hose 'ill simply dump the 'ater into the ground. 4ater 'e 'ill need to pump the 'ater bac! up into the tan!, but more about that later. The shut off valve on the tan! acts li!e a s'itch. /t either stops the 'ater current from flo'ing or it allo's it to pass. &n electrical s'itch does the same thing to the flo' of electrons. 3hen the s'itch is on, 'e have current flo'ing 'hen 'e shut it off, 'e have no current. That 'as too simple, 'asnCt it9

.!, so 'hen are you going to get to 'hat an amp is9 3ell, here it is. The rate of 'ater that flo's do'n a hose is similar to the rate of electrons that flo's do'n a 'ire. 3e might measure the flo' in a garden hose in terms of gallons per hour or ounces per minute. +o'ever 'e measure current in terms of electrons per second. &ctually one amp is technically defined as #,2D2,000,000,000,000,000 electrons going past a point of 'ire per second. That is #.2D >illion ( (times) 1 >illion2 (Eive or ta!e a fe'2) / told you they 'ere tiny didn1t /9 $ore amps mean more electrons per second. ;e'er amps mean less flo'. =o ho' do you get more amps you might as!9 3ell, there are t'o 'ays. ;irst, if you have more volts (remember pressure) you 'ill provide more motivation for the little electrons to scoot do'n the 'ire in a hurry. This is :ust li!e putting more 'ater into our holding tan!, giving us more 'eigh, and therefore giving us more pressure. The flo' of 'ater or the amps of current 'ill be greater 'ith more 'ater pressure or voltage. The second 'ay to get more current 'ith 'ater, 'ithout increasing the pressure, is simply to get a bigger hose. This is one reason 'hy bigger 'ires can carry more current. @ut a fire hose and a bigger valve on the 'ater tan! and more gallons per minute 'ill flo'. Fo' here is an interesting concept. @ut a faucet on that 'ater tan! and no' you can reduce ho' many gallons per hour 'ill flo' even though you may still have a big fire hose. This is 'hy the si-e of 'ire you have can limit the ma,imum current you can deliver. 0es, you can use a pair of automotive :umper cables to po'er a cell phone but people may thin! that is ?uite a 'aste of 'ire. Jump starting a car re?uires many G many amps of current so that is 'hy the 'ires are big for that application. The bigger the 'ires are, the greater the ability they 'ill have to a high flo' of current. &nd :ust li!e forcing 'ater do'n a long s!inny hose, lots of @=/ (pressure) at the tan! side can turn into very little @=/ dribbling out the end. & s!inny 'ire can restrict flo' and reduce the apparent pressure. That is 'hy in high current applications 'e 'ant as big a 'ire as practical. =o getting bac! to the faucet, 'e no' have this 'ay of reducing the flo' of current by simply turning do'n a !nob. &s 'e all !no', a faucet merely ma!es the opening for the 'ater current smaller and smaller offering more resistance until it is fully shut off. Turning a faucet completely off is the
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ultimate infinite resistance. =o 'hat is the analogy to this faucet resistance in terms of electricity9 3ell, this one is easy, the scientific electronics term is called (drum roll please) BBBB. resistance, yes resistance2 Resistance to electricity flo'ing is measured in a unit called .hm. (Fo, not the chant that you do in your yoga class.) &n ohm is a term that you have to understand 'hen you start tal!ing about amps. 3hy9 >ecause .hms and amps are inversely related2 =o 'hat the hec! does that mean9 =imply that 'hen you have more .hms (resistance) you have less &mps (current flo') This is li!e 'hen you turn do'n a faucet2 &lso, 'hen you have less .hms (resistance) you get more amps. This is li!e opening up the faucet andIor using a big fire hose2 This 'hole discussion, of course, assumes that the volts (pressure) remain constant. .J so 'e no' !no' that .hms and &mps affect each other in opposite directions. .n the other hand if you leave .hms the same and you change the volts (pressure) up and do'n, you 'ill find that more volts (pressure) means more amps (current flo') and less volts (pressure) means less amps (current flo'). Fo' if for some reason the discussion above 'as confusing to you in any 'ay, it is simply because 'e are using ne' 'ords to describe principles that you no doubt already understand. Ta!e the time to reGread the paragraph above until you get it. /t1s not really hard to understand, plus you 'ill have mastered the fundamentals of electricity 'hen it becomes clear to you. ,uick -e iew. 7olt K unit of measurement of electrical pressure. &mp K unit of measurement of the rate of electrical current flo' in a conductor. .hm K unit of measurement of a conductors ability to resist current flo'. Want a little tiny bit of math? (Its just easy multiplication and division but you can skip over this if you want) Volts are equal to # of mps multiplied by the # of !hms mps are equal to # of Volts divided by # of !hms !hms are equal to # of Volts divided by # of mps
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"he above formulas collectively are called #!hms $aw% and they describe the basics of all electricity and electronics& )*, I un$erstan$ 'olts, )hms an$ Am+s, so what/s a %att( The short ans'er is that the 3att is a unit of 'or! done over time. $ore 'atts, then more 'or! is getting done ?uic!ly, less 'atts means less 'or!. .J so ho' does this relate to 'ater9 Thin! of it this 'ay, =ay you had that 10,000 gallon container filled 'ith 'ater and you had a 'ide open valve going to a fire hose and you decided to have some fun and point the hose at all your buddies standing L ft in front of you. / bet that you could !noc! them all over in no time and ma!e a big mess at the same time. Fo' suppose you only had 100 gallons of 'ater and a small garden hose. 3ell the results 'ould not be as spectacular. / surely doubt you could !noc! them over 'ith the stream of 'ater from a garden hose and after a fe' minutes of aggravating them, you 'ould be dropping that hose and running a'ay from some 'et and angry friends. The same is true 'ith electricity. 4ots of volts and amps 'ith little ohms mean a lot of 'atts 'orth of po'er. 4o' volts and lo' amps 'ith high ohms mean much less po'er. /ncreasing either volts or amps 'hile leaving the ohms the same 'ill increase 'atts. +ere is a point of reference to help you gauge ho' much 'or! a 'att of electrical po'er is 'orth. /t ta!es MDL.#99 'atts to e?ual one horsepo'er. =ay 3&TT9 That means that a 100 'att bulb is actually a little over 1IN horsepo'er. .J, so 'atts represents po'er ('or! over time) and to get lots of 'atts you need lots of volts &FO lots of amps. This is an important concept to understand 'hen it pertains to the performance of your electric airplane, car, robot or even your po'er tools. arefully :uggling the right voltage and current for a given motor and its load, 'ithout burning your motor controller, 'ires or batteries is the goal. /t1s a balancing act. /f your !it has preGselected all the parts for you, then someone else has done all the engineering for you. The bad part is that you are no' stuc! 'ith the performance that 6they 6 'ant you to have. 3hat fun is that9 /n the immortal 'ords of comedian Tim &llen, all 'e really 'ant to do is to have 6more po'er28 (Erunt grunt) don1t 'e9 =o you can begin to see that these concepts are important to understand 'hen 'e 'ant to tailor the performance of our
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models or, :ust li!e Tim, not having a good understanding may have you end up 'ith smo!e or e,plosions. $ore on tailoring po'er after 'e learn about ho' they secretly rate the po'er of batteries. Want a little tiny bit more math? Watts are equal to # of Volts times the # of mps or' # # # # # of mps times # of mps times # of !hms' or # # # # # of Volts times # of Volts divided by # of !hms In a commercial wattmeter' volts and amps are measured and simply multiplied automatically for you& Batteries000 They aren/t rate$ in AM1& or %atts2 they are rate$ in mAh, what is that( 3ell they are actually rated in amps (sort of) that1s 'hat the 6&8 in m&h is for. 3ell, m&h stands for milliamp hours. & milliamp is simply one thousandth of an &mp. /t seems silly to say 1000 milliamps 'hen you really mean 1 amp but this is e,actly ho' most batteries are usually numbered. (/ don1t !no' 'hy so please don1t as!2) The hour part of the milliamp hour rating is simply that, its ho' many milliamps a fully charged battery can provide for a solid one hour. t least that is the theoretical meanin() =o a 1000 m&h battery should provide (in theory) 1000 milliamps steadily for e,actly one hour. =o 'hat if you change the load resistance (electric faucet) so that it only dra's L00 milliamps9 3ell, that battery 'ould supply L00 milliamps no' for 2 hours since it is flo'ing out only half as much as before. Thin! of those trillion trillions of electrons coming out half as fast. /t 'ill ta!e t'ice as long to get them all out. /t 'or!s the other 'ay too. /f you dra' 2000 milliamp rate out of the 1000 m&h battery then you 'ould e,haust the battery at t'ice its rated capacity2 (=ometimes called 2 ...more on that later...) That1s t'ice as fast2 That means that you 'ould have a dead battery in only half an hour2 =o the milliamp hour number is simply a measure of capacity or si-e. /t1s :ust li!e comparing a 10,000 gallon 'ater tan! to a L00 gallon tan!2 0ou !no' that the 10,000 gallon tan! 'ill last longer dumping out at the same
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rate. =o you no' have some practical information here. 0ou can see 'hy a 2000 m&h pac! 'ill fly your plane or po'er your robot t'ice as long as a 1000 mah battery. +ere is another interesting bit of information. 3hen you parallel t'o similar batteries (typically done 'ith 4ithium batteries by connecting plus to plus and minus to minus) they each help each other handle the load so that you no' have double the capacity. =o t'o 1000 mah batteries in parallel act li!e one big 2000 mah battery. Three similar batteries in parallel are triple and so onB *sually this is done for cost, availability, redundancy or space reasons. Fote that paralleling a battery doesn1t increase the voltage. The voltage remains the same. /t is :ust li!e having t'o 'ater storage tan!s side by side and combining them to flo' from a single faucet. The faucet 'ill run t'ice as long but the pressure 'ill be the same as 'ith one tan!. Fo' suppose you stac!ed one big 'ater tan! on top of the other and connected them together. The 'eight of the 'ater 'ould be double so the pressure 'ould double. This is the same 'ith batteries. /f you hoo! t'o batteries up in series, (plus to minus) the voltage 'ill double. Three 'ill triple and so on. This is 'hy many times you 'ill see people add another cell in series to get more po'er out of a motor, instead of changing the load on the motor to increase the current. (Remember 'atts9) /n general it is easier to generate more po'er by increasing voltage because you 'ill not need to increase the 'ire si-e to carry more current. &lso don1t forget that motors have 'ires inside them too. 3hen the current goes up, the 'ires in the motors can get too hot and melt2 $ore on this later, / promise2 %hat $oes a ma3 DISCHARGE rate of 45# mean( 3ell, 'hen 'e learned 'hat it means to have a battery rated at 1000 mah, 'e 'ere simply tal!ing about its capacity. The letter is simply used as a shorthand notation of the batteries capacity. The number 12 in front of it means that 'e multiply the capacity by 12 and that is the most current 'e should ever demand from this battery. =o a 1000 mah battery rated at 12 can safely produce 12,000 ma or 12 &mps 'ithout burning up the battery. 3hat most people don5t reali-e is that it also means that running at 12 you
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'ill e,haust the battery in L minutes or less2 The reason it may be less is because total capacity is usually better at lo'er discharge rates and that is 'here battery manufacturers rate their cells. &t these higher rates heat and other losses reduce the available capacity. =taying under the rated capacity is important. Just li!e motors and 'ires burn up 'hen 'e run too much current through them, batteries are the same 'ay. The discharge rate should not be e,ceeded or 'e can end up ruining the battery. =ometimes the battery manufacturer may cut you a little slac! and tell you that you can pull more current (say 20 ) for 1L seconds at a time. This is because the real !iller is the heat generated by the current and the internal resistance (more on internal resistance later). /f you e,ceed the current for :ust a little 'hile, and you give the battery a chance to cool do'n then no permanent damage results. 3hen it comes to rechargeable batteries, the reality is that the harder you are on a battery, the ?uic!er it 'ill deteriorate. %,perience has sho'n that the more you push the batteries, in terms of ma, po'er, the less charge and discharge cycles you 'ill get. %hat $oes a ma3 CHARGING rate of 4# mean( 3ell :ust as in the discharge rate, charging is described in terms of the batteries capacity or rating. 3hy9 3ell because batteries are manufactured and divided into classified families. These classifications may have different mah ratings or cell counts but they all behave the same 'ay 'hen it comes to charging and discharging in terms of its capacity. =o battery manufacturers tend to rate the performance of their products in generic terms 'ithout implying a specific capacity. =o 'hat does a recommended ma, charge rate of 1 mean9 >asically it is the ma,imum current that can used to safely charge a battery. /f you have a 1000 mah battery 'ith a 1 charge rating then you must charge it at 1000 mah. /f the charge rate 'as specified as L , then you could charge it at a ma,imum of L,000 m& and so on. This is :ust li!e the discharge rate but here 'e are ta!ing about the ma,imum rate that 'e are putting the electrons bac! into the battery. .!, actually the electrons never really left the battery< they simply 'ent to the 6dar! side8. .! this is 'here our 'ater tan! analogy has to stretch. Remember 'hen 'e said the 'ater comes out of our tan! and spills on to the
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ground9 3ell in reality it made a big puddle and eventually it formed a la!e. /n electricity, electrons have to go some'here too but they are a little bit tidier than the 'ater in that they al'ays return bac! to the battery. =o the 'ater tan! and the la!e need to be thought of as the 'hole battery. 3hen 'e recharge a battery 'e are simply pumping the 'ater from the la!e bac! up to the 'ater tan!. (This lets us spin little 'heels again as the 'ater comes do'n2) To charge a battery 'e have to move the electrons out of the positive lead and bac! into the negative lead 'here they belong. Remember electrons are charged negatively2 .!, at this point you may be a little confused. /f you loo! at te,t boo!s describing 6current theory8, they al'ays tal!s about current coming out of the plus and going into the minus. That is the definition of 6current flo'8. This called 6conventional current8 or sometimes 6;ran!lin current8. >ut in this discussion 'e are tal!ing about electrons that leave the minus and go into the positive terminal 'hen they are done999 3hy does current go one 'ay 'hen electrons go the other 'ay9 &F=3%RA 3ell, it 'as simply a big mista!e that happened a long time ago 'hen scientist 'ere defining 6current8 for the first time. They thought stuff actually left the positive terminal and 'ent to the minus terminal. 4ater they discovered that electrons 'ere the ones that 'ere actually mobile and they lived in the negative end of the battery. *nfortunately it 'as too late to correct the mista!e, so accept that 6conventional current8 flo's plus to minus, but electrons go from minus to plus, end of discussion2 =ome trivia

/n general, a charge rate of 1 or greater is considered a fast charge. 0.1 or 10P of is considered an overnight charge for Fi ad and Fi$h batteries. >atteries suffer from an imperfection called 6series resistance8 This sho's up the most 'hen you are near the current limits of your batteries. The effect is that the voltage on the battery terminals drops slightly as if there 'as a little resistor inside the battery. This lo' voltage can trip off a lo' voltage cutoff circuit only to have the voltage pop bac! up after the load is removed. There is not much you can do about this imperfection but it is good to !no' that it e,ists and it is also good to !no' that it gets 'orse as a battery deteriorates.
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=ometimes the only thing you can do is discard the battery. The best batteries have around L milliohms of series resistance. That represents 0.00L .hms per cell. Just li!e volts add 'hen you put batteries in series so does this resistance. /f that 'as a 10 cell series pac! and you 'ere pulling 10 amps your internal resistance 'ould be .0L ohms causing a voltage drop of 0.L 7olts. &o how can we use all this new knowle$ge to ma3imi6e 1ower( 3ell you have learned that to get more po'er out of a given load (li!e a motor)< you can either increase the voltage or current or both2 4et1s first consider ho' 'e 'ould increase the current going to a motor. 3hen 'e are dealing 'ith motors, a motor 'ants to turn a certain R@$ (revolutions per minute) based on the voltage it sees. (This spec is usually called the Jv of a motor) /f the spec of a motor rates it at 1000 R@$ per volt and you have 10 volts, it 'ill 'ant to turn at about 10,000 R@$ ('ithin limits of course) To increase the current 'e can simply increase the load to the motor. This load increase ma!es the motor5s resistance appear to decrease. These means changing to a bigger diameter prop, or maybe more pitch in the same diameter prop or bigger 'heels in your robot. &ll these things ma!e the motor pull more current in order to !eep the pace that it 'ants to turn at, dictated by the voltage it sees. Therefore 'ithin limits (described later) leaving the voltage the same and increasing the load to a motor, increases the current and ultimately increases the po'er created by the motor. &ha2 $.R% @.3%R at last2 (Erunt grunt) 3e also learned that batteries are unfortunately limited in the amount of current they can produce 'ithout damage. This dilemma forces us to consider that it may be necessary to ma,imi-e po'er instead, by simply increasing the voltage. This is usually considered 'hen you are close to the ma,imum current that your batteries can safely handle. >ut 'ait, there1s more2 /t is not :ust batteries that brea! do'n under too much current. /n general, more current re?uires bigger battery 'ires, bigger control circuits, bigger 'ires inside your motor, bigger connectors etc. /f not, more current 'ill mean more smo!e2 .!, this loo!s good, 'e increase the voltage and 'e get $.R% @.3%R2 =o does that mean you can :ust !eep increasing voltage until you get 2,000
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3atts of po'er out of a tiny little OR.$ brushless motor9 3ell unfortunately no. AG( /n the case of a motor, increasing the po'er beyond its limits increases the magnetic fields inside the motor, 'hich ultimately saturates the iron core inside. 3hen this happens all the e,cess energy turns into heat and 6pop goes the motor8 .uch2 This is 'hy a 'attmeter is critical in determining 'hen too much po'er is 6'ay too much6. The limits of the battery and the si-e of the little 'ires in the motor both limit the amount of current. The mass of iron in the motor and the design of your speed controller both limit the amount of po'er and conse?uently voltage that your system can handle. =o ho' do you start 'hen you 'ant to ma,imi-e po'er9 /f your e,isting batteries are not running near their ma,imum discharge rate you may 'ant to start by increasing the current to get more po'er. ;irst you have to remember that any time you increase the current demand from the batteries you shorten the running time. This e,tra demand can sometimes be solved 'ith batteries 'ith more m&h of capacity. +o'ever don1t forget that increasing battery capacity can increase the 'eight and thus re?uire even more po'er2 =o 'ith that in the bac! of your mind, 'hen you start increasing the load to get more po'er you should do that in a 'ay to ma,imi-e your goal. ;or e,ample, if your desire for more po'er has you 'anting more acceleration or thrust, then consider increasing the prop diameter or changing your gearing for more tor?ue. /f your desire for po'er is in the form of speed then you 'ill 'ant to increase the prop pitch or change your gearing for more speed. 3hen you start to reach the current limits of your batteries or one of the other components in your system, you can then consider increasing the voltage by adding an e,tra battery cell. >ut be careful, 'ith this e,tra voltage, your motor 'ill no' spin faster and demand more current if you don1t bac! do'n on your load2 (0ou thought this 'ould be simple huh9) 3ell it1s really not that hard. The best 'ay to cut bac! on your load after increasing the voltage is by degrading the performance 'hich you don1t 'ant2 Feed lots of thrust but don1t need speed9 Then bac! off on the prop pitch or gear increase gear ratio. Feed speed but don1t need as much thrust9 Then reduce the prop diameter or decrease gear ratio. /n this 'ay the e,tra voltage applied to the motor 'ill enhance the type of performance you 'ant. &fter ta!ing measurements and e,perimenting 'ith different props andIor gear ratios, you 'ill start to become intuitive on ho' your motor reacts to the changes you ma!e.
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There are also computer programs available that let you play 6'hat if8 games 'ithout destroying motors, batteries or controllers. /t1s enough to say that there is more to understanding ho' to ma,imi-e po'er 'hen selecting propellers and 'heels and transmissions. & full discussion on this sub:ect is a bit out of the scope of this document. >ut, if you have understood this discussion on ma,imi-ing po'er, then you really understand the basic fundamentals and you are 'ell along the 'ay to understanding ho' all these things interact. %hat if I want to ma3imi6e the run time, not +erformance( .! let1s say you 'ant long flights or run times, .f course one solution is to s'ap out your battery for one 'ith higher milliamps. >ut let1s say you are 'illing to give up some performance for long run times. Then your solution may be to simply reduce the current flo' by reducing the load on the motor. Ta!e a'ay the performance parameter you don1t 'ant. /f speed is not that important then reduce the pitch. /f thrust is not that important then reduce the prop diameter. 0our run time 'ill increase as your current load decreases.

But wait, I am ha++y with the +ower I ha e2 the +lane just $oesn7t fly right( >e it plane, helicopter, car or robot. @o'er has different forms. &ccelerating slo'ly but eventually going as fast as you can, ta!es the same amount of po'er as accelerating a heavy load ?uic!ly but not topping out at a very fast speed. /f you fly a plane, you and your type of plane 'ill have a style of flying. Oo you li!e to go fast and turn left9 .r do you li!e to pull the nose up and 6hover8 your plane li!e a helicopter9 /n all these cases 'e are assuming you already have s?uea!ed as much po'er as you can out of your battery but the style of performance is not e,actly 'hat you 'ant.

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+ere are the rules of thumb for planesA /f you 'ant more speed, increase the pitch of the prop 'hile reducing the diameter :ust enough to maintain the same 'atts of po'er. /f you 'ant more thrust, then increase the diameterA ho'ever decrease the pitch :ust enough to maintain the same 'atts of po'er. +ere are the rules of thumb for ob:ects 'ith 'heels. /f you 'ant more speed then increase your gear ratio or increase tire diameter 'hile you get rid of some 'eight to !eep the po'er the same. /f you 'ant to haul more 'eight and don5t mind giving up some speed then lo'er your gear ratio or put on smaller diameter tires 'hile you increase the 'eight to !eep the po'er the same.

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#onclusion ongratulations, you have learned the basics of electricity and ho' it can 'or! for you. 0ou should no' understand the fundamentals of electricity< volts, ohms and amps. 0ou no' also understand ho' batteries are rated for charging and discharging safely. 4astly you also !no' a little bit about ho' to match motors 'or! 'ith batteries and ho' to safely ma,imi-e performance. &rmed 'ith all the information you have learned and T$%1s ne' (trema, you can no' easily charge 4ithium batteries, select motors, props, gear ratios, tire si-es, troubleshoot and solve problems you may have in your po'er system. The continuation of this lesson 'ill be available as a ;R%% troubleshooting guide that 'ill sho' you ho' to use a 'attmeter to solve common problems out at the field. The free do'nload and revisions to this document 'ill be available at '''.the(trema.com

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