Why some prefer HQ over Gemfan 

When I say that I find Gemafan props to be more efficient and more powerful, I am referencing the small subset of freestyle props in the ~5" size between the two companies that I have tested which include the P3, S3, S4, S5 against the Gemfan 51433 and F4S

I too received Gemfan prototypes for testing. Fun fact about them. They are 3D printed so they can do rapid prototyping. That is why the finish is like that.

Nice to see that you still work on FPV stuff and make videos from time to time : ) Chris Rosser is making measurments on his test bench, that also include the vibration that a prop produces. Maybe just open his google sheets document and make a 10min live reaction/first impression video, if you haven‘t seen the file yet - I would love to hear what you think about the data!

Been a while since i've seen your videos, hope you're doing well man. We haven't forgotten that you're the godfather of the toothpick movement - which is now exclusively what I fly. Very much appreciate what you've done for this hobby. Cheers.

Bob, you need to quit your day job & concentrate on developing & informing your FPV followers because we truly need you, and I do say that out of pure selfishness.

If you are a freestyle pilot, you always fly with dang up props, no matter what, but you crash at least once! And they are out of balance! If you are a cinematic pilot - then you think that the noise is a voice characteristics, this only makes sense if you are a rich freestyler who has a flight servant who goes and picks up your drone, changes your props immediately after crash, meanwhile you fly another drone with fresh props.

I still prefer the old HQ 5x4x3 but those have no durability.. Great to see you sharing content again!

0:40 why surprised? The arm design + the stack isolation layer are both ingredients for a solid frame. Prop wise... I have been testing a lot of 4.6-4.8” props the past 18ish months and some are super smooth and some have crazy interesting patterns specifically molded that make them look more matt. I am not a prop designer, but was told it was to tune for a specific purpose, noise and efficiency usually.

I'm a sbang-styler and I also have run 51433 since the beginning. I tried the F4S. I can actually hear the F4S vibrating under "vigorous" flying. No blackbox logs needed, I can just hear the noise some props induce. Perfect checkups because of flossing.

OMG BOB !! PLEASE MORE VIDEOS !! SHITS DRY OVER HERE! ALSO !! I stoped flossing and use a electric tooth brush..... how bad is it ?

I’m with you all the way on this. No amount of digital filtering is going to get rid of the analog noise screwing up the gyros before they sample the data! That’s why good balancing of all the dynamic parts is so important. Technically you need to balance the props in a vacuum for weighting and then in air for dynamic blade imbalances due to variations in lift and drag! These days I’m just happy to get a chance to go out and fly, hell one of my go to quads is still rocking a Naze32, good video.

Fascinating indeed, Bob! From what we all could see... Looks like you're correct! Anyway, it's good to see you back! Happy new year and stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

If that desk is a mess I don't even wanna know what my desk is 🤣

Awesome video Bob, finally glad to see someone diving into this! Stay healthy broski

Kabab thanks for your content, we dont judge on the quantity given you are not a full time utuber but a medical professional Most of us are in same boat with dealing with lifes increase in random bs as of late

Ive got all the Hq/Ethix props and most of the Gemfan 5" . I'd be happy to send you a few of each for more tests

Fascinating. Thanks! Have you considered measuring or reducing the variability of how the props are attached?

I can tell you my experience with HQ and gemfan, I was loving the 51466 until I tried the P4, flew them for a long time until I started noticing some weird vibrations. I was sure it was my beat up motors but nope, all the HQ P4 props I bought were noticable unbalanced.

Those peaks are cumulative over flight time. You can't directly compare logs of different flight times, you have to crop equal length sections. One flight is 1:05, another is 1:51. That's nearly double. Fly the same prop for 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, you'll get larger peaks each time.

Still doing the FPV stuff I see. Everyone I know got bored of it and flying alone is not fun at all 😅

100% HQ props are overall better balanced. I noticed this on my Chimera 7 with HQ 7040 vs GF 7040. Also, don't use toothpaste or mouthwash with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. It will destroy your gums. Use Sensodyne or similar toothpaste.

makes perfect sense to me. what I do is a controlled steady hover. although you wont get the full spectrum across all throttle points, this method is a good way to replicate tests and compare prop balance. generally speaking, usually a prop that's quieter during a hover is also quieter overall. but bench testing prop noise is great idea! But use PTB power spectral density and multi file overlay ;-) much better way to make comparisons

I don't know how much this applies to real world scenario, since almost nobody flies brand new motors. If you compare quad that survived harder crash and fresh one, is there still going to be this difference between hq and gemfan ?

I don’t make uplifting, ass-kissing comments to anyone almost ever, but I feel like innovation has slowed quite a bit since you stopped making as many videos and I can’t help but think those may have a correlation with one another

They are having a battle of the 31mm props at the moment. Whoops are the rage now, and they are putting new work into design.

I switched from HQ 4 Blade to Gemfan 4 Blade, because i also just noticed from flying that they are more efficent and more powerful, overall the just feel better dan HQ.

Also that isnt a messy desk please dont be modest

Nice info as always! I've never been a fan of either brand of prop, for no good reason really! T-Motor 5143S was my overall favorite. Although, I can't remember the name of the prop, the packaging had this bald guy all over it and the prop was kinda ridiculous in pitch and ate a lipo, but that prop had insane throttle response!

I’m still flying the quad blade gemfan on high torque motors. They murder lipos yes, but the balance and flight feel are worth the 30-45 seconds I lose in flight time. My business is still taking most of my time but I still fly regularly.

I'm still have 2205 motor and I'm running the Gemfan Hurricane 51466 V1. I wanted to ask if you recommend to upgrade to the 4S because its much lighter(4g to 3.6g) or even the 51466 V2 ? thank you!

Thank you for this great review!

i've noticed this before also, but could never put a finger on why.. thanks! always preferred the HQs

ive found HQ prop to be far more durrable with less jello compared to gemfan. Gemfan props break on crash, HQ props take dammage but are able to keep flying. This has been my experience.

When are you restocking the store? Specifically the rest of your motors?

if i may be so humble as to ask for a 1s quad suggestion? my goggles are analog and my radio is DSMX

Micros I've been using mostly gf, but 5" and up I've always ended up liking hq more, been using j40 for a year now, tried a few different props but I end up going back. The f4s is definitely a great prop, I stopped using it when I had a batch that was excessively fragile that's when I discovered j40s

Great vid... Hard to argue with black box... Wish There was more data like this available... Would love to see how the popular HQ "R" line racing props perform... R36 are my my new fav "feeling" despite the R38 having better durability...

pretty cool. i mostly took balancing for granted. i guess drone props have always been much better than the old airplane props where manual balancing is critical. the vibration performance of that frame looks awesome, too. and those graphs are unfiltered gyro, right? that's better than some others with filtering. the seperate fc mounting plate is funny. your adaptation of the x-cell idea? but it doesn't really do what the x-cell deos. i guess the vibration performance comes from very little contact area between arms and body. but in this design that also means that bending loads are only transmitted over the vertical contact length with the arm mounting screws, which leads to thick 8mm arms. i could still imagine the frame feeling softer than usual in bending.

Me, bored and drunk, trying to see how much of that might be directly related to the actual acoustic spectral content from the props just 'sounding different' as a result of differing vortex shedding behavior from wingtips, which isn't actually the most relevant thing for flight performance when we're effortlessly notch filtering this away anyhow.

Interesting! I have run the 51433 since I started using it, which was ~3mo after they started to make them. I have tried a dozen, ish other 5" tri blades now, and I agree with all the reasons you use them. Mine flatten out a little at the top end, and I still use them. The lumineer gatebreakers are the only other prop I like as much, performance wise. Unfortunately they are less durable, and they are SO thin they really eat into my parts when they bend and hit the querd. Used to brutalise my ESC's back when we ran em on the arm all the time. I would like to learn blackbox and you may have just tipped it into the net with that prop vibration analysis, that looks VERY useful. I wonder how much my antennas wobbling effects my tune, and would love a way of measuring it. Do you have any guidance on what part of the BB viewer I should turn on to get this? (Also BF, if applicable, i'm not sure what to set it to record, would it be gyro?)

❤gemfan props thanks for sharing your info

I like azure 😅 Johnny props even though scored lower in Chris’s test just has some really nice feel to them. I just love it so much

Fine balance doesn't matter to me, cause I bash my quad. All my motors are slightly bent and the props are usually dinged and missing some tips. F4 flies great regardless of slight damage. I've tried different ethix props, similar performance, but they all are too brittle.

Oh i looove these kind of videos!

I love my Gemfan props! I also love the Ethix props!

Now try hqprop J40’s on a log, it’ll blow your mind, i’m literally seeing nothing but flat lines and small spikes

All that vibration "noise" has to seep into the flight controller response dependent on FC isolation.

From my experience, it gets increasingly worse once you get to 8 inches and larger. 5 inches is a very fortunate size when it comes to prop vibrations.

Props cost peanuts. Just order a whole bunch and test what you like. For me the noise profile is very important. Thats why the Gemfan 51455 are some of my favourite 5" props. Just pair it with a bit lower kv motors. Gemfan also nailed it with their new 7050 props. So powerful and stealthy.

Appreciate you sharing this excellent data from bencmarking props. How's that low profile keyboard with the concave keys? I'm a big fan of round keys like the Logitech K780. :)

what would be more ideal for racing, the low vibration or higher power?

My reality is any prop... I never can prop my fleet so I HAVE to use what I can get. I'll adjust my tune for a prop. I don't have the luxury of being able to puck and choose and test one vs another.

can you test nazgul f5 prop, please

I used to be a gemfan hurricane guy... Till i tried the ethix mangos, then HQ rep gave me some 5.2x3.2x3 and i had a new go to prop, so buttery smooth but still has the chooch

If u can see desk it’s not a messy desk. Cmon man get some projects going

Ciottifpv is going to piss himself when he sees this video

HQ has always been my go to, only gemfans I run are because HQ doesn't make the size 😂

Does this also aplly to 3" props (gf 3016 vs HQ 3x1.8x3)?

Gemfan have really good props, impresive durability a d quality. Hq make good props not good result so Gemfan its my only option

You’ve heard of pidtoolbox guy but have you heard of proptoolbox guy?

I have been flying HQ for several years now .

Forget this FPV Cycle nonsense, Floss FPV!

I've always preferred HQ but I fly 3.5inch

This video was too short!

How would u compare the F4s vs. the SBang prop on light 5" quads?

1. No bench test rig photos? Idle rpm? dB? Hz? Without props? 2. Different pitch profile on same idle rpm = different vibe. 3. Those are gyro noises dampened on frame (either loose or clamped 🤷🏻), Ro = ? 4. Ofkos no bi-blade, quad blade, 6-blade - typical. 🤦🏽‍♂️ 5. Should props balancing the issues, each identical props got issues? HQprop & Gemfan are just brands, no sciences on their name. Bias yes. P/s: Props are either good or worse on that config only. This is the way. 🙊

I prefer HQ over GF, because my experience has been that GF are a lot louder. And more noise (to me, at least) means less efficiency.

PUES PARA MI LAS TRANSPARENTE ,hay un video de una fábrica chiná donde los sacos llenos de promesas llegan al techo ,😮❤🎉

Just ordered a bunch of gemfan props from you for one of my prototype frames. I mostly fly the f3 props but I have been trying the f4s lately. Just ordered your 22mm motors yesterday after talking with Alexandre Arvinte. He swears by your motors. I'm excited to try them on my next frame. Designing frames, but still trying to wrap my head around black box

So in short , gemfan step your balance game up.

Because they last longer!!!

I honestly don't fly brand new props for long enough to even care about this level of prop balancing precision on 5" quads, at least one blade is bent back in place after a pack or two lol

@Kabab sorry I unsubbed because you quit which ripped me but R U BACK ?? PLEASE open wide and do you stories/ trips. Serious you are the ONLY dentist I miss.

Hey doc, how you doin'? =)