Secret to a quiet copter?

ArduCopter Copter 4.2
1

I want to design a quiet quadcopter. I reckon most of the noise comes from the spinning props.

Would a lightweight machine with smaller, fast-spinning, low pitch props be quieter than higher pitch props?

Thanks,

Paul

2

I think it would be better to go with longer slower blades.

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3

I had 2 craft with different approaches to this. One that I don’t have any longer was a relatively light weight quad with low kV (320) motors and large props on 6S power.The other is a sub 250gr quad with high KV motors but with low pitch 5” props on a 2S li-ion. This quad is very quiet.

4

I’m by no means an expert, but I did a little reading on this a while back. It seems the general consensus is that it’s pretty tough to reduce the actual noise level, but perceived noise is reduced when the frequencies are lowered.

As such, longer blades, higher blade pitch, and/or more blades will probably improve the perceived sound from your copter.

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5

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. I have a 25" quad that uses 12x4.5 props, and a 10" quad that uses 6x3 props. The 6" quad seems quieter - but then again, it’s much lighter.