Whilst everyone was looking to what Tokyo Marui shall unveil at the 53rd Shizuoka Hobby Show, in which the company didn't disappoint us with their new Tokyo Marui M4A1 MWS (Modular Weapon System) which is their full gas blowback rifle offering; there is on display at the show, which is still ongoing, something that would change how AEGs will be designed --- the Brushless Motor.

We have a new content contributor from Japan, Saba-Navi, or also known as Survival Navigation, and they do have  a lot of content about airsoft in the Japanese language. They have agreed to allow us to use their reports for English-language readers, to which we will always be grateful for. They also assisted us with the content report on the Tokyo Marui revelations at the ongoing hobby show.

Saba-Navi, visited the display of the Taiwanese company, Novatech Taiwan. Novatech actually does design and manufacturing of products for the RC industry and thus, it includes the brushless motors which are widely used in RC toys.

Brushless motors offer distinct advantages over brushed ones, foremost is the longer wear and tear of the motor as the use of permanent magnets that eliminate the need to have a permanent current connected to the armature.  With lesser wear for the mechanisms,  it requires lesser maintenance and heat build-up is minimised. We take from what Wikipedia says about the advantages of brushless motors, as they write it better:

Brushless motors offer several advantages over brushed DC motors, including more torque per weight, more torque per watt (increased efficiency), increased reliability, reduced noise, longer lifetime (no brush and commutator erosion), elimination of ionizing sparks from the commutator, and overall reduction of electromagnetic interference (EMI). With no windings on the rotor, they are not subjected to centrifugal forces, and because the windings are supported by the housing, they can be cooled by conduction, requiring no airflow inside the motor for cooling. This in turn means that the motor's internals can be entirely enclosed and protected from dirt or other foreign matter.

With those advantages, why have airsoft manufacturers not resorted to brushless motors? I think the best answer is more of the issue of compactness. Most manufacturers base their gearbox designs on the Tokyo Marui gearbox designs which are primarily made for brushed motors which can be made compact to fit in pistol grips. Existing brushless motors, as seen in RC toys, are fat and thus cannot be factored in the design on AEG as space is always a premium and gearboxes get priority in terms of space to accommodate the gears and electronics crammed into them.

Saba-Navi writes about the Option No. 1 Brushless AEG Motor from Novatech Taiwan.  What is cool about this motor is that it has an integrated sensor chip that you may not need a separate MOSFET or ASCU to configure your AEG's settings. The Option No. 1 has the following features:

1. 6 Fire-mode setting (you can set burst setting)
2. Battery Volume Display
3. Low Voltage Warning Setting (3.2V, 3.3V, 3,4V, 3.5V, 3.6V, OFF. 6 Mode)

Since a brushless motor's internals can be fully enclosed, the motor can be waterproof (if you think that is too extreme a claim, then water resistant). Thus, with brushless motors, wet weather airsoft, here we come! Though you may have to worry about the other unprotected electricals in your AEG before you can go wet and wild.

Here’s a video about it being waterproof (read more about this here):

According to Saba-Navi, the Novatech Option No. 1 Brushless AEG Motor will be available in July at a price of JPY20,000 (around US$196.00) so this will be an expensive AEG motor. Perhaps when other RC motor makers catch up then price will come down. But for now it seems that Novatech will have the airsoft brushless motor market for itself.

Don't rush out to buy the motor yet when it gets released as we need more confirmation which type or brands of AEGs (or pistol grips) it can be fitted on. But we are sure a lot of airsoft gunsmiths are now thinking of what airsoft customisation projects they want to do with this before the mainstream airsoft manufacturers start using brushless motors on their AEG models.