No matter you are a professional experienced driver, or you are new to remote control cars as a beginner, you will eventually come across to a question about getting a Sensored Motor or a Sensorless Motor. What are the pros and cons to each of them? And what are the differences between having a Sensored motor or a Sensorless motor for your car?

Let's begin with a question for this comparison, which type of motor is better? Like other controversial topic in the RC community, ex. Plastic Versus Aluminum Upgrades or Nitro Versus Electric Cars, we do not have an answer to that. However, we do have a list of pros and cons to show you which one you should get for your car and which one do you prefer when you are getting your next motor.

Sensored Motors uses the "Hall Effect" (named after Edwin Hall, an American Physics scientist) to detect the rotor (magnetic poles with different polarity) inside the motor and transmit the data to the ESC through a sensor wire. It allows the ESC to control the rotation and the speed of the motors precisely. In general, it is smoother compared to a Sensorless motor with the wire connected, and the signals are sent and received correctly. It is noticeable that Sensored motors are smoother especially in the lower end of the motors operations.

However, there are lags between the signal arrival time and the received time, it is hardly noticeable, but one should bear that in mind. Since it has the extra wire, it is also more vulnerable to damage if abused, and it also takes up space and add weight to the motor. Sensored motors are connected with wires, it means that there's contact friction. When there's friction, there's heat produced, so it would need a better cooling system. Sensored motors usually have room or space open up for ventilation, but it would also mean that dirt or small particles can be stuck or get into the motor, therefore it would need to be cleaned after using for a while.

On the other hand, Sensorless Motors uses back/counter EMF (Electromotive Force) that detects the rotor position by receiving and interpreting feedback current that was generated by motor as the rotor spins. Basically, it is a contact-less system that is similar to Sensored motors, but uses magnetic field force. In addition, Sensorless motors are more efficient when running at a high RPM (revolution per minute) than Sensored motors. It would have no friction without the contact and have no heat produced. Unlike Sensored motors that need open space for ventilation, Sensorless motors do not need that so it is usually sealed to prevent dirt or small particles to get in.

Despite the fact that a lot of advantages of a Sensorless motor is that it has nothing connected, however, it is also a disadvantage that it is hard for the ESC to actually detect where the rotors are. It depends a lot on the quality of the firmware. Also, when the motor is running at low speed, it would occasionally causes cogging, because there isn't enough EMF (Electromotive Force) to send out for the ESC to receive.

In general, there are both advantages and disadvantages for both Sensored and Sensorless Brushless motors. When both are up and running, even experienced drivers have difficulty noticing the difference. Depending on your preference, you would have to choose the correct one for your RC cars between these two types of motors. However, it might not be ideal to have a Sensorless motor for Crawling, as it requires a lot of speed control. In terms of compatibility, it is also important to note that you can use a Sensored motor on a Sensorless ESC, but not a Sensorless motor on a Sensored ESC.