Motor wire lengths question?

P

Pelted

Member
A little while back in the middle of some others threads I recall reading about motor wire lengths and what is ideal. Is there a length guideline and what is the reason for short vs longer motor wires?

I have some other frame parts for a quad that ends up about 550mm motor to motor. I really don't want the ESCs on the booms but rather on the body so I wanted to run the moto wires through the boom but all I've ever read was have short motor wires.
 


R

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
You can tidy things up a bit by cutting off the shrink wrap, and turning the DC power lines around so they come out the same end as the motor wires. This would make for a cleaner install. Then just reshrink the ESC's. I bought 6 feet of shrink wrap sized for 40A ESC's for like $5 at an industrial electric store.
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
where do you get the silicone wire? my local electrical supply draws the line right about there......
 


R

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
kloner said:
where do you get the silicone wire? my local electrical supply draws the line right about there......
Click to expand...

I get mine at Hobby King. Good stuff. But on my Octo, I just used industrial wire. It's stiff, but the wires are straight so who cares.
 



P

Pelted

Member
R_Lefebvre said:
You can tidy things up a bit by cutting off the shrink wrap, and turning the DC power lines around so they come out the same end as the motor wires.
Click to expand...

Now that idea I really like. That was one of the challenges I was looking at was dealing with the power lines. Any issues with the Optic ESCs and having the power running over the board?

And yea the silicone wire is dang hard to find other than HK.

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kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
i get this stuff from my LHS. they have Castle and novak brands, at like $15 for a couple feet of three colors. it's nice but dam, aint gold
 

DucktileMedia

DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
I love the idea of the wires coming out the same end. Drives me nuts having to deal with that very issue on all my heli builds. But why do you need extra silicone wire? cant you unsolder the power wires and turn the around?
 

jforkner

jforkner

Member
FWIW. The Avrotos I use on my hexa came with long leads---about 18". I've got the motor wires strung thru the 14" aluminum booms to the ESCs on the frame hub. I'd estimate they're about 17" - 18" long. They're not braided either. I've had no problems with this configuration.


Jack
 

P

Pelted

Member
IrisAerial said:
But why do you need extra silicone wire? cant you unsolder the power wires and turn the around?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, but I want the silicone for the motor wires. The current ones are two short for the longer booms I have on a 550mm frame and I need to extend them to feed them inside the boom. Silicone wires are just so soft and snugly, and all this talk about heat they seem to have a much higher heat rating than the 16 or 18 gauge stuff I have.
 

matwelli

matwelli

Member
meh - never had an issue with length, have some i have extended to 600 mm long for trying out experiments. extensions i have done with automotive wire, its better than normal wire in that the insulation is thinner (lower voltage rating/lighter/smaller) and made out of a tougher plastic - very resistant to abrasion, and much cheaper than silicone. silicone is good for the motor end and the esc end to eliminate any vibrations affecting the connections. but if you are trying to fit cables inside tubes/arms/etc the automotive stuff works better.

the part to worry about is extending the power intput end , that where you will run into trouble, you need to add extra capacitance to avoid spikes in the power which start damaging all the other components
 





P

Pelted

Member
Fascinating... That really helps illustrate some of the issues involved. I ended up braiding the lines through the aluminum arms on the quad, and getting the NAZA GPS unit up on its stand rather than just laying down on the plastic arm when I was using the the FlameWheel frame. So far my gps hold and RTH have been great with none of the toilet bowl effect when holding. I've tested the RTH feature twice just to see what it would do and both times pretty damn close to where I took off, maybe a meter both times. Great recommendation. Now to fix my yaw issue that exists in manual, and atti. Errr
 

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