Wire shortening? motor and esc

[chingie]

Not the electrical short kind but .... The tidying up of all the wires cables etc. Motor ones are long as are the esc. Whats the lay of the land here? i would love to get them all well secured and out of the way but i dont want to blow anything up of course by doing something wrong/ stupid. I assume to shorten cable just cut and re solder and heat shrink right? Thanks heli gurus

[Mercuriell]

Shortening motor wires difficult as they are enamelled and you'd have to unravel them, clean and resolder. Shortening ESC wires easier to do.

[chingie]

Thanks for that i'll leave the motor alone I think. The esc I'll see how well i can fit it in nicely one question more though if you don't mind, the esc has a flat side with sticker and the bumpier side ie back of the esc. Can I mount the esc to heli sticker side in so it mounts better to the frame without causing any dramas. Was thinking a little velco and a zip tie!
Also the really small wires on the esc (3 together), has a small nick in it on of the wires exposing metal ,whats the best way to to fix this ? Much appreciated regards Chingie NZ

[wanderer56]

Usually the flat side is a heat sink of some sort and needs to be exposed to air for cooling. Some even have exposed "finned" heatsinks.Without knowing the exact make of your esc, it's kind of hard to say.

Nicked esc rx wire is not good. If it's far enough away from the esc, I'd cut it and re-crimp new connector pins to it. If it's close to the esc, a very skilled soldering job and covered with heat shrink could save it.

[chingie]

Awesome thanks, out of interest its a KDS 40a don't know much about the quality tho but will def. mount it right side out as you suggest can have it getting too hot eh! and from what i've been reading about esc's they seem unpredictable or prone to failure. Those Kontronic ones look amazing quality i might upgrade !! p.s still fitting servos main rotor and pretty much everything. I've got some wire mesh coming to protect cables too. Chingie

[zzyzx]

If the iron is already out I'd dc, cut, then reconnect rather than splicing. Looks neater too. You can remove the enamel from magnet wire with a torch, use a heatsink. Needlenose pliers will do. The time you spend doing it right is saving you time troubleshooting. You get rewarded with clean looks and reliability. Half assing jobs is like buying on credit, you still have to pay up but you add interest to the total. It's easier to pay for stuff before you get it anyway, less stressful.

There's never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over. I tell myself that everyday and I still forget sometimes

[EEngineer]

Originally Posted by chingie

Not the electrical short kind but .... The tidying up of all the wires cables etc. Motor ones are long as are the esc. Whats the lay of the land here? i would love to get them all well secured and out of the way but i dont want to blow anything up of course by doing something wrong/ stupid. I assume to shorten cable just cut and re solder and heat shrink right? Thanks heli gurus

Shorten the battery to ESC wires, if needed.....don't shorten the motor to ESC wires(the wire inductance is engineeredso as not to fry the ESC MOSFETs)...

According to Bob Boucher at astroflight.com

FWIW

[chingie]

Excellent advice guys and thanks eh.

[chingie]

Thanks you mentioned "dc" in your response and i assume that means disconnect? Sorry not quite down with all the abbreviations yet!! Also the ceramic coating I dont know anything about that one? If you don't mind please define splicing and reconnecting ,is that just soldering and heat shrinking each wire as opposed to only one.Thanks Chingie. I'd post a photo of it but having trouble loading it

[chingie]

[desertstalker]

Originally Posted by EEngineer

Shorten the battery to ESC wires, if needed.....don't shorten the motor to ESC wires(the wire inductance is engineeredso as not to fry the ESC MOSFETs)...

According to Bob Boucher at astroflight.com

FWIW

That would be wrong, since various motors have different length wires sticking out of them. Besides wire inductance has nothing on the motor inductance (a motor is an inductor, actually several of them hooked up in interesting ways ).

You can shorten any wires you like (motor ones are harder as the wire is enamelled) just dont make the ESC->BATT ones longer if you can avoid it.

[zzyzx]

when you splice, you connect 2 wires together. Every connection you make is another potential bad connection, less is more as far as that's concerned. I'll agree that the circuit's inductance was included in the design with purpose, a few inches won't really matter though. You probably wouldn't even see a difference with test equipment, let alone smoke the esc. Just don't make any drastic changes to the circuit's operation, use some common sense.

[Rob43]

Originally Posted by EEngineer

Shorten the battery to ESC wires, if needed.....don't shorten the motor to ESC wires(the wire inductance is engineeredso as not to fry the ESC MOSFETs)...

According to Bob Boucher at astroflight.com

FWIW

I thought this as well, and have often read it. I visited Kontronik's tent at IRCHA to get some input on a problem I thought was ESC related. Marcel from Kontronik told me to shorten my ESC wires since they were excess and simply coiled and wrapped. I asked why - and he said there was "no advantage" to the excess. He said nothing of equalizing length or inductance. I've not bothered, as I don't need any more performance or reliability from the power system. My error was simply a loose throttle cable to the receiver (Vbar) LOL.