B4 - Motor/ESC connection?
 

Last night I got the servo all in place, and started looking at motor/esc placement. I got both second hand and it looks like the esc wires have been cut, they are not long enough to reach the motor tabs.

Any suggestions?

I do have some 3.5 mm gold plated bullet plugs, will this do the trick? Are they large enough? If going this route, knowing that no exposed wire/connector can touch, they will need to be well protected or even staggered a little.

Thanks.

Motor wire is cheap and somthing that even Hobby Town would stock. trust me its worth the investment in some wire. Your not going to feel too good if you fry a $200 ESC and a $100 motor because you didnt buy $5 worth of motor wire. If you go shopping online you can even order one color of wire and have all the wires the same color :)

I have some deans 12 GA black/red wire on hand. I was just going to color-code the bullet connectors with the shrink wrap.

So, I guess the question is? Extend the wires via a permanent solder joint or use 3.5 mm bullet connectors. The solder joint will be less potential current loss, but more inconvenient maintenance.

Either solder it or replace the entire wire from the ESC to the motor.

you can pick up spools of the 12GA wire at radio shack really cheap. thats what I did.

Thats because its not race quality motor wire, it doesn't pull current as effectively and it doesnt flex like motor wire does which can cause handleing problems on some chassis

ah ok....we havent had any issues with it in 4 cars both for ESC and NiMH battery packs

It would be like going from a bad LiPo to a good quality LiPo, your not going to notice the difference untill you make the change. You'll notice a bit more power and throttle response if you use Motor wire over cheap radioshack wire, but unless your an upper class driver the difference may not feel that vast to you. You cant learn to be the better driver without using the better equipment though.

As far as handleing issues, thats more for 12th scale and 10th scale WGT cars where the motor sits on the rear end and is seperate from the part of the chassis that holds the ESC, if the wire doesn't flex the rear suspension doesn't work properly

Which speedo do you have? Can you remone the wires and replace them or are they made into the esc like the castle ones. If it has solder tabs I would just rewire the entire thing. You can use all the same color wire and use heatshrink to code them.

I have the Losi Xcelorin ESC.

You should be good on that. I would just unsolder the wires and replace them with the proper length ones. You can get a pack from novak that comes with 3ft of red black and blue wire. Or just buy a pack of same colored and mark them.

That sounds like a good plan. I have done some soldering with battery connectors, etc....but never on or around a circuit board. Any tricks to this?

The main trick is to have a GOOD soldering iron. A good iron makes all the difference in the world. If your are not comfortable you can hold out to you get to the track and one us there can knock it out for you.

I think I have a pretty good one, Hakko 936. Yeah, I might wait for some help at the track.

Yeah that one should do. If you don't feel comfortable doing it just get all your wires measured and cut and one of will be more than happy to do it. Main trick is to tin the wires completely that way when it melts to the solder tab you won't have to add any more solder and won't have to get it too hot.