Electrical connectors, layout, wiring, etc

[cobrakai]

Hi guys,
I'd like some feedback on my wiring. This is my first electric build and I'm not used to the types of connectors and insanely fat wiring. The 5000mAh batteries I got have these massive 8 gauge wires which make wiring kind of a pain.

I have a few questions basically...
-How careful do I need to be of bending the battery wires coming out of the ESC? I am very wary of fatiguing the wires near solder joints and would like to avoid breaking them off at the ESC board. Any tips or tricks here? As you can see I zip-tied them to the top of the ESC to prevent tugging on their base.
-Do you think I can get away with XT60's all around rather than XT90's? On my data log I was seeing upwards of 80A draw, but only for those full throttle moments.
-Is it safe to extend the esc battery wires to make routing to the battery easier? I read that as long as the total length is not over 12" it is okay. Right now I'm at 8" (4" battery lead, 4" ESC lead).

Ideally I would fix the battery connector to something, then make a small extension to the battery (2" long) so I can route the cables more easily without pulling anything tight.

Or, I might be overthinking all of this.

Thanks for any input!!

[jwscab]

Looks good to me.

[Devilbrad]

If you are worried about wire length just turn the ESC around. You could cut the length in half on all the wires.

[cobrakai]

I don't think the sensor wire will reach if I turn it around.

[RC10th]

Looks ok to me too.

You can get a longer sensor cable if you wish.


Here's the way I laid out my GT.

[LowClassCC]

Looks good but as was mentioned i would turn the esc around in order to shorten the wiring. If you need to get a longer sensor wire it would still be a worth while trade off imo. Beyond that the only big issue in my eyes is the battery wires zip-tied directly to the esc's fan. The fan is not very big to start with and i feel the wires may restrict too much airflow.

[Incredible_Serious]

If it was me, I would suggest the following:
1. Battery side: remove the battery leads from under the battery velcro strap.
2. ESC side: remove the battery wiring from the ESC cable ties / plastic wraps.

This will allow you to route the connected battery wiring more loosely, which should make things easier to fit. If then you're still looking to anchor it in some way, anchor the battery wire from the ESC to the motor wires - not too tight, just enough to keep it from flopping about when connected. This will also have the added benefit, as LowClassCC has mentioned, of not blocking airflow to the fan - I try to avoid tying anything to my fans, as you never know how little influence it might take to put a fan that small out of square, or to cause the fan blades to hit the fan shroud.

Of course, if it was me, I'd also be using Deans connectors for their more compact nature..... but that's a personal decision.

Alex.

[cobrakai]

Yeah, those XT90's are huge. Really clunky. I might switch over to the XT60. It's supposed to be equivalent to a Deans in terms of current carrying ability.

So are you guys suggesting to flip the ESC in order to shorten the power cables? I was kinda hoping to extend them just to give myself more room to work with the wires.

I did wonder about blocking the airflow on the esc fan, that's a good point.

RC10th your car is super clean. I had mine all spiffy and then it instantly gets messed up when it goes flying down the street on its roof lol. I also have a set of those same speed hawg tires and they just do not grip at all for me. I've found these dirt hawgs to grip insanely well on the street, though it does raise the CG a bit and make it more likely to flip rather than spin out. By the way - what are those tie rod ends you're using? I'm still using the stock ones and they're really loose.

[RC10th]

Thanks.

I'm using RPM white heavy duty rod ends, they also make them in black, blue, yellow and purple. The hub carrier rod end is just the newer style white AE shock ends.

The Speed Hawgs are my favorite road tire although agreed they don't grip the best. Road Hawgs grip the best out of the onroad tires in my opinion.


The other thing you could play with is since the receiver box is quite high, if you mounted the ESC on top of the servo and the receiver box where the ESC currently is you could route the wires down the side to give you more room.


Yours is the short flat chassis version, I re-drilled my long chassis to mount the gearbox further foward to effectively shorten mine, lol.

[cobrakai]

I put the receiver box up there because it weighs so little. The Mamba ESC is pretty heavy being made of metal and I wanted it firmly on the mounting plate. Guess I could run the sensor wire under the battery plate too!

How can you tell which chassis is which?

[Lonestar]

Looks good to me, but I would do as suggested above and flip the controller & buy a longer sensor lead.

re changing plugs: Not sure how good you are with a soldering iron. I would recommend you only change the battery/controller plugs if you have the right soldering skills, otherwise you might end up worse than you'd like.

Lastly: not sure how safe this feels to me with a softcase lipo hanging off the sides of a speed-oriented basher truck... please don't come run this too close to where I live

[Coelacanth]

Looks pretty good to me, and I agree with the other suggestions; get a longer sensor wire and turn your ESC around. Stay with the XT60's, I just used those for the first time on an RC boat project, it was recommended to use those as they're more water-resistant, apparently. What I like about them is how easy they are to solder. I can't stand soldering Deans, I think you need a special soldering jig to do a nice job of those. I've used one of those third hand things and I still hated soldering Deans. I use EC3's on all my cars but snapping the connectors into the housings can be difficult with larger-gauge wires...so stick with the XT60's.

[cobrakai]

HAHA, yeah... this is really my first time using lipos. So far so good, but if I get t-boned it's gonna be bad news. The next pack I buy will probably be a saddle pack.

I actually had Deans on there before and switched to the XT series. The XT's are way nicer in my opinion. Easier to plug/unplug, easier to solder.

[cobrakai]

So about the XT60 vs XT90 thing. Those connectors are rated for 60A and 90A continuous current. Here is a snippet of my current draw on this car. It does spike to 90A but certainly not constant. Am I fine converting to XT 60's?

[jwscab]

Yes. I doubt you will notice a difference.