Battery Wire Length

[jkonline]

I have a Novak GTB ESC which is fitted with 10cm long battery wires designed to solder directly to the battery cells. I also have a 2 stick packs with a 12cm long wires and tamiya connectors. To get it to work I added added tamiya connector to the esc wires.

It all works however there are two concerns.

a) The combined length now is 22cm which is a lot of wire to house in the car.
b) I have seen online issues over very long battrey leads causing spikes and breaking speed controllers

Are these justified concerns and if I was to shorten the lead which should I cut and add new connectors too and how long is the mex length?

Thanks

[blue_pinky]

The GTB comes without connectors on the battery wires so that you can put the connectors of your choice on.

You should never solder the wires directly onto the cells as this means you cannot disconnect the power source in the event of problems.

Tamiya style connectors are typically not the connector of choice as the better quality combinations of batteries/esc's (such as the GTB)/motors are capable of delivering enough power to melt that connector type!

More common connector types would be Corally tubes or Deans connectors, Corally's are capable of safely carrying higher currents than deans, but both are common. Since you have tamiya connectors on your batteries, you may be better off looking at replacing them for deans connectors as they will polarise the connections for you, which corally tubes don't.

You could shorten the wires a little when you do it. This does mean needing access to some soldering kit and someone who can solder if you don't have these yourself. The wires on the GTB can be easily replaced if your a bit more practiced and confident with your soldering.

Most people cut the wire lengths down to suit your installation, shorter cable runs are better! There isn't a maximum length as such, but in simple terms shorter wires means shorter signal path, lower resistance, and less wire to have to arrange in your car.

[jkonline]

I only assumed they were designed to solder direct to the cells as this is show in the official example provided by novak.

http://www.teamnovak.com/products/esc/gtb/index.html

http://www.teamnovak.com/password/nov_pic/sec_page/photos/GTB_Brushless_SetUp.jpg

The battery came with Tamiya style connectors so I do not image that they would provide too much power to melt the connectors in this case however it is only a basic 3300 mAh Ni-HM battery (http://www.vapextech.co.uk/acatalog/High_Power_Model_Control_Batteries.html).

Most of the batteries on vapextech come with Tamiya 2-pin & Futaba connectors. How high do you mean when you say higher currents and do you suggest replacing all the connectors then?

Thanks

[Southwell]

Replace the Tamiya connectors with Deans ones. I have heard of Tamiya connectors melting when they were too high a current from the speedo. Corallys are my personal favourite, as are most but it would be easier for you to just change to Deans. I use them with my Lipos and they are fine.

[Bungleaio]

Tamiya connectors are terrible. They are just used for the RTR market for getting people going, if you are racing or running high power (as you will with a GTB) the tamiya connectors will cause a lot of resistance and heat.

I melted one years ago on a 1400 pack of SCR's (they might have even been SCE's) an a Mtronics low end speedo, and a 14 quad brushed motor in my mardave cobra. Todays cells, speedo's and motors have a lot more power in them.

I'd highly recomend that you switch to either:

Deans Connector http://indianhobbies.com/shop/images/deans_connector.jpg

Or the corrally 4mm plugs http://www.feralbatteries.com.au/images/products/JE34.jpg

As for the wire length they only need to be as long as they can reach.

Some racers used to solder the wires directly to the cells to ensure no loss through connectors however this practice has been banned by the BRCA now.

[blue_pinky]

Just looked at the battery and connectors, the battery is rated at 30A max, the tamiya connectors are only 15A max, so if the GTB does it's job, and depending on the motor, it could be pulling more than the 15A max a lot of the time and could quickly overheat the connector!!!

I'd suggest you going deans :thumbsup:

I have GTB and brushless motor and use corally's now, but have used both corally and deans in the past on nimh's.

Hope it helps :D

[jkonline]

Thanks this has all been really helpful as I am new to all this.