Capacitor banks, use? Or not worth it?

[OshkoshMono]

Your install looks fine OshkoshMono. Wires between the motor and ESC doesn't matter. If the motor runs in the opposite direction you want, then simply switch any 2 wires out of the 3.
Bill, the Novak capacitors are huge because they're 5000uF each, BUT they're only good up to 10 Volts. So be careful not to over volt them. They usually tolerate some over-voltage but it's not wise to play with them. They may swell or vent releasing the electrolyte, which is stinky acidic stuff.

Great, thanks! I was nervous since I rarely solder.

[Gerwin Brommer]

btw : make sure you insulate the capbank/esc from the carbon inlay in your hull.
Carbon is an conductor !

[OshkoshMono]

btw : make sure you insulate the capbank/esc from the carbon inlay in your hull.
Carbon is an conductor !

Good to know! Will do. I am planning on having the ESC mounted about an inch off the bottom, plus coating over the connections with epoxy of some kind.

[Eric Bourlet]

Sure I can, they're prototypes so to say, no nice green PCB or silkscreen or whatever, but they do their job. Let me find a photo.

Here's the board without the big electrolytic capacitors installed. The solder blobs are vias. I have the Low ESR caps ordered, but haven't received them yet.
A set of schottky diodes and ceramic capacitors go on the other side of the PCB for the transients and for high frequency filtering.

How about a schematic of the circuit including the shottkys and ceramics?

[Ctonez]

How about a schematic of the circuit including the shottkys and ceramics?

[norbique]

Here are two pics of one of the ESCs with the cap bank installed.
I don't have a schematic, it's in my head since it's very simple.

[Eric Bourlet]

Here are two pics of one of the ESCs with the cap bank installed.
I don't have a schematic, it's in my head since it's very simple.

So where in the circuit do you mount the diodes and the ceramics?

[norbique]

They go between the two poles on the other side of the PCB. You can see them on the second photo.

[Brushless55]

Here are two pics of one of the ESCs with the cap bank installed.
I don't have a schematic, it's in my head since it's very simple.

that looks nice a clean

[Eric Bourlet]

They go between the two poles on the other side of the PCB. You can see them on the second photo.

Like this?

[norbique]

Like this?

Yes.

[bwells]

When using two capacitors, are they both wired in parallel to the bat leads or do you series them and then parallel them to the bat leads? Also, are they needed on small 4s setups or are the extra caps mainly for larger cell count? If I remember correctly, caps store and release real quick but can't understand why this is needed. Thanks
l

[CornelP]

Capacitors are wired in parallel to the bat leads.
All sizes of ESC can benefit from this. The main idea is that a capacitor can deliver the juice much faster than a battery, creating sort of a buffer to take all short bursts. This way you will go easier on the battery and the FETs will stay cooler.
For small voltage and current ESC, even replacing the existing caps with a size bigger will be ok. I change all caps from the cheap ESCs, as they are way too small.

[m4a1usr]

When capacitors are wired in parallel, the circuit farad rating is the sum of all of them. Just the opposite of resistors. They are summed in series.


John

[Jeff Wohlt]

So if I want to add a couple inline can I get them at radioshack? If adding just 1 or two do you use the same ratings?