Is this a problem?

[Jlov]

I put a new motor and ESC in my UL-1 and this Leopard motor is HUGE and HEAVY compared to stock motor in the UL-1. It takes up much more room then the stock motor. Batteries barely fit now and had to put new ESC towards back of boat which left wires from ESC going to batteries too short. I made 4" extensions with the same 8 gauge wire and soldered on 5.5mm bullets for both the negative and positive leads from ESC so they could reach the batteries in front. Will this cause any type of problems? Thx in advance Jeff


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[tlandauer]

It is not the ideal situation. The longer the wire the more risk you run in damaging the ESC. In some cases it is preferable to have longer wires between motor and ESC rather than lengthening the wires between the battery packs and the ESC. Most SAW set ups that I have seen had these wires trimed really short.
In any case you should add a cap bank to prevent ripple current over working the capacitors that come with the ESC.

Here is a long thread http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...emptive-answer
Is there no way that you can swap the batteries around? At least that way your extentions don't have to be that long.

[NativePaul]

Yes the extra inductance from extending the ESC-Battery wires can cause problems, using smaller wires will increase the inductance further too so not a good idea.

It looks like you may be making a rod for your own back, if you just turned the battery around so the wires exited the back instead of the front, would the wires not reach as is? If not they would, and could even be shortened if you turned the ESC around as well (although you may have to extend the motor-ESC wires there are no risks associated with this).

[Jlov]

I can not really turn batteries around because of the motor mount bracket. The wires from batteries are in the way when I try to do this. I may have to buy smaller batteries I guess. I can like suggested turn the ESC around and lenghthen the ESC wires if there is no problem with that.

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[tlandauer]

Any clearance below the mount so the battery wires can exit there?
Also the extention wire is way too thin, they should be at least as thick as the stock wire from the ESC. For that connection you need bigger plugs like 8mm bullets! As is now they will get hot, like bottle neck.
Great job with the soldering!

[Jlov]

I can try under the mount with the wires. I matched the gauge of the wire to the batteries and not the ESC I have smaller batteries coming which should alleviate this problem I think. Thx Jeff

[Jlov]

So just 8mm connectors where ESC wires go towards batteries? Thx Jeff

[tlandauer]

So just 8mm connectors where ESC wires go towards batteries? Thx Jeff

I said that because I have soldered big wires like that and the "cup" of the 5.5 mm is too small to hold the wire. I also think 8mm is better for the flow of the current. But what are you going to do for the battery end? Are you going to have all your batteries fitted with 8mm bullets?

Did you try to see if wires go underneath the motor mount bracket? I don't have the wires at the moment but I remember it was a pain to solder the thick wires on my Castle Hydra ICE 240 to the 5.5 mm bullets on the battery end. Those bullets have the so-called "cut/open" end, so I was able to solder the wires on, if it were the "cup" style, it would have been impoosible. On the motor -ESC I used 6.5mm and was better.
Don't want to confuse you and mislead you, it is just that the extension is long and IMO the gauge of the wire is too thin.

[Jlov]

I turned the ESC around and I will just extend the ESC wires now. Its just really constricted in the front part of the tub on these UL-1s so my battery choices are going to be limited. I found these through another thread on here http://www.hobbypartz.com/77p-sl5000-2s1p-40c-2222.html and they are 40C & 80C burst and 5000mah and small in size(5.2x1.7x0.9) for that discharge rate and mah size! And they are only $35. The poster of thread said he had used a few pairs for last three race seasons and they were still going strong. I also think Im going to take out the stock motor mount and put in a carbon fiber mount for this Leopard. The way the stock mount stretches to both sides of the tub in a UL-1 is what takes up a lot of room and doesn't allow me to use larger lipos. Question before I do that, I want to move the motor about a 1/2 inch towards back of boat to create a little more space in front can I shorten up the length of stuffing tube about 1/2 of an inch inside the boat without affecting anything? Will that mess with my center of gravity? This motor seems like it weighs twice as much as stock motor. Thx Jeff

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[tlandauer]

You should be fine, cog is adjustable. Cutting the stuffing tube without nicking/deforming the openning is important since you are not replacing it. Dremel with a cut-off wheel will do the job, I know you know, sorry for the long winded talk, cant help myself, lol...
There are many UL-1sold here with this modification. When you epoxy the new mount, just be sure to sand,sand and sand the tub clean. Then use acetone to wipe.
The orientation looks good, I think you will be much happier without the extension, too many times when people report ESC failure and problem, often the first question asked by some very well respected members here is "how long is your wire between the......?"
Cheers!

[NativePaul]

It looks like the ESC wires are 8g, battery wires are 10g and the extensions are 12 or 14g, but maybe they just have thinner insulation and they are the same gauge, if so that is fine, we don't need thick insulation for our low voltages, if they are 10g, where did you get the wire? I have often thought that the typically thick insulation on our wire is so much dead weight.

[tlandauer]

It looks like the ESC wires are 8g, battery wires are 10g and the extensions are 12 or 14g, but maybe they just have thinner insulation and they are the same gauge, if so that is fine, we don't need thick insulation for our low voltages, if they are 10g, where did you get the wire? I have often thought that the typically thick insulation on our wire is so much dead weight.

That is what I thought, the extension is no thicker than 12ga.

[Jlov]

The ESC wires to motor are 10g and the ESC wires to batteries is 8g. I made the extensions in 10g but its Home Depot wire so insulation is thinner. Also don't like it because its not flexible. I have some Deans 12g the wet noodle stuff that you can bend and turn easily! Im going to use that for motor to ESC extensions. And tlandauer be as long winded as you like as Im relatively new to this and appreciate any and all knowledge. I went and got some 4mm bullets for ESC extension and 8mm bullets and man these 8mm bullets are huge! With the new orientation will I still need to add these 8mm bullets to ESC wires to lipos? Did not want to have to change all my lipos over to 8mm if not necessary. Thx again all

[tlandauer]

I would prefer 10ga. wet noodles vs. 12ga.
What size is your bullets now?
10ga. will go into 5.5mm bullet, you can do away with 8mm. Where did the 4mm come into the scene? If it is 4mm banana plugs then change and get rid of them, they are the worst, especially the spring clip variety. I thing either Castle or Novak has better 4mm, but that's another story...

[Jlov]

4mm is the bullets that came on the Leopard motor. All other bullets that are in boat are 5.5mm. Here it is with the new extensions.

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Crap just checked and yes ones that came on motor were banana clip style. I made the extension out of 4mm to match but I used the bullet style ones not the banana clip. So should I just scrap all those and put 5mm on everything then?