ESC Soldering

[Bluerex]

Merry Christmas Multi-Rotorers,
A few days off work mean I can work on my new DW XM X4 in peace (after the obligatory Boxing Day Sales of course).
Today's subject (and the reason for posting here rather than in the DW forum) is a general one about soldering ESC - Motor connections. I have a bunch of Plush 40A and Axi motors to connect... So;

Bullets are bad - got that.
Solder and heat-shrink is better.
But what about snipping back the ESC's shrink, removing the red output tails and soldering the motor wires directly onto the PCB?

I suspect that the X4 config means that all the motors spin the same direction (inverting gives the effect of revering the direction I think - but don't quote me:tennis So all the colour codes should be the same onto the ESCs - some large bore clear shrink over the connections should make pre-flight inspection easier.

Is this a good ideal or more trouble than it's worth?

Charles.

 

[DucktileMedia]

No problems at all snipping and soldering direct to esc's. I was actually thinking of making a product that would be cheap and easy to "try" out a certain wire config to make the correct motor rotation. But with my contraption idea aside, I think what you say is correct in that all esc's should have the same motor wiring on a coax.

 

[flitelab]

By the X4 coaxial I assume you mean what is typically referred to as an X8 configuration, quad with motors top and bottom? The motors typically do not all spin the same direction. For example on multwii this would be the setup for X8:
View attachment 8418

You'd really need to test the direction of each motor, the color codes I find aren't always 100% the same.

Another way to handle motor direction would be if you are using the SimonK firmware and you can use the reversed version to change rotation without changing the wiring.

I typically just tack solder and check each motor/esc first to confirm direction then do the final soldering when all are correct for what I need.
View attachment 8419

You can also use bullets but use a single piece of heatshrink over the connected bullets to ensure they do not come apart. That way you can still switch as needed to get right direction then shrink the covering and it is easy to cut off to remove if you ever need to swap out an ESC or motor.

 

[Bluerex]

Thanks flitelab and Isis,
Yeah Droidworx refer to the X8 as an X4 coaxial :tennis:
Maybe it varies from controller but my Wookong manual shows this: (Blue = top, red = bottom)
View attachment 8420
Tacking then confirming direction sounds like a good idea to me

Charles.

 

[flitelab]

Yes it may vary based on the controller type so always best to base it off what it suggests. Typically for non coaxial setups they are usually the same for all controllers but for some of the other less common ones it can vary.

I usually solder one lead in on each and heatshrink it, then tack the other two and slide the loose heatshrink over just to prevent any shorting then test the direction via a servo tester on each ESC/motor. Since you only ever need to swap 2 connections you can always make one final to start.