Safe to Cut Motor or ESC Leads?
 

Hello,

I have what may be a stupid question. I did a quick search, but couldn't find the answer.

Is there any reason I can't cut the leads on a brushless motor or the leads coming out of a BL ESC? I have quite a bit more than I need on both ends, and I'd like to trim them down a bit.

Thanks for your help.

Michael

no reason at all not to. i did the same thing, and they're pretty short. just make sure you either won't use the motor/esc in something else later, and that you like the layout, as you'll be stuck with them that short. :tongue:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL127.../277309185.jpg

Thanks for your illustrated reply!

Cutting the ESC leads isnt a problem, but you shouldnt cut the motor leads. On most motors the leads are made up of the winding wires extended out the back of the motor for you to solder to. The winding wires are coated with a special insulator that is very difficult to strip. If you trim the motor leads and run into the insulated section of the wire you will not get a connector or anything else to adhere to the wires. Many people have ruined motors by trimming the leads and running into this problem.

It really depends on the motor as to how much of the lead is stripped of the insulator, but I would not even mess with it. Just rime the esc wires. You can always replace the esc wires with longer ones again if you ever want to.

FWIW, you can recover from cutting motor leads that are made up of the coil wires. You just have to remove that varnish insulator. There is a solvent (the name escapes me ATM) that you can dip the ends into and it dissolves the varnish. However, since the motor wires are actually made up of many smaller coil wires, this solvent may have a tendency to wick up the leads dissolving the varnish where you don't want it to causing a potential short. Best not to mess with it IMO.

The MM motor leads CAN be shortened because the leads are simply the typical noodle wire stuff. There is a connection inside the motor that ties the noodle wire to the coil wires. These motors are one of the few that do this.

yeah, sorry... forgot to add that the wires coming out of the back of my motor are wires i soldered to the rear motor wires...none were cut on the motor end. only the MM wires were shortened.

HvMaxx wires can also be trimmed down, and even replaced completely if required, since they are just 12 gauge noodle wire soldered to the pcb board extending from the motor and esc at either end.

Wouldn't it be nice if all brushless motor had solder posts.... :yipi:

It's convenient, but a circuit board is yet nother connection point. Personally, I like the way XL and Neu motors are set up.

True dat. Anything to avoid extra soldering is good in my book- I didnt realise just how expensive silver solder is, considering how fast I get through a reel when Im doing a project like re-configuring my battery packs to fit the Gmaxx chassis better....