Extending motor wire without bullet connectors

[dure16]

Motor wires are too short by 1-2 inches. Can I extend them without using bullet connectors between the motor wire and the extension wire?

In other words, is there an effective way to solder the existing motor wire to the extension? End-to-end, side by side overlap, etc.

Or am I asking for trouble if I do this?

 

[Tex Koder]

Motor wires are too short by 1-2 inches. Can I extend them without using bullet connectors between the motor wire and the extension wire?

In other words, is there an effective way to solder the existing motor wire to the extension? End-to-end, side by side overlap, etc.

Or am I asking for trouble if I do this?

Why the motor solid cables?
I think you should extend from the ESC's motor wires instead.. they are 'easier' to cut/solder/extend..

 

[Garcbomber]

Butt and wrap the strands together before soldering, but it's much more tedious than using a 6.5mm bullet female and just loading both sides with solder to heat shrink.

Cold solder failures are much more prominent using this method, mostly because of the level of experience.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

Is the motor wire strand coated? Or is it standard AWG wire? Many motors come with coated wire stranded and the whole thing is end prepped for the bullet and "pre-tinned". I have not had good results with shortening these types of motor wires, it ended up with some weird stuttering issues. If it's AWG, then I wouldn't be concerned.

In other words, if motor wires are AWG, then you could splay and wrap the two ends together and fill with solder as @Garcbomber suggested. I have done that on the battery side wires with no negative results (its is a stiff joint though). If they are coated motor wires, I would only consider using an additional extension wire with bullets on each end.

 

[Moirae]

adding heatshrink to my motor wire bullet extensions was one of the best things I've ever done. I felt so smart when I figured out I could do that.

 

[KnowAir]

What about just replacing the motor cables with longer wire altogether? IDK what motor you're working with or how the cables are terminated behind the cover but I have replaced motor cables on a Tenshock motor before. It had bullets soldered to the windings behind the endbell.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

Ah, found it. I used this video to understand a little about the issue a while back.
At around 5:00 he talks about enamel coating on the wires that needs to be removed. I learned the hard way

 

[jkflow]

Cut and extend - hell no but even that can be worked.

Extend - yes, as long as you don't go crazy, 1-2 inches is no issue BUT
I typically extend ESC wires, just in case you have to change motor again, saves you the trouble in the future.

Many ways of splicing, you can mesh them together or just do it side by side but wrap with copper wire, you don't want the solder alone to give you mechanical stability. 22 gauge or so to wrap the tends together and use a good soldering iron and heat shrink to cover it up.

I believe the max length for ESC to motor is 12-16". Some ESC manuals specify that length. All 3 wires should be roughly the same length as well, i.e. within 1-2 inches.

 

[dure16]

The problem is fixed.

I decided to solder the wires from the side of the bullets like racing ESCs have it. Similar to the pic below (not my pic). I filled the bullets with solder first.

The wires barely reach now with no extension, but it should work. It’s not a high power setup so I’m not too worried.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[jkflow]

Just make sure you do have a little slop, not that some minor flex will rip something out.

 

[dure16]

Just make sure you do have a little slop, not that some minor flex will rip something out.

Agree. The wires aren’t too tight.