Infraction Wiring up 12S CAP PACK

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Kevin_McCubbin

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Arrma RC's
  1. Infraction
  2. Kraton EXB
  3. Typhon 6s
  4. Typhon TLR
I am running a Castle MMX8S and. Castle 1717-1650 in my Infraction. I want to put a new cap pack on it.

I bought the power hobby 12S cap pack and I want to wire it up on bullet connectors instead of soldering it to the esc wires because I can never make it clean. However my question is how exactly? I think if there was a 6.5mm Y connector that would be ideal but I can’t find anything like that. How has everyone else wired it up to make it look clean and not cluttered but also for good function? I just think that soldering to the wires going into the esc wires presents an issue as far as shrink wrapping them and potentially with getting the most out of the cap pack. I also have a Castle 12s cap pack but it is half as large as the power hobby one so I can only imagine it cannot story nearly as much power. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
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Just shave off enough wire jacket to expose the ESC wire and solder on at that point. You will need to slide heat shrink in front of the solder joint before soldering on the cap pack so you can slide it back over the joint after.
 
I cut the cables from the ESC about 1.2 inches from the ESC, then I soldered 8mm Bullets from Castle. On the other side I soldered the remaining + and - cables with the cappack and 8mm together. The cables from the cappack and the respective plus / minus cables have sufficient space in the 8mm bullet connectors. Both cables plugged together and covered with shrink tubing, done.
 
I’m not sure if this matters as much with the surface ESC’s, but I use capacitors when building race Quadcopters and if the capacitor is not soldered directly to the the ESC (soldered where the battery wire connects to the ESC) then it doesn’t provide the best results. Having longer length of the silicone wires used on the caps can have ill/less effect.
I would assume that this would apply here as well…???? Even looking at how Castle and other manufacturers use cap’s that are directly soldered to the ESC confirms this suspention… BUT I am not an Electrical Engineer.
I am sure we have an educated Engineer that can chime in!!??!!
 
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Yes I do. Unless your into reading ripple current on a computer monitor and not playing with your RC, its unneeded. CAP packs do not make anything faster and to this date, I've never seen any ESC last longer than normal OR stay cooler either, I've used them. Besides, the ESC you are using has plenty of capacitors already installed in the board as most do. If more CAP packs were necessary, I would think companies would build more CAP's into their ESC's to begin with..

Most upgrade ESC's or destroy them bashing before any type of actual data proves that less ripple from a CAP pack made it last longer. It's all a placebo effect to dress up your rig with RC eye candy.. If you are into reading ripple current on a monitor, you will want to install the pack as close to the ESC as possible and use the least amount of wire. After all, if you think they work they "should" be part of the board so the closer you get them, the better it will read on your screen lol..
 
I cut the cables from the ESC about 1.2 inches from the ESC, then I soldered 8mm Bullets from Castle. On the other side I soldered the remaining + and - cables with the cappack and 8mm together. The cables from the cappack and the respective plus / minus cables have sufficient space in the 8mm bullet connectors. Both cables plugged together and covered with shrink tubing, done.
What about on the initial bullet connection. Is there a lot of space in between the wire and the 8 mm bullet?
 
I am running a Castle MMX8S and. Castle 1717-1650 in my Infraction. I want to put a new cap pack on it.

I bought the power hobby 12S cap pack and I want to wire it up on bullet connectors instead of soldering it to the esc wires because I can never make it clean. However my question is how exactly? I think if there was a 6.5mm Y connector that would be ideal but I can’t find anything like that. How has everyone else wired it up to make it look clean and not cluttered but also for good function? I just think that soldering to the wires going into the esc wires presents an issue as far as shrink wrapping them and potentially with getting the most out of the cap pack. I also have a Castle 12s cap pack but it is half as large as the power hobby one so I can only imagine it cannot story nearly as much power. Does anyone have any suggestions?
20210208_200103.jpg

This was how I did mine for the limitless.
 
@Kevin_McCubbin Hope the picture helps. The bullet connectors 8mm offer enough space. You can adjust the wiring at any time without soldering on the ESC

View attachment 170884
For your jumpers between the bullet connectors are you using 10 gauge wire? It looks to be a smaller diameter than the other wires in the picture.
 
Right, the cables from the ripplepack are 10 and those from the lipos are 8.
With my MMX8s I used 10AWG over and over again

20210925_155356.jpg


20210925_155433.jpg
 
Yes I do. Unless your into reading ripple current on a computer monitor and not playing with your RC, its unneeded. CAP packs do not make anything faster and to this date, I've never seen any ESC last longer than normal OR stay cooler either, I've used them. Besides, the ESC you are using has plenty of capacitors already installed in the board as most do. If more CAP packs were necessary, I would think companies would build more CAP's into their ESC's to begin with..

Most upgrade ESC's or destroy them bashing before any type of actual data proves that less ripple from a CAP pack made it last longer. It's all a placebo effect to dress up your rig with RC eye candy.. If you are into reading ripple current on a monitor, you will want to install the pack as close to the ESC as possible and use the least amount of wire. After all, if you think they work they "should" be part of the board so the closer you get them, the better it will read on your screen lol..
^^^Couldn't have said it best.(y)

Why are you using a cap pack in the first place??
Because you see them everywhere. Looks trick ?? Only you can answer that one. The CC MMx8S ESC runs with very low ripple as it stands. Well below 10% ripple. It already has Cap packs embedded to the PCB. Most not needing additional caps with that ESC or the XLX2. You add cap packs when ripple IS an issue.
Do you also have the CC B-link to access your data logs? If so, what are your Ripple Volts showing? If you don't, I think that is your priority first, not installing the cap pack. But hey if you insist anyway, I would follow much of the above advice for installing it. Need decent soldering kills and a good Soldering station. If you never soldered lipo connectors before or anything like this, I would re think your approach.
The last thing you want is for the Cap pack wiring to detach and cause a dead short across your lipo circuit. Then you are $SOL$.
 
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View attachment 170791
This was how I did mine for the limitless.
^^^That's pretty much how its done. Great example. (y)
The wires should be the same guage as the ESC power leads no smaller. As short a run/least wire length overall as feasible, allowing to mount the Cap pack. Manuals state to solder the caps to within 2 inches of the ESC PCB. Even lesser is best. Because best cap performance is achieved soldering the caps right to the PCB. Which is not possible here.
 
^^^Couldn't have said it best.(y)

Why are you using a cap pack in the first place??
Because you see them everywhere. Looks trick ?? Only you can answer that one. The CC MMx8S ESC runs with very low ripple as it stands. Well below 10% ripple. It already has Cap packs embedded to the PCB. Most not needing additional caps with that ESC or the XLX2. You add cap packs when ripple IS an issue.
Do you also have the CC B-link to access your data logs? If so, what are your Ripple Volts showing? If you don't, I think that is your priority first, not installing the cap pack. But hey if you insist anyway, I would follow much of the above advice for installing it. Need decent soldering kills and a good Soldering station. If you never soldered lipo connectors before or anything like this, I would re think your approach.
The last thing you want is for the Cap pack wiring to detach and cause a dead short across your lipo circuit. Then you are $SOL$.
The MMX8S actually has pretty high ripple without a cap. The XLX2 is the one that runs low even without a cap pack. And while it doesn’t help you run faster, it’s supposed to prevent damage to the ESC. At least that’s what Castle says.
 
I seen Raz and his setup??
MMX8S commonly over 10%??? The rule? IDNK
With latest F/W?:confused:
I seen many logs, w/ no caps and they were low. (x8s)
I understand caps can never hurt you at all. Just, are they always necessary?
 
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^^^Couldn't have said it best.(y)

Why are you using a cap pack in the first place??
Because you see them everywhere. Looks trick ?? Only you can answer that one. The CC MMx8S ESC runs with very low ripple as it stands. Well below 10% ripple. It already has Cap packs embedded to the PCB. Most not needing additional caps with that ESC or the XLX2. You add cap packs when ripple IS an issue.
Do you also have the CC B-link to access your data logs? If so, what are your Ripple Volts showing? If you don't, I think that is your priority first, not installing the cap pack. But hey if you insist anyway, I would follow much of the above advice for installing it. Need decent soldering kills and a good Soldering station. If you never soldered lipo connectors before or anything like this, I would re think your approach.
The last thing you want is for the Cap pack wiring to detach and cause a dead short across your lipo circuit. Then you are $SOL$.
I did get a drop in voltage which is why I wanted to add the cap pack in the first place. I was running it in 8S w two SMC extreme DV 7900 MAH 135 C Lipos. The B channel on the ESC sheared off from the board of the ESC and caused some nasty arcing In the process. Additionally when this happened it completely locked up my Castle 1717-1650. This was on a warm Night in the 70’s and I had only been running the car for 5-7 minutes before that happened. I sent the MMX8S and 1717-1650 into castle because both were under warranty. I’m not sure exactly what happened but the esc got toasted (female B terminal broke off) and the motor was 100% locked up. I was running the stock speed gearing in my Infraction 27 pinion and 46 spur gear. So I’m the mean time I bought a brand new CC MMX8S and CC 1717-1650 combo. I am trying not to blow this one up since I’m sure Castle will indicate some sort of user error or wiring error and don’t want to wait 3-4 weeks to get back on the road since the weather in Chicago will likely turn bad before then. So point is I want to make sure everything is perfectly wired and running cool before I run this combo again.
 
I did get a drop in voltage which is why I wanted to add the cap pack in the first place. I was running it in 8S w two SMC extreme DV 7900 MAH 135 C Lipos. The B channel on the ESC sheared off from the board of the ESC and caused some nasty arcing In the process. Additionally when this happened it completely locked up my Castle 1717-1650. This was on a warm Night in the 70’s and I had only been running the car for 5-7 minutes before that happened. I sent the MMX8S and 1717-1650 into castle because both were under warranty. I’m not sure exactly what happened but the esc got toasted (female B terminal broke off) and the motor was 100% locked up. I was running the stock speed gearing in my Infraction 27 pinion and 46 spur gear. So I’m the mean time I bought a brand new CC MMX8S and CC 1717-1650 combo. I am trying not to blow this one up since I’m sure Castle will indicate some sort of user error or wiring error and don’t want to wait 3-4 weeks to get back on the road since the weather in Chicago will likely turn bad before then. So point is I want to make sure everything is perfectly wired and running cool before I run this combo again.


Drop in voltage on your monitor? The voltage drop you experienced was most likely voltage SAG. Don't care what the companies claim their C ratings are. CAP packs do not supply power, batteries do. To add, cap packs will only give you a quick impulse (nanoseconds) of voltage. Nothing you would see or feel on a RC car in real life what so ever. Only on a computer monitor looking for ripple..

Again, I've never seen any real scientific evidence that extra external caps keep your ESC cooler and or make it last longer. If that was the case as I've already mentioned, manufacturers would build more into their ESC's to begin with.
 
I did get a drop in voltage which is why I wanted to add the cap pack in the first place. I was running it in 8S w two SMC extreme DV 7900 MAH 135 C Lipos. The B channel on the ESC sheared off from the board of the ESC and caused some nasty arcing In the process. Additionally when this happened it completely locked up my Castle 1717-1650. This was on a warm Night in the 70’s and I had only been running the car for 5-7 minutes before that happened. I sent the MMX8S and 1717-1650 into castle because both were under warranty. I’m not sure exactly what happened but the esc got toasted (female B terminal broke off) and the motor was 100% locked up. I was running the stock speed gearing in my Infraction 27 pinion and 46 spur gear. So I’m the mean time I bought a brand new CC MMX8S and CC 1717-1650 combo. I am trying not to blow this one up since I’m sure Castle will indicate some sort of user error or wiring error and don’t want to wait 3-4 weeks to get back on the road since the weather in Chicago will likely turn bad before then. So point is I want to make sure everything is perfectly wired and running cool before I run this combo again.
CAPs do nothing for voltage sag. Not even one bit. Not even a remote reason for having a cap pack.;)
Voltage sag is normal. How much is dependent on how good is, lipo's C rating wise, and Capacity wise.
There are sag limits for certain setups. Some packs are better than others. And different brand C ratings are not that accurrate and misleading. Depends on the brand.
 
Drop in voltage on your monitor? The voltage drop you experienced was most likely voltage SAG. Don't care what the companies claim their C ratings are. CAP packs do not supply power, batteries do. To add, cap packs will only give you a quick impulse (nanoseconds) of voltage. Nothing you would see or feel on a RC car in real life what so ever. Only on a computer monitor looking for ripple..

Again, I've never seen any real scientific evidence that extra external caps keep your ESC cooler and or make it last longer. If that was the case as I've already mentioned, manufacturers would build more into their ESC's to begin with.
Here’s the one quasi comparison I can make. I used to have a competition car stereo system in my car. Prior to adding capacitors the voltage would drop and dim the head lights under load. When I added capacitors to the system it eliminated the head light dimming and the system had more maximum db. I tend to believe that the system in the rc car was getting hot because the esc was trying to put out more than it was receiving. For some reason the motor wires were always hot after running the car. My theory is that it wouldn’t have been so hot if there was not some sort of deficiency but that is just my theory and I could be wrong.
 
Here’s the one quasi comparison I can make. I used to have a competition car stereo system in my car. Prior to adding capacitors the voltage would drop and dim the head lights under load. When I added capacitors to the system it eliminated the head light dimming and the system had more maximum db. I tend to believe that the system in the rc car was getting hot because the esc was trying to put out more than it was receiving. For some reason the motor wires were always hot after running the car. My theory is that it wouldn’t have been so hot if there was not some sort of deficiency but that is just my theory and I could be wrong.

I used to run caps in my car also.

Here's the problem in a 1.1 car, your batt/ALT would supply the power the caps store. If the batt is getting low from BASS hits sitting at idle that means they are not charging the caps and you have constant power flow coming from the weak batt. My headlights used to dim constantly with 2 batts and 3 caps UNTILL I gave it gas and the ALT charged up the CAPS again. Worked fine till the next stop light and the first/couple bass hits they would start to fade again. The circle of electric death happened all over again... I woke up and installed a custom dual output alternator. It was 3-400 AMP (cant remember at the moment) and guess what, my problem went away.. It was supplying more than I was turning up and therefore no headlight fade.

IF there were infinite power coming from your batts in your RC car, we would not be having this discussion, nor would 1/2 the threads be in here lol..
 
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