mazjag

Guys, can you look at this and see if my wire length is ok??..I had to mount the Armsafe and the cowl wasn`t an option as it would flex too much..I`m gonna add a resistor and and a switch as I`m not liking the spark.. Do I need a capacitor setup on the ESC or is that fine? thx..jason

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I don't understand why it needs to be that long. If the batteries are now where they will be in flight, I would mount the ESC between the batteries and the motor. Then you would have like 2" of extra wire to get to the Armsafe.

I picture from farther away would help to see where things are. Something does not look right to me. The armsafe goes on one wire, in series, between the battery and the ESC.

mazjag

The batteries are just sitting in there...They most likely will mount about even with the landing gear..It is mounted in series...just follow the red wire as I mounted the ESC under the motorbox for airflow and everyone seemed to be doing it that way..Only the red wire is long ,the black wire off the ESC is like 4 inches...I didn`t really see another way to do it or not run an armsafe...thx for the input..I`ll take another pic when I get home...thx...Jason

flyinwalenda

My Feedback: (5)

I too can't understand why you have all of that wire. If the ESC is under the battery shelf then it should only be 3 to 4  inches of red wire from the ESC up to the switch then to the Deans.  You need to keep it as short as possible.

mazjag

Yeah, that is what I`m asking for.. The ESC is under the x section in the motor box. you can just see the ears of it in the photo...I maybe able to shorten it some and take a more direct route from armsafe to ESC....

danamania

Hi Jason, ok with you if just take the last part of this one? Coming from large electric sport planes, I had installed a CC CapPack and had all sorts of other wiring going all over the place with my 2m Vanquish at first. When I brought it out to contests, well, let's just say I got lots of friendly feedback about shortening wire lengths and as a result, losing the CapPack. Well that's just what I did. The choice of arming plug or not is a personal one for each pilot so I will not weigh in there, your call, but I do not install arming plugs. The Deans Ultras to the packs are my "switch" and the capacitor is not needed per CC's own instruction manuals (the spark is the indication that the ESC's caps are heathy and functional, the spark is your friend, as they say).

That said, all my models have failsafe set to 0% throttle if Tx signal is lost or Rx power is lost. When the Ice2 HV80 does not see an Rx signal, i.e., Rx switched OFF on the model, then the motor will not operate under normal (non ESC failure) circumstances. This is a pretty good set-up for me, when the plane has landed, I switch off and the motor is safe until the Deans Ultras are disconnected. Tx stays on, just in case I have to switch back on for some unforseen reason; Tx only switched off after the Deans are disconnected and there is no possible power to the motor.

mazjag

Thanks Dana, I honestly do it just like you on all my other planes..I only did this because of the large size of the packs and prop and other people were gonna be handling the plane often to set it on the flight line..I would hate for someone to get taken out by my plane. I was also told from someone at F3A that something like this might become mandated..I`ll forget the cap pack idea and just try and shorten the wires some with a more direct route...I`ll have a look at some more Vanquish at my next contest and copy what they are doing..

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I understand and respect the idea behind the arming switch. I might end up using one at some point. Aside from that debate, most of us don't hook our batteries up to the motor until we are ready to fly our round. At that time, you plug in and your caller brings your plane to the strip. Most callers are aware that the plane is armed, and treat the airplane like it's ready to go off. Treat it just like an airplane with a running glow engine.

That said, the Armsafe is good idea to be extra safe so I don't want to influence anyone whether or not to use it - personal preference.

I would probably try to snake the wire from the Armsafe down through the landing gear area to the ESC. If the ESC is facing so the battery side is aft and the motor side is forward, you should have minimal extra wire.

The idea behind shortening the wire is really about good practice - save a few grams of weight and neaten up the inside of the airplane. I can't imagine you would lose that much energy through those hefty wires.

danamania

Andy P.

Hi MazJag

I use a very simple method on my Nuance which gives safety and ease of operation albeit if not the prettiest of solutions. I'm also running the Ice2 80HV in this setup with no problems to report so far. The cables running outside the fuselage are a short patch with bullets that connect between the ESC and the battery pack cable. I use a short length of big bore silicone tubing that is used as a separator for the hot connection ends of my 10s packs while their in storage, I remove this from the pack ends when installing in the fuselage then break the outside connection and place the tubing between the two external ends so that accidental connection cannot happen until I'm ready to arm the system, usually on the flightline.

Pic attached which shows my layout and cable length's.

Andy.

Flyer88

It's always a good idea to try and save as much wire length as possible. But I wouldn't be too overly concerned with it I'm running several large-scale 50 cc electrics with significant wire length and have not encountered any problems.
I've even pulled the data from my castle speed control and it's well within specifications without a cappac.

mazjag

Yeah, I actually talked to a guy at castle Friday and that is exactly what he said. He said just use the logging function in the ESC to record the battery ripple and it should be less than 10% ripple of input voltage.. If not you have something incorrect...he also said early warnings of too much ripple were that the caps on the ESC would start to leak fluid and you also would not get a very large spark when plug it in..I`m just gonna use the Castle link like he said...thx..

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Just fyi, the 'spark is your friend' thing is just so people don't get afraid of it. I asked Castle last week about using the spark arrestors and they are totally fine. the spark is one indicator of the capacitors charging up properly, but that's it.

Flyer88

In electronics class we used to charge up capacitors on the power supply and when guys weren't looking.......zapp em !!

pvogel

The spark causes carbon deposits on the contacts, increasing their resistance over time, and on many connector types that depend on the spring tempering of one side or the other (some bullets, deans, power poles) it will case loosening of the contacts over time. Not a big deal on the 'disposable' planes many sport pilots fly, but given the number of flights we put on our pattern planes, the spark IS NOT your friend!

Arming switches also help to make the transition between pilots quicker, something we all appreciate when we want to get 6 rounds in and have a long drive home, and the judges sitting in the sun appreciate it as well! I also find it very convenient when a group of us are practicing at the field and we want to get as many practice flights in as possible. To each their own but I'll always use some form of arming switch in my pattern planes and I'm starting to miss it on my planes that don't have one!

Peter+

Dean Pappas

I agree with Peter:
The spark is not your friend. It is slowly buggering up your connectors, and adding resistance.
This worsens the ripple over time.
If you replace all the connectors on all your batteries, the problem doesn't go away because the connectors on your chargers are gouged up too.
It spreads kinda like a social disease.

Regards on behalf of the Electrical Department of Public Health,
Dean Pappas

danamania

Soooo "The spark is (not) your friend" eh? Word! I would like to think that CC would update their instructions because that's where I read it.  Glad we got that cleared up. My apologies for spreading any mis-information: I would not want your Connectors to Catch a Case of the Clap! LOL!

Flyer88

When it only takes 10 min to put new connectors on, it's not a big deal.
Consider it maintenance .....

mazjag

Hopefully, someone like Castle will come out with a new line of ESC that doesn`t do this. The spark isn`t good...I don`t know much about 2m planes, but I know about cars.. This is the reason cars needed points(old time), plugs, and distributor caps...same theory...When you see a spark, you are taking away metal and transferring it to another. I think I`ll just replace the connectors as suggested at this point.

awry

On my new F3A ship I started using the 4mm Jeti Anti Spark connectors. Works great.

http://www.jetimodel.com/index.php?p...=0&category=76

Dean Pappas

Castle did!
The original HV's had a spark-free startup: done much the same way as big servers and telecom equipment are made for safe "live insertion".
The problem was that without making the ramp-up transistors very large and heavy, this circuit was THE only reliability issue with the early HV45's and HV85's.
85 amps is a lot!!!
I was beta testing back then.

Regards,
Dean Pappas

pvogel

The OS HV ESCs have a spark arresting circuit built in.

Peter+