adding caps to esc
 

Hi Guys,

I have to castle HV 120 amp esc and ive been told to add extra caps to the esc.
The caps that have been given to me are 4x 3300uF 50v. I will be adding 2 to each esc.
On the caps there is a long pin and a short pin, which pin should be soldered to the positve side?
Im running 10s on each esc.
The esc have been running fine without the extra caps but ive been told to add them as it will help the esc.
What do you think.
Cheers Peter

RE: adding caps to esc
 

the negative side should be marked with some sort of arrow or rectangle, i beleive its the longer terminal wire thats the negative

solder both negative's together and then both positives and have them facing away from eachother

you can solder these dirictly to the battery leads on the esc by cutting 5mm of the casing of, wra the terminals around the wire, solder and trim excess of, once done, insulate with electrical tape or referably heat shrink

 

RE: adding caps to esc
 

Nick,
Can you explain why this is a good thing? I assuem it reduces V spikes that can take out the ESC during a surge.

RE: adding caps to esc
 

as you know, a capacitor is just basicaly a storage pot, it will store power until needed, yes its for spikes like if you take of suddenly, it also aids in keeping the esc and batts from wrecking so it does help, i put 1 or 2 extra caps on all my speedo's, i have notoced a diffrence, the main one being easier on everything, better response for the throttle etc, once you know how to do it it's esay to do the next ones

one of my speedo's caps are rated at 50v, 400uF but i put 63v, 400uF onto it, stores more charge but more of smaller ones (50v, 300uF) can be better than one big cap

in the long run, that extra power needed will reduce wear and tear on the system

RE: adding caps to esc
 

Positive is the longer lead.

RE: adding caps to esc
 

All electrolytic capacitors have either a band with a big "-" marked on the negative side or a spot of color, again on the negative side. I had some caps with wires ready for pcb side mount that had equal wires... but the negative wire is always marked.

RE: adding caps to esc
 

A 10S setup will torture the 50V caps, you need to go up at least to the next standard, 63V.
The 10S setup fresh charged can give you 4.2*10=42V, but when the ESC is in use there can be voltage spikes way exceeding 42V. I'd go for even higher voltage rated caps if I were you, maybe to 100V.

RE: adding caps to esc
 

OK, i will see if I can get bigger caps this week. How many extra caps should I put on each esc?
Would 2 per esc be enough?
Thanks Peter

RE: adding caps to esc
 

The number of capacitors you add depends on the capacity of the capacitors. I used 5 pieces of 1000uF caps = 5000uF, which is already a big help to the ESC. You can go higher if you want, it won't hurt, but the more capacity you want, the bulkier things will become. You decide.