Motor wire sizes

[Tim Skloss]

Does anyone know the official rule for wire sizes to the motors? The black Atwood motors have 16G wire on them. Do we really have to use 10G wire to extend to the speed controllers?

We want to solder wires directly to the drill motor and fisher price motor leads. 10G wire is very stiff and in my opinion overkill for the application. We want to use 14 or 16 G.

Does anyone know what FIRST will be inspecting for?

[Tim Skloss]

I answered my own question in Update #4. The inspection list specifically says 10G wire to the motors in my question.

Now, to find really soft, flexible 10G wire. I'm going to call my local car stereo shop to see if they have high-strand-count 10G wire. Even the 6 G wire they sell (not cheap, by the way) is quite limp and flexible. Far easier on motor leads than the wire supplied in the kit.

[CaptainPlaid]

Be sure to watch the color of the wire if you get it at a car stero shop. We all know that blue wire looks good in a car but FIRST likes Black with White or Red.

[thedillybar]

Even though the chalupa motors come with red and yellow wire. Not to mention neither is always positive or always ground since they can be run in reverse.

[Joseph F]

didn't they say that you only need black or red on things that are always positive or always negative. otherwise any color can be used? I'd double check this but my copy of the rule book is sitting in my car.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Tim,
We solder our wires to the motors. Be sure to clean the terminals first, some are plated and do not take solder so we have to scrape to base metal to get a good bond. It might help to split the strands of the #10 into two bundles, tin them, then crimp the two around a terminal and hold in place while soldering. Then form the wires (bend at right angle)over the end of the motor housing so as to keep some space between the sharp edge of the housing and the wire and then tywrap in place to keep any side load off the motor terminal. If you expect the motors to run hot(FP and drill) then the addition of a teflon sheet between the wires and the motor housing where you tywrap will prevent insulation damage during competition. Of course, heatshrink is implied to cover the joint.
A little hint while we are tallking about motors. We color code our systems so that a motor, it's associated speed controller, breaker and PWM cable and PWM output, all have the same color tape applied for easy identification when troubleshooting. If we want to kill the "brown" motor we just remove the "brown" circuit breaker.
Good Luck All