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Wiring of multi-brushless motors

 

For a single-motor installation, the connection of battery/ESC/motor/ receiver is obvious and simple.

For a 4-motor installation, it is rather less obvious.

There are three things to be decided:

1  How to connect 4 ESCs and a bec to one battery.

2  How to connect 4 ESCs and a bec to one receiver outlet.

3  How to connect 4 motors to 4 ESCs.

These notes describe how I wired my Shorts L17 "Scylla" and my Tu95.

Warning.   This set-up does not shut off all the motors at the same time when the battery voltage gets low. To avoid asymmetric power, terminate  flights before the low-voltage cut offs operate.

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Scylla

Connect 4 ESCs and a bec to one battery

 

The essential item here is the "busbar board". This is a rectangle of plywood with two 16swg [.064"]tinned copper wires attached.

All the red wires are soldered to the upper busbar, and all the blacks to the lower busbar.

 

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Scylla

Connect 4 ESCs and 1 bec to one receiver outlet

I chose to make a small connector block, using Vero board and pinstrip. The board has 6 tripple-pin connectors: 4 to the ESCs, 1 to the bec, one to the receiver.

The red wires are extracted from the ESC connectors, after the ESCs are set-up with the programming card

 

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Scylla

Connect 4 motors to 4ESCs

These connections are essentially no different from a single-motor installation, but the motors will usually be remote from the ESCs, and will require wiring extensions.

On the L17 all the extension wires are varnish-insulated single-strand copper. I have used this system on several models, with no problems. If you wish to check for shorts this must be done before the extensions are connected to the ESCs or to the motors

 

 

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Tu95

 
Connect 4 ESCs and a bec to one battery

To hold in position for soldering, the wires are fixed to a small piece of plywood, with copper-wire ties.

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Tu 95

Connect 4 motors to 4 ESCs

 
Tripple enamelled wires ,embedded in the leading edge, connect the motors to the ESCs in the fuselage.