[grosbeak]

I'm in the process of Stuffing a DLE 20 into a Hobbistar 60. This one is going to be nose heavy, so I'd like to keep the batteries as far to the rear as possible.

The questions:

- Is it feasible to extend a battery lead?
- How long can you make it?

Looking forward to your comments.

[Max]

You can make it as long as you want(almost)

Considerations:

• How much current will you be pulling through those leads? Will you be powering standard servos or digital servos? How many? Higher current requires lower gauge (larger diameter) wires so that you don't have to deal with a high current draw and high internal resistance of small leads causing the wire to heat up.
• Internal resistance will cause you to lose a bit of voltage, but it will be almost negligible. You can confirm this with a volt meter, measuring voltage from the original pack and then measuring it again after you have extended it. It wont be much, if you can even measure it at all.
• RF noise: With 72mhz, when you got into the 20-30" range (Be it battery or servo leads) the length of the leads made them act like an antenna, causing your RX to glitch. Less so for 2.4G. In either case, I would Put an torroid to act as a choke coil on the battery leads to prevent this from happening.

If you deal with the above, it should not be a problem extending the leads of your battery pack.

[bhughes]

My aj slick has 20" ext's on the deans leads off the life packs no issues

[zdsh13]

I use this as a reference...

http://www.wattco.net/infopdf/wireguagechart.pdf

[Gizmoman]

I like this one.
http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

[grosbeak]

Thanks for the tips, folks. I picked up some 18 gauge wire today. I haven't yet gotten to the point where I can check the CG.

[ronljroy]

The first reply by MAX sums it up very well

[kip51035]

Generally the longer the leads the bigger they should be. You might want to use shielded wire or run them in a aluminum tube. Ground the shielding to the motor mount end only. That much pulsating current in a wire makes a large pulsating magnetic field.

[Max]

Originally Posted by kip51035

Generally the longer the leads the bigger they should be. You might want to use shielded wire or run them in a aluminum tube. Ground the shielding to the motor mount end only. That much pulsating current in a wire makes a large pulsating magnetic field.

I mentioned toroids, but I forgot to mention shielded cable. Thanks for chiming in, Kip

[Mike Anderson]

Don't forget to twist long leads: http://www.stefanv.com/rcstuff/qf200406.html
Actually, if those batts aren't powering anything with oscillating voltage then it doesn't matter.