TOPIC:

Does anyone know the wire sizes for the older Tamiya car batteries and motors. the AWG size?

Is it this stuff?
www.ebay.com.au...35d18ad228

It doesn't say green or yellow but, only the red/black battery cable. I tried normal automotive wire but it's too stiff, as in not flexible.

Heh, that's cool, just cut n pasted it and it links it through. Top idea.

Basic wires are 16 AWG if I'm not mistaken (just compared them)...

So what do you ask for if you want the fine strand flexible stuff?

nodtec wrote:

So what do you ask for if you want the fine strand flexible stuff?

Normally has "Silicone" (insulation) in the title. Also has the advantage that it doesn't melt when you solder it.
The stiff automotive stuff has PVC insulation I believe.

The wire section dépends of the current you want to pass into. (in France the rule is 7Amp per mm²)

Does anyone know WHY silicone-insulated wire is the preferred stuff to use as a "hop-up" on toy cars?
I can understand using it for battery connections & mechanical speed controls (Where it'll be "flexed" a lot), but why use it on motors, ESCs, radio components etc?.

After designing/building a lot of high-power audio amplifiers, the general rule was to always use SOLID oversize conductors for transmitting large currents with minimal loss or heating.
Reason for this is a solid conductor is made of all the same material, the electrons can zap about within it effortlessly, whereas with stranded cable they have to cross outside each strand & into the next one (& imagine if the strands are dirty or plated...).
ANY electrician will tell you that 2x small cables WON'T share the current that a bigger one could carry, it doesn't work like that, the same way that 2x bits of 5amp fusewire WON'T protect a 10amp circuit.
SO, surely if you want to be transmitting more beans from your battery to your motor, the less strands making up that wire the better?

As far as I know, silicone multistrand came about as an answer for cabling to be used in low temperature &/or applications where less-stranded wires would fail due to metal or plastic fatigue, so why use it in a "Hot" area, transmitting high currents, where inter-wired parts aren't moving?

eddrick wrote:

Does anyone know WHY silicone-insulated wire is the preferred stuff to use as a "hop-up" on toy cars?

'Cos it feels nice

There's something about "surface effects" on multistrand wire. Something like the electrons prefer to travel near the surface of the wire and multistrand wire has more surface area hence can carry more current. Not sure about this - just something I heard a long time ago. Will Google it when I have more time (6am flight tomorrow )

Everyone knows you use silicon wire because it comes in bright colours.
I'm certainly no expert on electrician but from personal experience restoring old r/c cars, you all ways find the wires either broken off or nearly there. In my early attempts I needed the appropriate colour wire so I went to auto shop and bought a meter of 7core trailer wire, it looked the right size and had the red/black/green/yellow colours in it. All was great till i noticed they started cracking off motor on ww type fitting. Also the ends tended to go brown, from heat I'd guess. A few of my cars of leisure still have old wire but on the more recent ones i've used the silicon multistrand wire. I just assumed the silicon wire was better based on my thought that the silicon covering is more temperature resistant with high current induced heat, doesn't melt if in contact with resistors etc, and is resistant to fatigue caused by movement and vibration.

The silicon has higher heat resistance and is + "souple" than the classic plastic covering.
Classic covering is given to resist at 80°C and the silicon to more than 100°C. But it is more expensive...