What gauge wire to use?

[WAM168]

I have a Dumas mechanical speed control that has four wires, two to connect the battery and two to connect to the motor. These four wires are no larger than 20 gauge, might even be 22 gauge. I need to connect a 7.2 v, 3000 mah battery with 14 gauge leads to two of the speed control wires, but need a recommendation on what gauge wire to run from the speed control to the motors (two 6v Dumas motors). It appears I might be using three different gauge wires to get the job done. Thanks in advance. Cheers.** :) WAM 168

[Shaun Hendricks]

Whoa... 20-22 gauge running 2 motors? If they are anything larger that SP200's you might have a problem on your hands.

I'd check the amp ratings on the mechanical speed control and rewire it with wire slightly smaller (by 2ga) than it's ratings. Put a thermal disconnect fuse in-line with it. This way you'll get a warning when you over amp the MSC and the fuse will disconnect and reset in a minute. You can then get the boat back to dock and see what's up.

Use the same Gauge wire to run your motors as what you rewire the MSC with.

[norgale]

Use whatever is the larger for each wire. If you have a 20 and a 14 to connect use 20.
Pete

[mfr02]

In the interests of getting as much of your power to the motors as possible without losing volts in the wiring, just use the heaviest gauge you can. If you havn't fitted a fuse, the thinnest wire in the system will be the fuse.
Using an MSC can be a bit fraught - if the motor(s) are not matched to the control element, you either get motors that try to run at full speed as soon as the wiper moves off-normal, or nothing happens until full movement, then it all happens. ESCs have their advantages.