Help! wiring diagrams made easy

[Ghost 2501]

Due to several people asking similar questions, some diagrams to help make things easy to understand.

image 1, having a BEC enabled ESC and a seperate battery pack,
you will notice here that the red wire in the tri-color servo lead falls short of the rx, this is to symbilize its removal from the plug. don't snip the wire carefully remove it and tape it back, that way you can still use it if you have to.

using a seperare battery on a bec esc can be used if your rx happens not to have BEC ability because its old, or you need to add a touch of ballast, why add lead when your ballast can be made to work for you.

Image 2, full BEC system one esc one motor.
BEC means Battery Eliminating Circuit, this means that the main battery that feeds your Electronic speed controller, (ESC), also feeds power to the rx though some in-built step-down regulator circuit. again this diagram depicts one propeller, this is usually used where space is an issue, such as in a converted lindberg trawler or other small model. Another issue is weight, such as racing boats where the additional weight of an rx pack may cost a second or two a lap because your boat is hauling a few more ounces than it needs to.

Image 3 Full BEC system with twin motors, one esc.
one esc and two motors, wired in parrallel, with a fuse off each motor. not everyone has multi channel boats, some people still have 2 channel AM systems but may want to run more than one motor in their boats, this is the easist way to do it. wiring in parrallel means that should one engine stop working because of binding and so blow the fuse, (fishing line wrapped around the propeller is a usual cause), the iother motor should still be able to bring the boat home, though the operator will probably suffer some handling issues. using series wired, where the electricity flows through one motor then through the other would have just one fuse, one stalled motor would pop that sole fuse and so leave the boat in need of rescue.

Image 4, twin escs with bec esc's and rx battery.
This sort of layout is often found where the transmitter has on-board mixing, and usually found on larger models where space isnt an issue, such as 1/35th scale tugs and bigger boats, up to something like a 1/96th scale tico or burke type warship. the single battery may be because you want the physical space inside for fitting of working features, gas powered bb guns for the RC combat people, or things like working sirens, or your battery may be quite large to start with anyway.

Image 5 is identical in laypout except it has two batteries in parrallel to double the run time or the main battery supply is also being used for lights etc

As with any BEC equipped ESC, if you are using a seperate battery pack remove the red wire to prevent damage to reciever

image 6, mechanical esc, one motor
yes mechanical type speed controllers, or relay type like those by Electronize may not have a BEC system, so need to have a seperate battery supply for the RX to work,

image 7, twin esc's with a mixer
if you have no on board mixing on your radio and wish to make your twin screw boat perform like its real counterpart, you can do this by adding a V-tail mixer, this device normally found on aircraft links the two esc's, in this case BEC type such as Proboat tornado 50 or Viper15's with their bec wire removed from the servo plug because you are using a seperate power source.

to do this, you are best having more than 4 channels on your radio set, both tx and rx, a typical set suitable for this is the Futaba 6EXA or Hitec Optic 6, or a Skysport 4, though you may have other preferences.

Fusing
You may notice on the diagrams, there are more than 1 fuse, the one on the motor side of the esc protects the electronics within the esc, so should your motor start to over-amp the esc, it will fail before the esc gets damaged. however should your esc develop a fault, the fuse between the esc and battery should pop, protecting the battery, especially useful if lithium polymer type batteries are your power source

[Ghost 2501]

By request of Norgale

This shows a simple light setup for a navigation light array on a ship using filament bulbs rather than LED's.

There is one light at the bow, one light at the stern, red and green to the sides and 3 on the mast. Wired in parrallel using a radio controlled switch, though this doesnt have to be the case, you can use a simple hand-flick switch if you so desire, with a servo to operate it, or maybe by hand at the bankside.

The mast lights here would probably mean that there are 6 wires running down the mast, which is not a problem if your mast is big enough, you can always replace one of the wires with the mast itself, having the mast become the negative feed by soldering the negative wire to the mast, then have a wire go from the main negative wire to the mast if you so desire, with the other 3 wires running down the hollow metal tube that is your mast.

Wiring in Parrallel may up the current draw in the circuit however if one bulb fails, it wont take all the others out, and so make finding a blown bulb much easier.

[norgale]

That's great Ghost. Appreciate that very much. What size battery would it take to run all these lights? Also I assume that the three lights in the middle are on the mast and your showing the mast as the ground as you described in your post right? And what are the three lights on the mast for? What color are they?
As you can see from my questions I need a complete education on the lights. Not something I have ever messed with before. Pete

[Ghost 2501]

good point norgale,

usually on the mast, plain white bulbs are used, as for battery, that depends on the bulbs you are using you wouldt't use a 6v bulb obn 12v, would you?, though as for quite what they mean im not sure, there is a thread somewhere that gives details to the meaning of the lights.

as for using the mast as a grounding, yes it can be done, though that black was just to represent the mast itself. I use 7.2v to run the 11 lights on Gemini, they are 12v bulbs, "burn" time is around an hour or so before the batteries need to be changed, by under volting the bulbs, they should in theory last longer because they are not reaching peak temperarture associated with operating on their rated 12v

[norgale]

Ok that's fine. Thanks for the explaination. Pete

[Bikerider]

Thanks for the wiring diagrams Ghost. I put them in my file. I was wondering how to wire up my cruiser. Now I know. Thanks!!

[Lord Raven]

Really really useful. thanks Ghost, that will save me a lot of bother with my first model

[Ghost 2501]

Raven n Biker, thats the entire point

[waboats]

Ghost not sure is this is of any use to you.

Been messing about with my Springer and looked for more power.

Decided on a Series - Parallel switch so that I could change from 6v to 12v with the flick of a switch.

Here is the diagram (setup originally for Water Pump). Sorry it's not in colour. Lost the Computer File but scanned in a copy.

Might be of some use to somebody else.

Could be servo activated but only if main ESC/Receiver was on a different circuit or BEC removed (Current Switch will close circuit to TX as it moves through Neutral position)

Cheers

[ooby]

Ghost and Waboats, many, many thanks.

Ooby

[Ghost 2501]

ooby thats what they are there for

[wrk134]

yet another diagram.

[boomer_57]

ghost,i found you article on wiring very helpfull,thanks

[Ghost 2501]

thanks.

If you are a member of a club, feel free to print the images off and circulate them to fellow members.

[avidjeepr]

Thanks Ghost,
I just finished the wiring on my Smit Rotterdam using your diagram. It works perfect..