Quote:
Originally Posted by TurnNBurn
This will be my first electrical project. I've had a lot of experience with fixing things mechanically (transmissions, engines, etc...) but this will be my first wiring project. What gauge of wiring would you guys recommend for the main battery setup? (wiring batteries, controller, and throttle)
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Draw up all of your parts and make a diagram or a list of what needs to connect to what and what I did for my motorcycle was to make a wiring harness for the smaller gauge wiring and labeled everything, I partly did this because I wanted to bench test the battery management system before installing it on the frame, but at the very least a list of what connects to each component helped me a lot.
I checked some online wire size calculators and figured that for around 6 feet of cable at a peek of 400 amps but a sustained 150-200 amps that 4 gauge cable would be fine, auto parts stores should have bulk red and black cable, I really like welding cable because it's finer strands of wire so it's softer and more flexible, McMaster Carr has Heavy Duty welding cable that has bright orange insulation so I bought 10 feet of that for my motorcycle, it looks good and it's clear that it needs extra caution, I then bought red and black heat shrink tubing with hot melt glue inside (dual wall or dual layer) so I could color code all of my high current cables, I also make notes with white out pens (fine tip paint pen) as to what things are, like "Battery +" and "Controller M-" to make sure that I could not screw things up while assembling if I wasn't thinking clearly that day.
Another trick that I liked that I feel made my motorcycle cleaner in wiring it was for stuff like wiring in the DC to DC converter I slipped the end of a 14 Gauge piece of wire in with the welding cable along with a piece of 8 gauge wire for the charger before I crimped the lug on and I left those smaller gauge wires a foot or two longer then needed to allow me to bundle all my wires together to keep things tidy, if you aren't sure if you need a small gauge piece of wire on the positive and negative ends of your battery pack then you might just do a short pig tail with a push connect wiring connector that has the plastic shielding around it, that way you can add on later.
Repair shops that work on semi trucks tend to have decent crimpers for making battery cables, hammer crimpers work... kind of... but crimpers that press from multiple directions do a much better job, giving a pressure weld to the connection.
If you are going to draw more then a peek of 400 amps or have a longer run then 6 feet or so total of battery cable then go with a larger size cable, on a motorcycle tho you can keep everything close.
For wiring between the pack and the dc to dc converter I used 14 gauge wire, because I had that on hand I used it for a lot of other stuff as well, for the charger I used 8 gauge with an Anderson connector.
For the throttle, the twist throttle comes with it's own wire.
To power contactors, you are only drawing a few watts, so 16 or 18 gauge wire would even work.