What do you guys do for power/signal wire strain relief?

ArduCopter
1

Hi folks…

Seems I never have 100% confidence in wire connections (even with good soldering). Maybe the first thing to say here is maybe I’m just paranoid and the connections are 99.999% reliable.

One thing I’ve done is move all my componentry to places on the frame where I can easily SEE all the connections and wires…in the past I might have had a component (or connection) or two between a top and bottom plate, etc, and that got me into trouble.

Basically…

It always seems to me like some wire might back out of a connector, or a wire could fray/break, etc.

I’ve been “fixing” that by using strain relief and hot glue…but sometimes, esp with the hot glue, it just seems like I’m making a mess (but maybe I shouldn’t worry about that).

Anyway, I was wondering what you guys do to be essentially 100% certain that a wire isn’t going to come loose, or back out of a connector, etc.

I know the drone/RC world uses many different kinds of connectors…but when it’s just solder and/or a press-fit connections (with NO CLICK…like to a 4-in-1 ESC or with push-on PIN connectors), what do you do about those?

Thanks…

2

This is everything that you should now about cabling, splicing, connectors : https://nepp.nasa.gov/files/27631/NSTD87394A.pdf look around page 89, but worth reading the whole docs.

Hot glue is evil and should be excommunicated by the church of RC :slight_smile:
Seriously, it will go brittle in a couple of months and fell off. Never trust hot glue. If you absolutely have to glue then use non acidic silicone https://www.banggood.com/45g-High-Temperature-704-Electronic-Devices-Silicone-Rubber-Adhesive-Sealant-Glue-p-1286213.html

1 Like
3

Thanks for that nasa link @Eosbandi

It should be required reading for all, even though I knew most of it there are always a few little snippets of new knowledge to learn.

4

Thanks very much Andreas. Lots of good info on there. :slight_smile:

Bill