Shortening a Motor Cable

Remember you can always coil up and tie off excess cable but you cannot easily gain extra length if you need it later. While it is possible to extend a motor cable, it's not ideal as you end up with a joint and a potential weak point in the cable.

Don't forget, its easy to cut it short, but much harder to make it longer! Also measure twice, cut once!

If you are not comfortable performing these tasks, you can of course contact support@foildrive.com or your local dealer to arrange to send your motor to one of our authorised repair centres for a service.

You'll Need:

- Soldering Skills

- Regular 20mm Spanner or Shifter

- Thin 20mm Spanner or Thin Shifter

- Wire cutters / Side snip

- Wire Stripper

- Cyanoacrylate Super Glue and Accelerator or Silicon

- Soldering Iron with Solder

- Heat Gun or torch

- 3x Pieces of 6mm Dual Wall Glue Heat Shrink

Process:

1. Remove Motor Cable from Box

Remove Internal Cover, remove heat shrink, unplug motor pins, loosen out lock nut of cable gland only, remove cable. Do not worry about which cable is which, this is easily determined later.

2. Measure out the length of cable you want remaining and cut cable

Measure twice, cut once!

Add 2-3cm extra for some working space and in case of further cutting/stripping errors

3. De-solder gold motor pins from excess cable.

We use leaded solder in Australia and a block of wood with a 4mm hole drilled in it to hold the pins while soldering.

4. Strip back 20-25mm of the outer grey sheathing of the cable

Ensure you do not cut or damage the internal insulation of the 3 core wires inside.

5. Seal the end of the sheathing.

Spread out the 3-core wire and drip a few drops of super glue to seal up the end of the wire so that water does not track down the inside of the cable and into your box.

6. Strip 3-4mm from the end of each of the wires and pre-tin with solder

7. Solder the gold connectors to each of the 3 wires.

Ensure a good solid joint is made with a nice shiny surface and no cold solder joints

8. Install the Cable gland and feed the cable thru the box

Ensure the direction and orientation of the cable gland parts is correct before feeding the cable thru the box!

9. Place 6mm Dual Wall heat shrink over the gold connectors inside the box and plug in the 3 pins in any order, pull the heat shrink over the pins to protect from short circuit.

IMPORTANT: Do Not Heat the Heat Shrink Yet!

10. Test the motor spinning direction is correct

With the propellers removed and the gold connectors protected from touching each other, power up the system and slowly run the motor observing the direction it is turning.

When looking top down at the motor (ie looking at the hub closest to you and the puck furthest from you) the motor should spin COUNTER CLOCKWISE.

If motor spinning Counter clockwise, continue to step 11.
If motor the wrong way, clockwise, simply remove the battery, switch any two of the gold connectors, repower and test again.

11. Use a heat gun or small hobby torch to heat up and shrink the heat shrink.

Ensure not to overheat heat or damage any components of the lid, box, electronics or cabling.

12. Reinstall and Tighten Cable Gland

Ensure centre section of the cable gland remains stationary when tightening outer lock nut.

We draw a pen line around the cable on the exterior surface so you can visually see if the cable has moved.

13. Replace the internal electronics cover

Ensure no cables are being pinched and that the antenna is poking thru the hole in the cover

14. Test the water tightness of the box by following the process of a “dunk test”

Installing Batteries into the Box | Gen1

To learn more, check out the other articles on our Help Centre which can be found under the 'Support' tab on the website.

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to us at support@foildrive.com.

Happy Foil Driving!

Shortening a Motor Cable | Gen1Updated 10 months ago

Remember you can always coil up and tie off excess cable but you cannot easily gain extra length if you need it later. While it is possible to extend a motor cable, it's not ideal as you end up with a joint and a potential weak point in the cable.