Motor Wiring

Exactly where to put the capacitors and motor leads is confusing for many beginners and even some long time RC hobbyists. Keep in mind that most of the time, you'll have the capacitors that you'll need on hand. They will either be included inside the motor package, or possible even the speed controller. However, if you need to purchase them separately, you'll need 3 0.1µF (50V) ceramic capacitors. You should be able to pick these up at nearly any hobby store, or even Radio Shack. You should also ensure that your motor doesn't have capacitors preinstalled. Many motors, such as the Speed Gems Pro, are currently being produced with preinstalled surface-mounted capacitors. This means all you'll need to do is solder on your motor leads, and you'll be ready to go.

Below I have a few pictures of my Speed Gems Onyx, showing the locations where I've soldered my capacitors and motors leads. Some people actually solder the ends of the capacitors directly to the motor can instead of using the small tabs between the brush hoods. I avoid this for one reason, I don't want to have to re-solder every time I take my motor apart to clean it. Using the small tabs between the brush hoods will accomplish the same thing as soldering the capacitors to the motor can. You can also put all three capacitors on the same side of the motor if you wish, but the points they connect to should be the same. One capacitor goes from the positive side to the negative side, one goes from the negative side to the small tab or motor can, and one goes from the positive side to the small tab or motor can. Your motor leads are pretty much self explanatory. One goes to the positive side and one goes to the negative side. You don't have to always make red positive, but I recommend you always keep the colors the same from motor to motor so you don't get confused and hook a motor up backwards later on.

Capacitors should be soldered on. Although there are ways to avoid this, such as placing the capacitor leads under clip-on motor leads, I wouldn't recommend it. The result will be a sloppy connection, and if the capacitor would happen to come loose it's possible you could lose control of your truck which may result in a crash and broken parts.

Soldering is easy to learn, and only requires a little practice. If you haven't soldered anything before, I recommend reading both the Balak Racing Soldering Tutorial and The Basic Soldering Guide. They contain some basic tips and information to help you get started. Motor leads can be soldered or you can purchase clip-on leads that slide on the motor tabs. However, since you have to solder the capacitors, you might as well solder the motor leads and save yourself a few bucks in my opinion.

In this first image you can see the capacitor that runs from + to -. I find it's easier to put two capacitors on one side of the motor and one on the other. However, as I mentioned before, you can put them all on the same side if you wish.

Now you see the other two capacitors. One running from the positive side to the small tab and one running from the negative side to the small tab. You can solder the ends to the motor can instead of the tab but I think, after examining your motor, you can understand how this would make it more difficult to perform maintenance on it.

This image shows you the end of the motor can that has the brush hoods. This is the area the brushes slide into. The brushes are the screwed down tabs with a braided line that runs into a rectangular brush. The brushes are held in place by the motor springs. You also see that one side of the motor is marked +. The other will be the negative side. This should be how all the Speed Gems 2 looks. Other motors will be similar. The positive sign shows you which side is which for your motor leads and for when you install the capacitors.

This last picture shows the end bell from above. I have pointed out the + sign that marks the positive side on this endbell. From that marking, it's easy to determine which brush hood lies on the positive side of the end bell and which brush hood lies on the negative side. So as long as you solder your motor lead, brush, or capacitor to the correct side, you can use any point on that brush hood.