Are my wires copper or aluminum?

ESK8 Electronics
1

you can always tell by the color right? it could be tinned at the end and silver but if it’s silver wire it’s aluminum right? I have lots of really nice feeling silicone 10 awg in brands Ternigy and superworm but i think it’s aluminum now. the only one that has a copper color and a very strong one is dean’s wet noodle. but they only come in 12 awg.

2

I thought the silicone wire was tinned copper…

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3

don’t know what you mean but now looking around the internet trying to find “10 awg copper multistrand silicone wire” there are a lot of places selling what says is copper but even in the pictures it looks aluminum

4

I challenge anyone to find a real 10awg multistrand copper wire with silicone cover. I see not a single picture of wire that’s copper. they say copper but in the pictures they’re silver.

5

It’s tinned copper…to make soldering to it easier. Cut some and have a look at the cross section. It will not be silver, but rather an orangey copper

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6

@hummie You will be able to tell by weight. Aluminum is only 1/3 the density of copper. If you have a copper wire an an aluminum wire to compare, the aluminum one will be much much lighter.

I have yet to find a single aluminum wire in all my silicone.

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7

Deans wet noodle is always my choice. It is by far the most flexible 12AWG wire on the market, also 12AWG is more than enough for any esk8 application

8

What’s the prize? I have some

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9

tinned wire would just be silver at the ends right and this stuff I have is silver all over so don’t think it’s tinned. Right? I think turnigy and superworm wires might be aluminum or at least some are

10

Each strand is tinned the whole length of the wire.

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11

Lol dude the whole thing tip to tip is tinned

12

aha. so say the manufacturer, my scale, and you guys. I thought tinning was just when you add solder at the end. thanks

but @ThermalM16 why not 10 awg instead of 12? especially on the motor wires ironically with the high motor amp setting you can have way more amps in the motor than the battery wires. at least split in half I think by having the three wires instead of 2

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13

Yes when you or I are “tinning” a wire or connector it’s referring to coating the tip, but not in that sense

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14

The copper cylinders are just tin-plated when they’re manufactured, I don’t even think it’s a “solder” alloy exactly but it functions the same.

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15

Yeah the heat would ruin the strands if it was soldered and it would be stiff

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16

The heat dissipated in the wire won’t even be warm to the touch with 12AWG motor wires. I use 22AWG wires (due to ease of soldering) to power VESCs and as phase wires in testing and they don’t even get warm to the touch. Running 12 AWG wires is overkill. Most builds on here would be perfectly fine with 14AWG. 10AWG is getting you that extra 0.01% performance increase that isn’t even noticeable when you factor in everything else going on with these setups

17

what motor amps are you set at?

with current squared times resistance it’s the amount of current that is the most important with its square relationship, and then with motor current being possibly way higher than the battery wire current it makes sense to have thicker motor wires than battery to me

18

For the public record, I have to recommend against this.

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19

Have you tried superworm? Me and @longhairedboy use it as well as lots if others.

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20

Is similar to

…except this time we have proof on the public record