Copyright © Parallax Inc.
ELEV-8 Quadcopter Kit (#80000)
Version 1.
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Page 14 of 26
Step 7: Solder the Power Harness Together
In this step, you will solder together your ELEV-8 quadcopter’s power
harness. It will provide the connection between the battery pack and the
ESCs (and LED tapes if you are using them).
1.
Find the black and red 12 AWG wires in your ELEV-8 Electronic Kit;
these will be the power harness leads. Strip 1/4 inch of insulation off
one end of each wire.
2.
Solder all the ESC speed controllers’ red leads to the single 12 AWG
red lead, ends-to-end. Likewise, solder all of the ESC’s black leads to
the single 12 AWG black lead, ends-to-end as shown in the picture at
right, top.
3.
Cut two 1-1/2-inch lengths of 1/2” black tubing. Slip a piece of tubing
past
each of the two solder joints you just made on the power
harness so that they sit closest to the ESCs.
Don’t shrink them yet
,
just keep them out of the way of the solder joints.
4.
Position the power harness inside the ELEV-8 chassis bottom, but do
not secure it in place yet. The recommended layout is shown on the
following page.
5.
If you are using LED tapes, bundle together all of their red leads.
Align these thinner wires alongside the red 12 AWG wire in the
opposite direction from the ESCs’ wires and solder them into place, as
shown at right, middle. This will make a neater package for the heat-
shrink tubing.
6.
Likewise, solder the LED tapes’ black leads to the solder joint where
all the other black leads meet on the power harness.
7.
Slide the heat shrink tubing back up and over each solder joint.
Apply heat with a heat gun or hair dryer to shrink the tubing into
place, as shown at right, bottom.
12 AWG
power
lead
ESC
leads
LED
tape
leads
