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Silicone wire tests
YouTube channel
Wed 19 September 2018
Tests We at dronelab highly recommend using exclusively silicone wire for drones and other
About us RC craft. The high strand count and silicon insolation material guarantee excellent
flexibility and resistance to vibration. Additionally, thanks to the high temperature
tolerance of the silicon, soldering these wires is very easy. To choose the proper gauge
(thickness) of wire, we performed the following wire current capacity tests.

Video

Maximum current

The most basic and important takeaway from these tests is how much current can each
wire handle. This chart represents our somewhat conservative recommendations. The 10
second "punch" time we assumed is longer than what some pilots ever need, and this

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time plays an important role in the current capacity. Do not expect this relation to be
proportional (half the time does NOT allow double the current!). We have not performed
enough tests to comfortably give any recommendations for shorter loads, so for now we
can only say that very short burst (1-2 seconds) can be 50% over the rating in the table.

We have noticed that the 18 AWG wire seemed to underperform, as the results for it
stand out from the remaining wires. This is especially visible in the voltage drop charts
below. All tests were performed multiple times, so it was not a measurement error. We
believe that the wire we have was mis-manufactured - contains fewer wire strands than it
should. This anomaly is within a reasonable tolerance (+/- 5%). We believe that the wire
should have passed the 60A test, however we will not adjust our results to match our
expectations. We might repeat this test if we purchase more 18 AWG wire from a
different production batch and update the results here.

Voltage drop

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These charts show the voltage drop over 20cm of wire (a 10cm battery lead with positive
and negative wire) at a given current. This is part of the "sag" that is noticable when
running at high current. The results for wires with connectors are simulated, based on our
measurements of wire resistance and connector resistance.

Weight

The benefit of a thicker wire comes at the cost of a higher weight. For a small drone with
50A punch, it might be benefitial to have a 18AWG wire + XT30 connector over a 14AWG
wire + XT60 connector. At 10cm of battery lead, this will only increase the sag by 0.1V,
but will reduce the weight of the system by 8g (5g connector, 3g wires).

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To close the loop, a "maximum recommended current per gram of wire per meter" chart
was compiled. The flatness of this result suggests that all of our measurements were
consistant. More copper means more weight, but also more current capacity. The results
check out.

Resistance
For the sake of completness, we provide a measured resistance over 1 meter on a warm
wire (approx 60-100C).

24 AWG 20 AWG 18 AWG 16 AWG 14 AWG 12 AWG 10 AWG

87.0 mΩ/m 40.0 mΩ/m 28.3 mΩ/m 15.3 mΩ/m 11.2 mΩ/m 6.80 mΩ/m 4.12 mΩ/m

Methodology
The wires were tested in a "burst" scenario, where the tested current was applied for 10
seconds. Prior to a "burst", a lower current was held, to keep the wire pre-warmed to
approximately 30-50 degrees. A test would be considered failed, if any smoke was
noticed, indicating heat damage to the insulation. All tested wires were the same length
(17cm), and were connected directly to the terminals of the 600 Ampere power supply.
Note that the voltage applied to the wire during the test has no significance to the
experiment - the power a wire can carry is only limited by the current capacity, and - in
practice - independent from the voltage.

The tests were performed on a chilly Swedish afternoon with an ambient temperature of
just 5 degrees C, but this should not influence the results too much, as the point of failure
of the wires is well beyond 200C, and each tested wire was pre-heated before the 10
second punch. Most of the wires were purchased at Hobbyking, and were initially
inspected for build quality - we confirmed the high strand count, and confirmed that the
insulation material was indeed silicone, as it did not melt at 250 degrees. You should
expect similar results from wires purchased at similarly reputable vendors.

Signal wires
For all the connections that don’t carry motor current - like the power and signal to a
camera, receiver or VTX, we also recommend silicone wire due to its resistance to
vibration and ease of soldering. Although we omitted it in the video, a tiny 30AWG wire
was tested to handle 5A of continuous current and a resistance of 400mΩ/m. However,
that gauge is so slim, that for additional mechanical robustness we would recommend
AWG28 or even AWG26 for such connections.

Final note
We try our best to offer usable data and make your drone building experience easier.

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However, DRONELAB is a not for profit venture, that we run as an afternoon hobby. We
take absolutely no responsibility for anything you find on this site or our youtube channel.
Nonetheless, if you disagree with our recommendations or you found a mistake in our
data, don't hesitate to contact us.

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