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Electric Stunt => Gettin all AMP'ed up! => Topic started by: John KruziK on March 01, 2013, 12:51:04 PM
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Is one type of battery connector better than another? Where is a good place to purchase? Thanks
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You will get a variety of answers on this one. Believe it or not silver has a lower contact resistance than gold. I use Anderson Power Pole connectors. I started with them 20 years ago in the RC car world. I have always soldered mine. Have never had a failure. A look alike is available from Hobby King for cheep. Also their is no male or female. If you have black and red pain on hand it is never the wrong sex.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15421__PA45_Connectors_6sets_bag_.html
I like them because they do not require shrink tubing and the soldering of the connector pin takes place outside of the plastic shell. I have had trouble melting the shell when soldering other types of connectors.
Truth of the matter is that there is a lot of good connectors out there. Whatever you pick learn how to use it and stick with it. That way you won't have incompatibility between chargers, and new battries. Cheaper in the long run.
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As John says lots of possible answers to this one. I use 4mm connectors like these. (Which are just bigger [3.5mm] versions of those which come attached to most motors).
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4mm-gold-connectors-10-pairs-FREE-heat-shrink-/130768847491?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item1e726e4283
and like John I am very happy with them. Also (Like John) I started using these during my time with electric off road buggies many years ago.
I'm sure some will argue otherwise but I believe most will probably admit that when that started out in ECL they used whatever came with their 1st pack of cells and stuck with them. I like having separate connectors on each lead rather than a single connector block because it allows me to route the wires independently should space inside the model be at a premium. Having to heat shrink each individually is a small price to pay in my opinion but each to his own as long as they are rated for the power I think it's very much a personal thing.
TTFN
John.
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I started off with Anderson Power Poles, basically I love them,,
well until you get into batteries that have BIG wire,, then they can be a pain,
I then discovered that they are hard to fit inside some narrow tight fuselages,, especially because they are kind of long,,
then I went back to Deans connectors,, once I was shown the "trick" for soldering them, I have had no problems whatsoever with them,,
the trick is to dedicate one female, and one male connector as soldering tools,, when you are soldering a male connector, plug it into the female connector first,, that way the heat from soldering will not allow the metal pins to move around inside the heat softened plastic,, then after soldering, let it cool, remove the soldering jig (plug) and the connectors will still slide together like maomma intended them to,, #^ #^ y1
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What Mark said. y1
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I totally agree with Mark's comments.
At RSM we solder all connectors when we make up our "systems" so I have personal experience in soldering up perhaps as many as 200 Deans Connectors to batteries and ESCs. It is essential to use the "Jig" idea if you want to keep the metal tabs from moving due to the heat generated when soldering on the wires. Dedicating one male and one female Deans Connector for that task is a small price to pay.
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Likewise.
Mark, Mike, and Eric have it right!! y1
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Up to a few weeks ago I would have agreed that Deans are the way to go.
If you mix the brand of ' Deans', and this is inevitable if you buy batteries with them
fitted the connection can be sloppy to downright impossible to put together.
If you fly RC as well, as I do, the major problem is that you can get a jittery on/off connection
when plugging your battery into your ESC that 2.4ghz receivers see as power failure with
the result that receiver does not bind properly. A flashing led on the receiver instead of solid
with predictable results. Your plane will control well enough to take off with some receivers.
I am going back to 3.5mm or larger quality tubulars from Castle or Hyperion.
Main reason for the post though was to give a big thank you to RSM and Eric for their
amazing customer service and patience in sorting out my problems with a timer.
Turned out the problem was with my ESC, timer was fine. When I purchased a second timer
they sent me the second timer installed on one of their very nice 70amp esc's.
Thank you Eric, very much appreciated. John
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Up to a few weeks ago I would have agreed that Deans are the way to go.
If you mix the brand of ' Deans', and this is inevitable if you buy batteries with them
fitted the connection can be sloppy to downright impossible to put together.
Yes, but if you're going to change connectors anyway, you can just change to genuine Deans throughout and unless the problems is with the real deal, it should go away.
(And to my knowledge the real Deans connector is as solid as a rock)
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agreed with Tim,, I have seen some of the batteries come with a "clone" connector,, problems,, after problems,, again, do you want to test something, compete with it,,
I pylon race,, EF-1 as do some of the Adamisins,,
please only use real Deans,,