Favorite connectors

[sensei]

I am not a big fan of Deans connectors, I like using JSTs, EC 2,3, and 5 connectors for open easy access applications. If I have a scenario that is tight and a one handed operation for the connecting and disconnecting of my batteries, then I go with APP, much easier to manipulate with one hand, at least for me. I personally have never had an issue with a loose or broken APP connector over the years, I attribute that to using soft strand wire and the proper crimp tooling. I guess as always, many issues generated come down to installation and application procedures. Anyway I think everyone should use what works for them and what they are comfortable with.

Happy Flying Guys,

Bob

 

[Jetpainter]

I saw something odd at the field the other day. A guy had some new 6S batteries the came with EC5's on them. The problem was they had one male and one female plated connector in each blue housing making them unusable with any other EC5.

 

[Krzy4RC]

Since they are already keyed, seems like that doesnt make much sense. But, I would imagine that someone assembled them themselves and did it that way. Maybe they were trying to prevent plugging in backwards, but the housing already prevents that.

Since you can buy the connectors in pieces I guess you can assemble them any way you want.

 

[Krzy4RC]

Funny, I just did a quick search and found a couple of guys that say they do that intentionally to prevent plugging them in wrong. No one called them on it. I guess to each his own, but there is a standard in the market when you buy the batts with connectors already installed.

 

[Jetpainter]

It would suck to buy a battery like he did with the EC5's pre-installed and not be able to plug them in to a parallel board without making an adapter.

Speaking of plugging batteries in backwards, another guy at our field uses some massive single connectors that you can plug in backwards. And he has! It made for some colorful language.

 

[Krzy4RC]

In high amp applications, its not too uncommon to use bullet connectors. But, the usual convention is to use a female on the positive side and a male on the negative side to prevent the inadvertent mis-step....

The bullets can sometime give you the best efficiency at high amps.

 

[JAG]

In a high amperage application I would definetly make them fool proof. Because mistakes happen and they can be costly.

 

[Xpress]

I take issue withe the trolling on Power Poles. Sure every connector has its plus and minus', but to summarily call the Power Poles crap is just trolling...and very untrue. The Power Poles come from the industrial world. The big players that use big power prefer crimps over solder as that is a much more consistently efficient connection.

I have used thousands of these connector and have very few issues and I use them from my smaller electrics to to 93" laser where I pull over 130 amps. They are quality connectors if taken care of. Pull any connector by the wire and you will break them or at least shorten their life.

Ok, off the soap box...but come on guys lay off the trolling...

Anderson Power Poles are very popular and they definitely seem to work well for most people. If you like them then use them, that's what I have to say.

I tried them and was so unimpressed with them that I deposited all of the APP's and crimper tool into someone elses donation bin for them to use since they liked them. The funny thing is I've always had crimp joints fail, even using proper crimping tools that cost more than what a quality set of soldering tools will cost. I've used them in racing applications and always seem to get failures, so to me they're not suitable for mine or my friends applications. I always seem to have my experiences discredited because so and so is a such and such engineer with more experience than me, and they always try to go off of the old NASA uses them, so should we excuse- why people try to bring up NASA in their arguments is beside me, this isn't rocket science (and besides, NASA has had many failures along the way)

I've never really had a solder joint fail so I don't see any reason to switch. I always insulate with good heat shrink and use enough of it to completely cover the exposed joint and down the insulation at least the same length as the exposed joint.

 

[Snoopy1]

I have to ask. Have used EC and Deans connection they both work good for me just that I have always if possible used Deans and the reason is while building EC connectors at the last stage heating up the connector to push the wire in I always get some solder on the the side and this makes it dam difficult to push the connector into the holder. Is there a secret that I am missing. They are bam hard to push in with a little bit of solder on the side, have even crushed the EC connecter trying to push the pin in.

 

[Jetpainter]

With the wire tinned it doesn't take a lot of solder to make a nice joint. I just make sure when I put some in the end I don't over fill it. I've had a few spill over and had to do some filing. But I've found the biggest problem for snapping the blue end on is cheap terminals. The e-Flight ones go together much easier then some of the cheap Chinese ones. I've heard the ones from Motion RC aren't bad either. I bought some on Ebay once that were a dream to use, but who knows what brand they were. On some of the cheap ones the terminal has to be pretty hot to get it to snap together. And if you have to stop and clean off solder it's not hot enough to work.

That's been my experience anyway other opinions may vary.