[philipa_240sx]

Just thought I would pass this along.

Durham Radio sells the 15/30/45 Amp Anderson Power Poles. Good pricing too. They are available in bulk packs of 10 along with individual housings and pins.

http://www.durhamradio.com/power-connectors.html

They also carry the crimper should you prefer not to solder:

http://www.durhamradio.com/pwrtool-r...io-canada.html

[philipa_240sx]

Update:

I recently purchased my Power Pole connectors and crimpers from Durham Radio. Very prompt service, well packaged, and the items arrived as described. I would recommend them to anyone.

My impressions of the APP's

- Much less effort to connect/disconnect than similar Deans connectors. Less risk of pulling on the wires and damaging them.

- The crimper also makes it much easier/faster to produce good connections. No soldering is required, but you can solder the connector if you prefer.

- The hermaphroditic nature of the APP connector means there are no distinct male & female ends. Fewer parts are needed and you never have to worry about having the 'wrong' ends when assembling packs and ESC's.

- Once correctly assembled, you cannot inadvertently reverse polarity. The color keyed housings also help visually identify the correct orientation when plugging in.

- The contacts are well shielded, no chances of shorting them together or against metal objects.

- The housings can be reused many times over. The crimp connectors can be easily removed and new ones are less than $0.50 ea.

- Since the connector halves dovetail you could easily take 2 packs, separate and reconfigure the connectors and reconnect the packs is series. When you want to revert to a single pack setup, just reverse the process. No tools, soldering, special harness' , etc are needed. Plus, a series pack will only have one extra 'connection' over a single pack... fewer points of failure and less resistance vs. a serial harness

Downsides? I have not found many, but there are a few you should be aware of:

- The APP's are larger overall than similar Deans. However, if you were to install the new 'covers' over your Deans connectors , they would be about the same. It is possible to cut the last 1/4" off the APP housing to shorten it up.

- The crimper may be pricey for some at $50 CDN.

- The hermaphroditic nature of the APP does have a downside... you can plug one battery into another, charger to ESC, etc. Either pay attention when handling batteries or better yet orient the connectors in a 'T' configuration:

1) The battery side connectors will simply dovetail together to form the T orientation.

2) The ESC/charger side will need to have the connector halves epoxied together as the dovetails do not match.

[Tomahawk]

Another benefit is other flyers at the field can't borrow your batteries because your Power poles won't fit their connectors!

I am a long time user of APP's. They were the only game in town when I started flying electric. Tamiya connectors were crap then and still are. You still find them every so often.
I routinely shorten my housings. You can easily cut off the portion up to the dimple in the housing and the connector will still be housed inside preventing any shorts. Shortening the housings definitely makes it easier for some planes were space is a problem to connect the battery up.
I did use the APP's to connect my esc to the motor also but this did create issues. Remember these were the brushed days and motors only had two wires coming off them. I would sometimes land and disconnect the motor and esc connector accidently and park the plane. Duh!! When bullet connectors came out, I replaced all my motor, esc connectors with bullets so the APP were only used on the batteries.

Definitely use the dovetails in the housings so the positive and negative terminals are together in some orientation because you will plug them in backwards when distracted and let the magic smoke out.

2) The ESC/charger side will need to have the connector halves epoxied together as the dovetails do not match.

Maybe I am not reading this correctly but I have always found an orientation that would work and never had to epoxy the connectors on the esc/charger side.

Long Live the Anderson Power Poles!

Chris

[philipa_240sx]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk

Maybe I am not reading this correctly but I have always found an orientation that would work and never had to epoxy the connectors on the esc/charger side.

Have you ever figured out an orientation that will not permit you to connect 2 Lipo packs together? That's what I am trying to prevent.

Yes, long live APP's... I'm converted.

[super_nova]

What about a source for higher Amp rated powerpoles?

[philipa_240sx]

The 45A PP's have been used for bursts at twice thier rating... +90A.

Based on user experiences, they seem to be very similar to Deans Ultra in terms of current handling capacity. Curiously, Deans does not actually publish current ratings for their connectors (at least none that I could find). Most of the figure's I've seen is just experience by other Deans users and not any 'official' figures.

As for larger Power Poles (ie. PP75 series), try Armitron Power Products:

http://www.armitronpower.ca/anderson.html

They also carry the West Mountain Radio crimper (same one as Durham radio).

[Tomahawk]

Originally Posted by philipa_240sx

Have you ever figured out an orientation that will not permit you to connect 2 Lipo packs together? That's what I am trying to prevent.

Yes, long live APP's... I'm converted.

I pulled out a couple of adapter plugs and tried a couple of plug orientations. I think I know what you are worried about. You must be stacking the APP's. For example Red on Black housing. This would allow you to short out your lipos if you plug two lipos together.
I have always mated the two housings side by side. If you plug your two lipos together it only allows black to black and red to red. Just like if you are going to run the pack in parallel. No shorting.
I do have to say I have never plugged two packs together but things do happen and mating the housings side by side should solve your problem.

I forgot to mention when I started flying electrics the Astro Zero Loss Connectors were available but expensive but definately the best at the time.

Chris

[philipa_240sx]

I used a side-by-side connection at first and it's possible to plug 2 batteries together. Not really an issue if you pay attention, but I decided I wanted a connection scheme that would prevent this.

My best solution was to turn the red connector 90 deg. However the mating connector on the ESC side does not have the correct dovetail, hence I had to epoxy the housing together. I don't really think Anderson ever intended this, but it works fine... they line up perfectly.

Now if they only made a more compact connector for my peanut sized planes... I'm stuck with JST's and I don't want a soldered connection on small 18-20ga wires... like you see with EC2, Deans Mini, or bullets.

[philipa_240sx]

Another source for APP's, esp. individual pieces:

Newark Canada:

http://canada.newark.com/

Just search for the following part no's:

Red 15/30/45A housing: # 29C5329 (APP# 1327)
Black 15/30/45A housing: # 29C5331 (APP# 1327G6)
15A Contact: # 29C5339 (APP# 1332)
30A Contact: # 29C5338 (APP# 1331)
45A Contact: # 88F3826 (APP# 261G2-LPBK)

There is little to choose between Durham Radio's '10 pair connector pack' and a similar number of APP's from Newark. Newark is a bit cheaper if you buy in bulk (25 or more) and you can get exactly what you want.

Regardless of where you buy, I strongly recommend buying spare contacts. The housings can be re-used several times over, the contacts are disposable... they are only $0.18 (15 & 30A) or $0.45 (40A) each.

-------------------

A question was raised earlier about the amp capacity. APP's are rated for continuous usage at their amp ratings. Just like Deans, etc, you can obviously push them much harder for short bursts.

One thing I do like about crimp connectors is there is no fear of exceeding the 180-200F point at which solder melts!

[philipa_240sx]

A few shots of completed APP connectors:

#1: 2 lipo connectors on left, charger connector on right. I have keyed my APP's to prevent plugging batteries together. This requires orienting the ESC/charger plugs differently... just forget the built-in dovetails, orient the plug to fit the battery, and CA the 2 halves together.

#2: Comparison with Deans. The pic is not at a good angle, but width and depth are very close. It's just the overall length that changes. You can also cut off the last 1/4" of the APP housing which compares favorably with Deans and heat shrink tubing combined.

#3: Connectors in use.

#4: 2 battery connectors laying side by each. Look carefully... the red connector will not mate together. No possibility to inadvertently connect them together or shorting 2 batteries.