Sick of poor quality Electrical connectors

Thank's Beatit,
I ended up having to do that while on the road, will get good connectors for all the other electrical stuff

Cheers

Roland

Thank's sdr00y
I have just sent them an e-mail
Cheers
Roland

I'll second that, I use them in my planes and 4x4. I get them from Japan though, cheaper unit price and delivery. Not sure why it's cheaper to deliver from Japan than Adelaide!!(usd2.50) aircraft-world.com/shopexd.asp?id=1740

Phil
I know this has been asked before, BUT, what is the convention for the + & - with these3 plugs ? I got so many different answers that I went to anderson plugs as for us dummies they are marked
Vince

Those plugs look cute - haven't seen them before.

They look like caravan plugs.

My guess is that positive would be one that is at right angles to the longest side of plug.

Robin Miller

Phil G
Do you have to solder the deans plug connection?
If so isn't it liable to come apart. If you don't solder how do you connect it?

Vince, Robin's correct. The top part of the "T" is pos. They tell you that with the instructions. And the female connector comes from the power source, the male on the fridge, light, inverter or whatever.

TH, yes, your only option is to solder the wires on. I solder up to 8Ga wire onto the terminals and protect the joints with heat shrink. If you solder correctly, then you have a strong joint, which won't come apart. I sit the connector in a vice, and have the two bits plugged together, so the other one acts as a heat sink. I pre-tin the terminal, pre-tin the wire then melt the two together. Need a nice hot solder iron for a short period of time - Mine is an 60watt set at 400degrees.

they retail at $7.95 a set from Model Flight, but they also sell Chinese copies for $3.95 a set. I'd buy the genuine Deans from the USA, have plastic thats not quite as good.

whoops, last line says the plastic on the Cheap Chinese copies is not as good.

Yes, Hella low voltage plugs and sockets would be the way to go, positive connection with ample current carrying capacity.

Simple, effective, very easy to connect & wire up and even low cost.

I to use the house hold looking plug has only 2 prongs one for power and the other for earth direct 2 battery. The minium size cable to use for the distance from the battery to back of vehicle is 6mm, any thing over 6mtrs and you start to loose amps, which then uses excessive battery power.
If you ever get the chance pull the dash apart and have a look at the size of the wire running to the cigerette lighter, you will be suprised,most are only 1-2 mm, no where near heavy enough to run a fridge. Its no wonder so many people have fridge problems using this sort of power supply. Col

Hey Mike

Can you actually terminate them ? I know people who could seriously use such skills on a production line.

Robin Miller

I would have thought a 5 year old with poor soldering skills could have terminated them!?

Mike Harding

Yeah But its illegal to employ people with such talent whilst still so young !

Robin Miller

Cannon Plugs
I'm sure that they work fine, they are actually professional audio plugs and sockets.
Same as I have used 3 pin mic plugs and sockets for my CB and GPS power outlet

cheers

Hi Granpa

They are called Merit plugs - also from Jaycar etc

Robin Miller

Same here. I have standardized on Anderson plugs throughout

The advantage of every traveller standardising on the one type of plug means that you can swap gear between vehicles in an emergency - without blowing things up from reverse polarity connection.

Currently there are a lot of "standards" in use.

Hopefully the Anderson Powerpoles (Red+Black) and SB Connectors (Grey) will become the standard - genderless connectors (same plug and socket) and silver-plated connectors are fantastic.

Hi Mike,
As I guess you know, the Anderson Powerpoles have been around a long time - they were commonly used in the R/C cars before Deans Ultraplugs came on the scene (about 15 years ago), but the Deans stuff had less resistance (when pushing through 100+amps) and people stopped using the powerpoles. Naturally both are a good product, and, like you say the powerpoles are genderless.

Can't see anything become standardised in the back of our trucks - theres too many options there that can easily carry 10 amps.

Cheers
phil

I don't think the Anderson connectors have a chassis mount unit, do they?

Mike Harding

Mike h,
Cut and Paste this:
http://www.powerwerx.com/product.asp?ProdID=1784&CtgID=1681

Sorry I couldn't make the link work.

I don't know how they had a problem with contact resistance - the 30 Amp Powerpole has a Contact resistance of 0.6 milliohm - maybe they were testing from a battery that was only 70% charged by the Alternator.

You can get mounting plates that allow panel mounting. I just nible or file a slot.

Bloody mind readers !!!!

I was about to post a link to the Two-way Panel Connector and I see Phils added the Four-way !

As an example of the versatility of the genderless connector, I have a 13.8 volt power supply I use to either connect loads directly to it or to connect it to a battery to float charge it.

No special cables are needed - and the "charger" connector doesn't have any bare metal that can be shorted out.

Mike R,
Don't have alternators in R/C (remote control) 1/10th scale cars :-)))
The R/C car guys will draw 100-150 amps at times through small connectors, so low resistance means more acceleration, which helps win races. Most will solder their battery packs in every race, just to gain a small advantage. And if tehy use any sort of plugs, they want ones that won't come apart.

I used to run a regulated 30amps through connectors and measure millivolt drop across the connectors to see what was best. All interesting and good fun, and while it matters in that sort of competition, its pretty irrelevant when running a fridge in the back of a truck.

At 100 amps peak the Powerpole will have a drop of 0.06 volt. Whoever tested it and had higher resistance must have got flux or solder on the contact surface or didn't solder/crimp it correctly.

Andersons have very definite detent - I see nothing on the Dean to provide a detent. When people use the 50 125 amp for trailer connections they don't use lock - the detent is adequate.

"As an example of the versatility of the genderless connector"......

Hehehe I do the same - 13.8 power supply etc etc, and I agree wholeheartedly about the benefit of the genderless connector. But I bought a heap of the Deans some years ago, and everything in my truck has them - fridges, lights, voltmeters, ammeters, low voltage cutout........... so too late to change, and I trust the Deans 100% to not come apart on the corrugations - maybe 99% for the powerpoles :-)))

But I can't see anything getting standardised - too many good alternatives out there.

Mike,
The resistance is on paper when new. Resistance of a used connector is greater.

Yep, theres no detent - deliberately - so its flat surface to flat surface. But the spring makes them tighter than the powerpoles to pull apart.