Battery connections

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by dheaton

Yes, you are right the blue one is an EC3. I didn't even look to see if it was on the side and it is. The red one has no markings and does not fit the ec3 connector. The red one is on the end of a new Super Tigre Electric power 20A speed control. Hmm just noticed that is says on the esc "2-35 Lipo-2A BEC. Does that mean it needs to be hooked to a Lipo battery? The battery that I have came with my Super Cub and is a 11.1v 1300mah 15c.

Should read 2 - 3S ?

Your battery is fine ... as that's a 3S

And ESC doesn't actually care where it gets power from NiMh, LiPo, LiFe ... it will auto detect. As long as you stay within voltage limits ... NOMINAL voltage limits ... a 3S will say 11.1V on literature NOMINAL, but in fact when charged is 12.6V ... that's fine.


Nigel

[rcers]

Originally Posted by solentlife

Should read 2 - 3S ?

Your battery is fine ... as that's a 3S

And ESC doesn't actually care where it gets power from NiMh, LiPo, LiFe ... it will auto detect. As long as you stay within voltage limits ... NOMINAL voltage limits ... a 3S will say 11.1V on literature NOMINAL, but in fact when charged is 12.6V ... that's fine.


Nigel

Nigel the ESC has no way of detecting what "type" of cell is powering it - volts are volts. Some auto-detect starting voltage and assume a cutoff. Others you select the type of cells or the actual cutoff voltage.

They are not smart enough to know the cells by themselves though.

Mike

[cyclops2]

My little Feigao 6 amp ESCs state . When connecting a CHARGED battery. The ESC will read the voltages when connected to determine cutoff voltages.

So if you want to trick the ESC with weak NIMH cells? It is your responsibility to know what you are doing.............

[dheaton]

Thanks for all the help. You guys have all been a big help with my question on my planes. This is all new to me so it is appreciated. I don't live anywhere close to a flying field or a club so I am on my own and with your hel I may have some success.

Thank you

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by rcers

Nigel the ESC has no way of detecting what "type" of cell is powering it - volts are volts. Some auto-detect starting voltage and assume a cutoff. Others you select the type of cells or the actual cutoff voltage.

They are not smart enough to know the cells by themselves though.

Mike

I should have expanded as you have now done ... Wife was pushing me out the door as I typed ... Taxi service again !! I was trying to tell the guy his battery with the model was fine for his ESc and failed miserably ...

What I meant to say was that once selected by programming .. the ESC will auto-detect cell count as in LiPo and NiMH ... based on voltage etc. The ESC doesn't care where it gets it's Volts from ...

Nigel

[Beemerider]

Originally Posted by kyleservicetech

Need to digress here

Most any company that has done quality control studies on soldered terminals versus crimped terminals have found that PROPERLY crimped connections are more reliable, and have lower overall resistance.
http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46890

But a crimped terminal can not be simply un-soldered and reused like a soldered connection.

As for the Anderson Power Pole connectors, we used them for decades at work, by the thousands every month. Very few if any problems with them. Those connectors we used at work were of a higher quality than the "Anderson Power Pole" connectors though.

Take a look:
http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64539

Soldering being done properly is the key. Not all know how to solder properly. It's a good skill worth knowing. If you have the proper type of soldering irons/guns (I've several) you can make and/or repair practically any electrical connection. I retired from the communications industry and we found out just how few could properly solder an RF connector on coax. As a result most customers started requiring a certain type of crimped connector hoping that would eliminate many of their system performance issues.

[cyclops2]

A crimped connector on massive, high current loads, of electricfork truck battery top terminal.
All are none crimps & done on site with a very time consuming shaped soldering iron and a solder pot. I saw many Clark & Yale forktruck batteries exchanged on site. All had the battery cables transferred to the new battery by soldering the cable in place.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by cyclops2

A crimped connector on massive, high current loads, of electricfork truck battery top terminal.
All are none crimps & done on site with a very time consuming shaped soldering iron and a solder pot. I saw many Clark & Yale forktruck batteries exchanged on site. All had the battery cables transferred to the new battery by soldering the cable in place.

One of the issues here is a proper crimping tool for those fork lift batteries are danged expensive. (If they even make them)

Some of those crimping tools we used at work on those high voltage circuit breaker connectors that were rated to carry 800 Amps continuous at 38KV (and 16,000 Amps under fault conditions) cost more than some new cars. These crimping tools provided a gas tight connection.

And yes, we did have occasional issues on some purchased low voltage control cable assemblies where the vendor used the wrong sized die on the crimping tool. The wires simply fell out. One batch got past inspections and QA and got shipped to a customer in North East USA. I spent a month criss crossing customer locations replacing them all.

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by kyleservicetech

One of the issues here is a proper crimping tool for those fork lift batteries are danged expensive. (If they even make them)

Some of those crimping tools we used at work on those high voltage circuit breaker connectors that were rated to carry 800 Amps continuous at 38KV (and 16,000 Amps under fault conditions) cost more than some new cars. These crimping tools provided a gas tight connection.

And yes, we did have occasional issues on some purchased low voltage control cable assemblies where the vendor used the wrong sized die on the crimping tool. The wires simply fell out. One batch got past inspections and QA and got shipped to a customer in North East USA. I spent a month criss crossing customer locations replacing them all.

I know this is a different product line ... but the subject of wrong die used in the crimper is not only with electrical.

Many yachts have TALURIT fittings, often mistakenly called SWAGE ... these are bronze collars that are used to create eye's in wire stays ... particularly on masts. The Rigger fits the collar, puts the cable and eye into the press, pulls tight the eye to desired size and then operates the hydraulic press to 'crimp' the Talurit.

Fine ... but inexperienced operators can and do forget to set the die size correctly, and then to compound the error 'crimp' twice ... Not long after under load - the Talurit fails ...

The secret here is the Correct size crimp.... the correct pressure applied.

On some ships I was on ... we had special crimp tools that we could use on deck for light duties. We would make the eye, crimp ... the tool had a setting that basically the 'jaws' would only press to and not more.

I have to say though that I appreciate Kyle and his experience ... but on our models - I go the solder route.. somehow I feel more secure with solder !!

Nigel

[cyclops2]

I was a Industrial Electrican between jobs. So I did work with Greenlee Hydraulic Wire Compression tools.

We had bad wire, bad compression sleeves, bad - miss marked dies, low hydraulic oil, wrong hydraulic oil which caused the following, leaking hydraulic pressure reliefs & leaking hydraulic valves.

Moral is ?

They really are out to screw us up.

Rich

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by solentlife

I have to say though that I appreciate Kyle and his experience ... but on our models - I go the solder route.. somehow I feel more secure with solder !!

Nigel

Lets see:
Assembly of a Deans connector with a temperature regulated soldering iron will set you back about $50 for a quality temperature regulated soldering iron.

Purchasing an quality industrial production line crimper for the same connector will set you back about 10 times that $50. So, draw your own conclusions!

Yes, you can buy those $39 Anderson Powerpole crimpers, and I've got one myself. These $39 crimpers work very well. But, they won't last for years of daily use on a production line.

Take a look at one of these crimping tools.
http://www.jameco.com/1/1/6975-59824...-assembly.html

Or this one:
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/sto...0001_853353_-1
This is the crimping tool only, dies for your terminals not included.

[cyclops2]

My heavy duty crimper is a tap with the hammer to hold the sleeve on the wire reliably. Then the the V block & V wedge come to the vise. Carefull line up. SQUEEZE. Looks as good as any power tool.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by cyclops2

My heavy duty crimper is a tap with the hammer to hold the sleeve on the wire reliably. Then the the V block & V wedge come to the vise. Carefull line up. SQUEEZE. Looks as good as any power tool.

Yeah
I've got two of those cheap Radio Shack terminal crimpers for servo wire sizes. One of them crimps the wires so loose, they can easily be pulled out. the other one over-crimps them to the point of nearly cutting the wires off during the crimping job.

What I use is a quality crimper purchased from www.digikey.com for about $50 that isn't production quality, but does work very well. I've also used those connectors for aileron and flap connectors for my giant scale models. This makes for two six wire connectors rather than four three wire connectors. Plus, these connectors are of the locking type. They don't come apart unless their release tab is pushed first.

Take a look:
http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64209

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by kyleservicetech

Lets see:
Assembly of a Deans connector with a temperature regulated soldering iron will set you back about $50 for a quality temperature regulated soldering iron.

Purchasing an quality industrial production line crimper for the same connector will set you back about 10 times that $50. So, draw your own conclusions! ..............

No prob .. I know you are experienced in this and would never argue.

I'm a Deans person but have got fed up with HK supplying with XT60 .. so now I use both. I was cutting of the XT60's and fitting Deans, they are slightly smaller and nestle in cramped places better .. But then decided to swap over to XT60's where model will take the size.
My soldering is really dictated by items I receive ... and they seem to serve me well.

Cheers
Nigel