Electrical connectors: where to use a mini, large, or Deans connector

[Grudge]

Which way do most of you do your Dean's connectors. Male on battery or gun?

[ShelledPants]

Originally Posted by multitech

Which way do most of you do your Dean's connectors. Male on battery or gun?

Most batteries which have them pre-Deaned come with Female on battery, so male on Gun sounds like a good idea.

[kalnaren]

Anyone use powerpul connectors on their gun? They're used a lot in R/C aircraft and amateur radio because they'll take like 40 amps consistent, not sure how well they'd go for something like this.

[Amos]

Male on gun, Female on battery.

DEANS ON EVERYTHING.

[Marriott]

Originally Posted by ShelledPants

Most batteries which have them pre-Deaned come with Female on battery, so male on Gun sounds like a good idea.

Originally Posted by Amos

Male on gun, Female on battery.

DEANS ON EVERYTHING.

ALWAYS Female on any Power Sourse..... Stops any unexpected nasty accidents with bridging and shorting out which can be very dangerous on some of these bad boy high power battery packs! Such as these Li-po's with 250 Amp Spikes....

Take in to acount 1 Amp can actually kill u depending on the situation... 250 Amps..... Ma Ma Mia - Toast..

[green_ninja]

I use to use a lot of tamiyas in the past (rc, electronics, etc) and I always hated the way the contacts didn't line up and connect properly. Not only that, disconnecting it was kind of a pain, especially in small areas.

Ever since the deans came out, I'd always love the feeling when it connects and disconnects. So, so damn smooothh... I don't know if it's just me but does anyone else love the feeling? It almost makes you want to install these dispite the fact of consistent current.

[Reckless]

sorry for the necro .. but I felt the need to comment on this, yes you are right, but for a reason. in auto racing same as while I was a Marine tech (before going back to automotive) we were taught how to solder but told flat out that a PROPER crimp connection will be all we do.... people ask, why? simple the vibrations that the boat or chassis takes. Soldering becomes brittle and the joint then becomes the weak spot that WILL break at the most in opertune time, whereas the crimp will take all the punishment. in airsoft our weapons don't take anywhere near the same vibration punishment so a proper solder joint buried in your gun is one less thing to worry about

Originally Posted by Richter

When it comes to strength and reliability in electrical connections, what I've seen and been told in the racing industry is that solder is out, and crimping is in.

I'm not talking about Canadian Tire crimpers and butt connectors, but more price ones (I've seen crimpers that sell for over $300). I was surprised when
I was first told about this, but apparently a good, proper sized crimp connection will outlast a solder connection.

This is probably a little overkill for airsoft, but I thought I'd mention it.

oh yeah.. DEANS ALL THE WAY .. all of my RC stuff is deans, and soon as I can all my Airsoft elec stuff will be deans too

[xaMdaM]

If I may add;

Basically, any tin connector will be crap. You want something with gold connectors for maximum energy transfer and minimum internal resistance.

If you are using a Mini-Tamiya connector, you will have trouble. Period. The principle which the mini-tamiya works is to use 2 very small clamp-like females that latch onto the male pin. These tend to weaken (read: spread) and you lose a lot of conductance that way. I found within a dozen plugs-and-unplugs, my kids guns using the Mini-Tamiya would barely operate after 100 shots on a fresh battery. I changed them to deans and now they work fine!!!

Recommended Connectors:
Deans:
http://www.toysonics.com/10-pairs-2-...or-t-plug.html




XT60
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=9572


EC3:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=9625



Note: Female EC3 are compatible with Male XT60. So if you have a male TX60 on your gun, you can use batteries with either XT60 or EC3 connectors. It doesn’t work the other way around though, so if you have an EC3 on your gun, you cant use a batter that has an XT60 connector.

[darchard123]

Just my thoughts...

I used to race R/C, I retired a couple of years ago. I raced in the age of professionally matched Sub-c cell’s that came as a pack of 6 and you would have to build the packs yourself! I also had about $1000 invested in battery management equipment, from individual cell matching dischargers, heat sinks and fans for charging cell at high rate and max voltage…you get the picture! So I can give some insight to this conversation and this is proven, tested, real world insight (not machine insight, real weather tested if you know what I mean)! To add the racing I did wasn’t a parking lot bash I raced big events and my car cost a couple of grand!

Building Battery packs:Your need a high end iron, no $15 dollar one will work! When I say that I mean it will solder a pack for you, but the damage it will do to the cells in the process will be serious, as the cheap irons do not get hot enough for a quick solder! When soldering a pack the iron must be very, very hot, and should only touch the cell for 3sec at the very most! If you hold the iron on any longer it will degrade the battery and reduce the life and power! You need a good iron, good solder and good flux, or you’re wasting your battery and your money!

Connectors:
For nimh batteries we would actually solder them directly to the speed control on the chassis right before the race via silver core flex wire! we would not use connectors as they gave resistance. Now when lipo came in soldering wires on and off was not an option, so we had to use ether gold deans or gold banana plugs! As for the solder and gold not mixing and all this other stuff mentioned on here, as long as you have quality solder and a good iron, you’re good to go. Solder and gold not mixing etc, no idea where that came from, I soldered many connectors and battery packs etc, you’re good with deans!

Wire:
The wire we used was high end silver core flex wire. This stuff has very low resistance and is very durable! The larger the gage the better the flow (e.g. use the largest possible). The wire we used could handle any condition and would not have issues with strain as someone said (to add I never heard about that before in all my years and we would solder the same wire on and off maybe 100 times in a given race weekend!).

So to some up, upgrade your AEG with Deans, Silver Flex wire, and quality silver core race solder and don’t forget to use a good iron like a hakko or a hakko clone when making packs (base line hakko is around $300, I got mine in ebay auction for $100...a steal!). I will add that I’m almost certain, you will improve the ROF and insure a smooth operating AEG. I know with racing we would reduce lap times allot with better wire and connectors! Then again in racing half a sec improvement per lap gained from good wires/connectors was a massive advantage to a racer! The benefits in Airsoft may not be as much but hey smooth rifle is better right?

Below I have highlighted examples of the right stuff!

Deans all the way (tamiya connectors are crap)!
Silver flex wire - Like this - http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXVFW5&P=7
Silver Solder - Like this http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXVHC4&P=ML
Quality Iron - The most basic Hakko is the best! (you can also get clones for cheap which also work)! A hakko is a life investment, it is the best there is and will last forever!
Battery bars look like this, they are used for building packs should you chose too (you can get them at any hobby shop - http://www.muchmoreusa.com/battery-accys/index.html

Check out local R/C shops for solder, wiring, single cells, chargers, lipos etc also there is allot of good online shops also!

Hope that helps

[Maedhros]

This is a fantastic resource from someone new to electric guns and most of it is over my head but I do have a question that is probably obvious to all of you. Once you've changed the connector on your battery to a Deans do you also have to change it on your charger or can you get chargers with Deans already on them or an adapter? I'm planning on running an 11.1v LiPo so its seems like an absolute must to change to Deans from the mini.

[lurkingknight]

you can make an adapter, the charger side doesn't have to be straight to deans or you can take a charger cable and cut the ends off and put a deans on it.

It would be a good idea to have a straight deans charge wire... especially if you use higher quality lipos that can take higher charge rates.

[br0k3nsa1nt]

My charger came wired to Deans with an adapter to make it connect to Tamaiya. Since as far as I know, Deans has one of(if not the least) the smallest resistance connections, a deans to whatever adapter seems like the best bet.