[NSRCA-discussion] Arming Plug/Receptacle Problem

[AtwoodDon at aol.com]

Ron, you are right that the Dean's connectors are less prone to loosing  
contact due to wear because of the way the contacts work.  The tips of the  plug 
may wear due to spark, but the mating surfaces do not.  I have  hundreds of 
flights using my Deans arming plug with no issues.  Tips show  errosion due to 
sparks but the mating surfaces show none of the erossion.
 
The is supposedly a way to allow the capacitors of the ESC to charge slowly  
by using a resistor in the circuit to pass current more slowly to charge the  
capacitors.  I have not done this but if you do a search in RCU or RCG, you  
will probably find the info.  I have also heard there is a recommendation  to 
not do this because the ESC may power up with less than minimum required  
voltage and the logic may not work correctly.  Like I said, I have not done  this, 
just passing on what I have heard.
 
Don
 
 
In a message dated 2/9/2009 8:09:26 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
vanputte at cox.net writes:

I have a  problem which I am sure many other E-powered airplane owners  
have  that I'd like to solve.  I use an arming plug to connect the two   
5S Lipo packs to the ESC.  On initial contact of the arming plug  with  
the receptacle, there's a big spark thrown.  Eventually  the contacts  
on the arming plug and receptacle get burned to the  point where the  
electrical contact is very bad.  Yesterday I  had to land my airplane  
deadstick because (I think) the ESC saw what  it thought was low  
voltage out of the battery that was actually due  to the burned arming  
plug/receptacle contacts.  BTW, I am using  high-amp Anderson Power  
Pole connectors, which are probably more  susceptible to having the  
contacts burned than would Deans Ultra  connectors.

I have thought about putting a BIG capacitor in  parallel with the  
arming plug, that would damp the initial current  surge which causes  
the spark.  The capacitor could be removed  before flight.  However,  
I'm wondering if there's a more  elegant solution.

Ron Van  Putte

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