[NSRCA-discussion] bullets

AtwoodDon at aol.com AtwoodDon at aol.com
Wed Mar 30 07:41:16 AKDT 2011


I have had the same experience as Earl with regards to the Dean's Ultra  
connectors.  I use a Deans male as a shorting plug so it gets connected and  
disconnected each flight.  The spark does occur at the tip of the negative  
contact and gradually erodes it but as Earl says, the tip is not the contact  
surface, it is the flat side of the blade so no contact area is lost.  Over 
 1000 flights on one shorting plug and no problems or loss of performance.  
 Contact cleaner does work well at cleaning up the gummy residue that  
forms.  Anyone have any idea what that gummy/greasy stuff is or where it  comes 
from?
 
Don
 
 
In a message dated 3/30/2011 7:40:49 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
ejhaury at comcast.net writes:

Let's  leave the DWT alone!

I'll chime in with a different perspective on  connectors though. As 
mentioned, there can be a good deal of variance with  bullets. Providing 
good 
tension isn't easy and maintaining it over  repeated use is even more 
difficult. Some designs work better than others  and folks experiencing 
good 
service have done their homework. Bullets are  also easy to solder to heavy 
gauge leads.

OTOH - I've very good  service from the Deans Ultra. The attractive part of 
the design (to me) is  that they're simply buss bars held together with 
spring tension. The  surface area of the bars is way more than we need for 
contact and the  thickness is plenty for handling the amps. They do get a 
little nasty  looking on the ends - but I haven't found that to 
significantly 
reduce  contact area or function. In cutting the "female" side apart after 
1000+  flights I found no degradation of anything except the entrance end 
where  the arc occurs, the wear pattern demonstrated full contact. They are 
more  difficult to solder leads to and can easily be ruined in the process. 
If  the plastic is melted allowing the bar to become misaligned, full 
contact  
will not be achieved.

Also , either connecter will benefit from an  occasional cleaning with a 
good 
contact cleaner.

Great to have  choices!

Earl

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ronald Van  Putte" <vanputte at cox.net>
To: "General pattern discussion"  <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011  9:15 AM
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] bullets


I am definitely  not going to argue with Verne on this one.  He's had
more experience  than I do on this subject.  However, if somebody
wants to debate the  "downwind turn", let's get started.  <vbg>

Ron

On Mar  30, 2011, at 8:42 AM, <verne at twmi.rr.com> wrote:

> FWIW, the  5.5 mm connectors I used were of the slotted variety. I  ended 
>  up abandoning those after discovering too much variance from  one  
> manufacturer to the next and sometimes within the same   manufacturer. I 
> had connectors that ranged all the way from too   loose to make a good 
> connection to so tight that you couldn't  put  them together. The bulge 
you 
> mention in the 4mm connectors  is  actually the "spring" that compensates 
> for slight  tolerance  variances. I agree that there's not as much 
contact 
>  area as the  slotted type, but it comes down to how much is enough? From 
 
> my  experience, the 4mm work just fine without the hassle of  trying to 
> find connectors to match what you've already got on all  your  batteries, 
> charge leads, and so on. It gets a little  pricey to  start all over and 
> I've done it twice. With the 4mm,  I just add as  I go without a hitch.
>
>  Verne
>
>
>
> ---- Ronald Van Putte  <vanputte at cox.net> wrote:
>
> =============
> I have  gotten these "no bulge/slotted design" connectors from two
>  sources:  HobbyKing and BidProduct.  You have to look at the  pictures
> carefully to see that they are the "no bulge/slotted  design".
>
> I really like BidProduct for acquiring large  quantities of the
> smaller items, like connectors, extensions and  hardware for my small
> hobby shop.  Many items can be purchased  with free shipping.
>
> Ron
>
> On Mar 30, 2011, at  4:09 AM, Houdini76 at aol.com wrote:
>
>> Ron, what brand of  connectors has the no bulge/slotted design?  Do
>> you use 4, 5  or 6mm?
>>
>> Rob
>>
>>
>> In a  message dated 3/29/2011 8:01:08 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>>  vanputte at cox.net writes:
>> Good stuff Verne.
>>
>>  I have noticed the difference in bullet connector design.  I  used
>> to buy 3.5mm bullet connectors which had a "bulge" in the  center of
>> the male part.  Recently, I noticed some 3.5mm  bullet connectors
>> which had no "bulge" in the male part.   They push into the female
>> part because there's a chamfer on the  tip of the male part, which
>> compresses the slotted male connector  so it will fit into the
>> female part.  The big advantage of  this design is that virtually
>> all of the connector is mated with  the other half, unlike the ones
>> with a "bulge", which have  significantly reduced contact area.
>> Then I noticed that you can  buy this same design in 4mm, 5mm and
>> 6mm bullet connectors.   My opinion - these are far superior.
>>
>>  Ron
>>
>> On Mar 29, 2011, at 6:30 PM, Verne Koester  wrote:
>>
>>> Jerry,
>>>
>>> I  started out with Deans Ultra’s. They worked fine but didn’t  wear
>>> too well. The arc from connecting them together was  really chewing
>>> them up. Then I switched to 5.5mm bullets.  Those worked great and
>>> the arc did damage where it didn’t  matter. The problem I
>>> discovered later was when I needed some  more. Not all 5.5mm are
>>> created equal and I ran into some  serious fit problems from one
>>> batch to the next. I noticed  that most of the Europeans were using
>>> 4mm bullets. These are  made a little different than the 5.5mm
>>> and      have more “spring” in them so the tolerances don’t have to
>>> be  so close. Like the 5.5mm bullets, the arc damage happens on  the
>>> very tip which is not part of the actual electrical  connection.
>>> I’ve been very happy with the 4mm bullets and will  be starting my
>>> third season with them. BTW, I never noticed  any power changes
>>> from the Deans to the 5.5’s to the 4’s. Hope  this helps.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  Verne Koester
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org [mailto:nsrca-
>>>  discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Jerry  Stebbins
>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 5:29 PM
>>>  To: Discussion -NSRCA
>>> Subject: [NSRCA-discussion]  bullets
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> All  E's. What size bullets have you settled on for your packs/ESC
>>>  connections? Seems like something that would sorta get
>>>  standardized after a lot of 70A usage. I have heard from 3.5  to
>>> 6.0. Would think it would work itself out to support the  nominal
>>> max. I that most see. I am sure 3D needs all they can  get but for
>>> AMA/FAI patterns seems like it otta round off  pretty close for
>>> most using 5s  packs.
>>>
>>> Thanks  ahead
>>>
>>> Jerry
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
>>>  NSRCA-discussion mailing list
>>>  NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
>>>  http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
>>
>>  =
>>
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