What electric flight battery connectors do you mainly use?

There are  few others but hopefully I've got all the main types here.

I ignored 2mm bullets as these are pretty small and I doubt any flyers using the popular 3S are using them?

Some clarity -

EC-3 is the blue plug commonly fitted to battersies and ESCs from Horizon Hobby brands such as E-flite.

XT60 is the yellow connector commonly fitted to HK batteries.

MPX is Multiplex, the green connector.

Edited By David Ashby - RCME on 31/07/2012 10:45:15

WOHOO! First to vote.

XT60s are the new kid on the block so I doubt many will be using those at present unless they are new to electric flight. I quite like them but I have melted one or two when soldering. I don't seem to have the same trouble with Deans. Clearly my technique needs more work!

Piers

I have no idea what any of this means. We have a Foam-E Wot 4, but what are all these??? 'Bullet', 'Deans', I have no idea. HELP!

CS

That's a 'Deans' CSB.

They are the connectors between the battery and speed controller.

Dave

Cheers David, vote cast.

CS

I was using Deans until I hit connectivity issues with 6S Helis. My Heli club people have all moved off Deans due to this and the difficulty of disconnection, even with the ribbed ones.

When Gens Ace cells appeared in the UK with Deans sockets rather than the Tipple 3.5mm bullets I wasn't too happy, but didn't want to immediately alter them, so slit a few bullet where you'd normally solder a wire and directly soldered them to Deans plug rear blades to act as converters, thus the deans part never gets disturbed and theres a good cross sectional contact patch to carry the current.

Some now one year plus and no issues.

I use Traxxas connectors.

Easier to disconnect than Deans

i use deans, always have and always will ( so far they havent let me down)

I used Deans for a long time but have been gradually converting to XT60's. Like Deans they can be a bit tight and need a bit more room for handling, so not really for small models.

They need fast heat for soldering so I use an 80W iron. I've found 12SWG is the realistic limit for wire size. 4mm heatshrink is the correct size for sleeving smaller wires but with 12SWG 5mm can be persuaded to fit the recess.

Pete

Am almost changed over to XT 60 from deans, I have nearly 200 lipols! so its taking some time. I have lost two good aircraft (70"  to failed deans plugs. Use 6mm in the big stuff though (12s 8000mhr)

As Pete B has indicated, a large iron with lots of heat for a short time, I use a Weller temp controlled leadlighting iron.

Graham

Edited By graham kindberg1 on 31/07/2012 12:32:05

Edited By graham kindberg1 on 31/07/2012 12:33:04

Dunno how that smiley got there, cant seem to edit it out??

Edited By graham kindberg1 on 31/07/2012 12:34:31

I know more and more batteries are supplied with EC3 or XT60 connectors, but I adopted Deans as a standard when they were on all the batteries and I'm not changing everything again!

I am an absolute discrace when it comes to knowing this, but the two fluffyzone models i own, t28 and radian, might be Deans, and adding to my disgrace, i have a good balancing charger, -Sigma acdc charger where you are, but called Swallow acdc charger here.

bbc.

I am using XT60 on everything (20 batteries). It is such a nice connector being basically two bullet connectors in a nice housing with recess for the heatshrink. I also find them very easy to solder.

Started with Deans, moved to 4mm shielded Bullet, then onto XT60s. Have a few with EC3s on for PK planes (got for the new Spitfire, but haven't got the Spitfire yet). I wish HK and others, would stick with standard connectors by A draw. It used to be Deans, then became 4mm and 5.5 mm Bullet, then XT60.

Now I mainly use 4mm bullet connectors, just becuase most of my electrics are either high powered or 90+mm EDF. My high current draw set ups requires connectors able to withstand up to 85 A, ruling out Deans, EC3, MPX and XT60.

I find Deans and some XT60 a real pain to seperate, EC3 are not bad, but bullets are easier. You just need to be more careful with shielding/heat shrink; you would be amazed what a 4S pack capable of delivering 120A can do - vapourised a 4mm bullet (don't ask how I know)

Deans. Used to use MPX green ones, using three pins per pole, on smaller models but moved to Deans as MPX are not readily obtainable where I live (Southampton).. With care you can solder two Deans plugs and one socket directly together to make a low resistance and compact Y-connector (thanks to BVMJets for this).

The ribs on the later Deans help with disconnecting and filing a small bevel on the plug pins help with connecting.

If you have trouble with melting push a plug and a socket together before soldering.

Shortly after I settled on Deans the XT60 started to appear. Wish they would make up their minds. Not changing now.

XT60's

Deans are fine, sometimes the arc shape springs jam and make some trouble - this can be annoying as a retrial to connect leads to flashing receiver leds. So we don't know if the crash was a brown out or too slow and too narrow in the landing curve - (which is the majority of the " brown out " problems in my opinion...)

Of course, switch off and on the transmitter and restart the game will help.

Started using XT60 recently, they are better as it looks, but I don't want to change every model/battery as it is a lot of work and it may produce cold welding and after that even more trouble....

VA - non English mother tongue department - hope my punctuations are right

Interesting results.

Deans the most popular by a long way - nearly half of respondents use them - even though many similar threads suggest they are not so popular or effective.

@VA

You could teach English classes.