Deans Connectors

[Norman2]

Hi. I have a Titan 29 with SV motor and ESC and 30" Cat with UL-1 motor and ESC.
I am using 2S1P 25C 5000MAH Lipos in series. Problem is that once I went to Lipos
the connections on the Deans are melting and leaving me stranded in the middle
of the lake where I am running my boats. Is this normal or should I go with bullet
connectors all around. My wires are 14AWG so what connectors. Thanks for any help.
Regards,
Norman

[M.M.]

Deans are not very good for high current applications. So i would say go to either 4 or 5.5mm bullets.

[Doby]

Are the connectors melting, or are the solder joints melting?

Maybe you are over propping the boat....


Deans are usually good to 60 Amps but bullets are the way to go. $mm would be the minimum.

[785boats]

Norman.
I had the same problem. No melting solder or plugs but very hot wiring & deans plugs.
I changed all my batteries, ESCs, motors adaptors, charging leads etc to 5.5mm bullets. Cost me a small fortune (45 pairs including some scale boat systems) but no problems now in the F/E stuff.
Paul.

[Norman2]

Deans Connector

Hi Paul, Will order 5.5m connectors. A couple of questions, My UL-1 and SV Escs
Have conections for 2X 2S1P 25C 5000 MAH 7.4 V in series. Do I just connect
male and female connectors to all leads going to the batteries. Please excuse the questions but I just started using lipos and don't know what the hell I am doing. Also
my UL-1 and SV escs have some kind of low voltage cut-off. When batteries reach
the LVC voltage does the speed control turn completely off or should it go to half
throttle so I can get back to shore. Going BL and Lipos is quite a challenge. Thank
you again for any help you can give me. Regards
Norman

[Himalaya]

I love Deans, it eliminates the possiblility of reverse connection.

for apps where currents of over 100A is needed, I would run batteries in parallel, thus each Deans takes 1/2 of the total current and the heat drops to 1/4.

[ozzie-crawl]

change the posative on the batteries to the female bullet connector and the negative to males. then on the esc make the posative male and negative female, when you connect the batteries up plug the posative of one battery to the esc posative then the negative of that batterie plugs into the posative of the second batterie and then the negative of the second batterie goes to the negative on the esc.
usally with the batterie cutoff it will suddenlly loose power at full throttle but will let you bring it back in with part throttle, i dont let my batteries go that low that it cuts out

[ozzie-crawl]

here is acouple of pics showing two batteries connected in series
if you do it this way you eliminate the chance of plugging the batteries to the esc wrong. just make sure you never let the bulletts touch each other when soldering the bulletts on, i solder the female on the posative battry lead first and then put heat shrink on it before doing the negative. little bit off extra insurance i put 2 layers of heat shrink on the female plug

[G Doggett]

I love Deans, it eliminates the possiblility of reverse connection.

for apps where currents of over 100A is needed, I would run batteries in parallel, thus each Deans takes 1/2 of the total current and the heat drops to 1/4.

I agree Himalaya, but you will find we are in the minority.
All my FE boats started out with NiMh cells and low current draw brushed motors so all had Deans connections.
When I upgraded to brushless and Lipo I kept the Deans but planned to upgrade to bullets if the Deans showed any sign of getting hot.
So far even on my Feigao 8XL powered boats which draw between 75 to 90 amps the connections don't even get warm.
IMO if the contact surface is clean and the spring plates have good tension I think Deans are great and much less bulky than large bullet connectors.
So shoot me !
Graham.

[ozzie-crawl]

i avoided changing from deans to bullets for a long time but once i changed i wouldnt go back

[Simon.O.]

i avoided changing from deans to bullets for a long time but once i changed i wouldnt go back

Me too.
I now use deans on my low power brushed setups, tugs and crawler.
For my BL boats I use 4mm for the S size motor and 5.5mm on the 7XL can in the big rigger.
The 9XL in my 30" mono still has 4mm but those will go as soon as some more 5.5mm bullets get here.

Deans are good , bullets are better.
Reverse polarity protection is easy. Chose your method. I do male for pos, female for neg on the pack and work it all out from there.

14ga is just ok
If possible up your wire size from 14ga to 12ga. It will make a difference.

[Norman2]

Hi, Thanks a lot for your help. Now I know what to do. I have ordered some 5.5m bullet
connectors. Thanks again
Norman

[Checkmateguy01]

Is this just a problem with Lipo battery set-ups with melting Deans plugs? A 30" mono running a 9XL motor, i'm still using NiMh's with Deans plugs and they barely get warm. I've been looking into Lipo, but i don't want to have change out to different plugs cuz then i'll have to change my charger set-up too, I plan on continuing to use NiMH's in my SV27 cuz it's plenty fast enough and the run times are great.

[Flying Scotsman]

It all depends on soldering expertise and amperage draw. Even on bullets if you have a bad solder joint as Doby mentioned both will fail. I still like Deans for up to 90 amp draws and bullets above that. LI-PO batteries are just more efficient at delivering power...voltage and amps.

Edit

Please note I said Deans connectors as there are some knockoff connectors available

Douggie

[785boats]

Good point Douggie.
Are they actually Deans plugs Norman? Or are they Deans 'style' plugs?
There is a huge difference.
Ozzie-crawl answered your question about the connections, but I will add this.
I don't own one but I think the UL-1 ESC has a lipo cutout and has a stutter effect when you hit it. Not sure what the cutout voltage is set at though. Someone will let you know I'm sure.
The SV (which I do have) is not set up for lipos. I use a lipo shield for that one.
I've soldered a female deans plug to the esc power leads & a male one to the Lipo shield for easy removal .
But like Ozzie says try not to drain the batteries down to the cutout level. If you get the Kinetic racing lipo shield that is set for 3.3V I believe it is OK to do so.
Here's a pic of the set up on the sv package with the Deans plug for the Lipo shield.