adding extra bullets between esc/motor

[ozzie-crawl]

i was wondering the same thing.my plugs are either from OSE or HK
does spending more $$$ on plugs make a diffrence ? or is it a name brand thing?

[BILL OXIDEAN]

Sport dosen't matter, but SAWS plug resistance can cost you 2-3mph

[ozzie-crawl]

yea iam onlly running sport setups around 100-120a max.
i can see if guys are racing or running s.a.w it can make a diffrence

[PatrickM]

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the LMT and BK plugs are made in China also. If they are, the manufacturers were carefully chosen by the brand vendors and held to higher standards than the manufacturers of the garden variety connectors.

It's true that the Schultze 40/160 uses plugs soldered directly to the circuit board, but this ESC also utilizes two parallel wires and plugs for each of the three motor connections. Two plugs in parallel cuts the resistance in half... the instructions also state that the wires from these motor side connectors should be soldered directly to the motor. Same with the battery side.

As Wilmer said, quality connectors can make a couple of mph difference in SAW racing.... can you afford to lose 4-5mph by doubling your connectors?

The bottom line is that it all depends on your application.... sport or racing...

[properchopper]

Man, I never realized how much contribution connectors can add [or subtract] to the mix. Has me rethinking some of my setups. Wire length also. And 4S2P adaptors as well. Two questions : Who sells which brand of connectors ? I've been using the OSE 5.5's & recently got some (with the "soldering-friendly" notch)
from CBP when OSE was out of stock. LMT or BK or what ?

Would the bigger [8mm] connectors be the way to go ? ( quite a re-soldering task) Maybe just for P-powered race setups ?

Good topic - thanks for your input, Pat.

[Jeff Wohlt]

It is hard to believe any 3-5 mph can be lost to decent plugs vs really good plugs. Now real crap plugs I could see.

We have gone from Deans to gold plugs and short wires what else???

I guess if I were running saws I would not have plugs... if it were that important. Direct soldering is what I would do.

[PatrickM]

As an example of the difference that a few milliohms can make, I'll use my VS-1 with spec UL-1 motor and ESC...
With an Elite 5000mah 4S1P 35C pack I was able to drive the boat flat out around the course, no throttling in the corners. I switched to a pair of TP 5000mah 2S 40C hard case car packs and with no other changes had to start lifting off the throttle in the corners because of the extra power. The difference was the cell IR's.... about 18 mohms for the Elite pack vs. 12 mohms for the two TP packs in series.... also need to factor in the extra resistance of the connector between the pair of 2S packs. Other racers in our club have noticed similar results from the lower resistance of the newer generation Lipos.

[egneg]

What about solder and the wire size/connector fit. I would think this would be more of a concern than the number of 5.5's in series.

[PatrickM]

Excellent point.... when soldering smaller gauge wire into larger connectors it's a good idea to wrap the wire with copper desoldering braid to fit the ID of the connector. Copper has less resistance than solder. The newer style cutaway connectors make this less of an issue because you can somewhat conform the wire strands to the inside of the shell to increase contact area.

[Jeff Wohlt]

I can understand the lipo issue and lower IR. But connectors is very small...now lets stay straight on what we are talking....good connectors of at least 5.5 vs the German connectors that say they are the best. You do pay more for better gold and how long they last until resistance begins to increase....after 50 connections is the gold now down to the inner metal? This could be a big issue. Deans is the same....wear the gold off and you are down to possible some crap metal.

You can also spread the wire into a mushroom where all the wires are touching the connector before solering. But I was always told the best is one twisted tight and filled with solder to the connector.....well not if the wire tip is touching the plug only...seems like not as much true conection. I want that connector to carry the load as one unit so seems to me spreading the wire out is better...but I am told not so.

Good thread.

[PatrickM]

I can understand the lipo issue and lower IR. But connectors is very small...now lets stay straight on what we are talking....

Resistance (or impedence, if you prefer) is resistance..... in a DC series circuit resistance is cumulative, whether it is 2 milliohms of connector resistance or 2 milliohms of battery internal resistance.... Assuming that cheap bullet resistance is in the 1 mohm range (I've heard they can be more and that the higher quality conns less than half that, but I hate to quote numbers without backup data ) for each connector in a DC series circuit, you will negate a 1 mohm advantage gained by upgrading your Lipos. Per my previous post, a 5-6 mohm reduction in battery IR shows a noticeable performance improvement with a spec setup.
On the other end of the speed control it's a marginally different situation. Here your dealing with a pseudo AC (actually pulsed DC) current adding frequency to the equation which can affect connector impedence... for the sake of simplicity it's probably better to ignore this factor, it doesn't make much of a difference. Resistance is still cumulative.

[bigwaveohs]

You could possibly use a female with the ends cut off and drilled through then use both sides motor/esc male and just plug in.

Oh i see ozie had the sMe ideA

This is exactly what I did on my VS-1 FE conversion only I soldered the wire into each end for a permanent extension and it works just fine.
Adding extra bullet connectors means one more connection to pull apart, corrode & etc...JMHO

[TRUCKPULL]

I think using good electronic solder is just as important as good
5.5mm plugs.

Regular solder will add more resistance then good electronic solder

Larry

[Jeff Wohlt]

Thanks, Patrick....great detail.

I think we have answered the question....can a person do this on a sport or posssibly a race set up? Sure you can. If you are a SAW runner then you already know what you should do.

Good thread...I have a set up or two that can use this config.

[sailr]

and what is electronic solder compared to, uh, regular solder?