Wednesday, June 2, 2010
ATTF Field Review: by djmoose
These housings are designed to make pulling apart and putting together your Deans connectors easier. I first heard about these in a magazine add in the back of one of the 4 RC magazines I subscribe to! I figured I'd give them a shot. They come in Red and Black and in packs of 5 and 10.
We're all about finding easier ways to do things. I know that if my heat shrink job on a Deans isn't perfect, they can start sliding down with use from pulling the connections apart. We all know you're not supposed to pull on the wires when disconnecting them, but we all do sometimes, whether it be from laziness, or convenience, or just lack of working space.
After I received my pack of housings, I was disappointed to see that you need to glue them together. In fact, you're supposed to glue each half to the Deans connector. I know CA doesn't have to be permanent, but my initial thought is that I don't want to glue those on all 20 of my 3S 2200 packs. And, if my soldering to my Deans is bad, or I want that Deans connector, I'm going to have to break these off to even get to the solder joints. And...these are big. Like most people, I glanced at this pic without really noticing how big these housings are. Look closely.
So, I tried these on one of my old “workbench” LiPo's. The problem I see is that if you solder on the outside of the positive terminal. (My soldering jig has me do this) If you have battery wire larger then 16 AWG, and if you happen to use a lot of solder, these housings might not fit. Due to the size and permanence, I made the decision not to install these on any of my LiPo packs or ESCs in planes.
At this point, I was rather disappointed. I figured that these little guys would snap on and off easily, and make connecting and disconnecting my Deans' easier. Thing is, for me at least, I really only have problems with pulling them apart when I'm in tight quarters. Maybe the connection is up inside a cowl and you can't get your fingers in easily for a good grip. Maybe you're working in a rather small fuse and it's just impossible to get a good tug. Don't get me wrong. Using these connector housings will make connecting and disconnecting your Deans connectors a LOT easier. However, since they're larger, and because you probably only need them when space is limited, I don't see when these would actually help due to their size. Again, the semi-permanence is also a turn-off for me.
While writing this, I was happy to come up with a pretty good use for these connectors. I was thinking about when it was that I kept seeing my shrink wrap come loose and generally the place where I disconnect and re-connect the most. Simply put, my chargers. In the pic below, you can see my “workbench” LiPo that I applied a housing to and the leads from my chargers that I applied the HPIs to. I've since charged a few packs with the housings and even though the one wasn't on the female (battery) side, the I feel that it's a tad bit easier to disconnect and re-connect while charging. Additionally, these housings elevate any tension on the solder joints and the shrink wrap immediately behind the Deans connectors. I'm rather happy with these on my chargers as shown here:
Conclusion:
In my opinion, I don't think these will work for me in any airplanes. They are rather big (which is why they make connecting and dis-connecting so easy!) These seem well made, by an American company. They say USA on them so I'm assuming they're manufactured here, which is good. They're not heavy, about 1-2 grams per connector, so it's not the weight that turns me off, it's the combination of having to glue them on, and the fact that I mainly would need them in tight spaces. I do however love them on my chargers.
Pros:
Really do make connections easier
American Made
American Made
Cons:
You need to glue them onto your Deans
Size
Battery wire larger then 16 AWG might not fit
Size
Battery wire larger then 16 AWG might not fit
Thanks DJMoose!!
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