bullet connectors question
 

Not sure where to ask this noob question, but...

For battery charging applications, are bullet connectors a good choice? Are they insulated and do they need to be?
I want to use them to connect various type of leads/connectors to the charging cables on my charger.

Thanks
Rob

RE: bullet connectors question
 

Rob, they will work just fine. It is easy to insulate them by using heat shrink tubing. I personally use Ultra plugs on all of my batteries, so my charge leads are terminated with an Ultra plug.

Fly safe, Glover

RE: bullet connectors question
 

As Glover said, just insulate them with some heat shrink tube. Myself, I use Anderson Power Poles (Sermos connectors) from the battery to the ESC. They are larger than a Deans and a little more "clumsy" to setup, however I find them easier to solder the leads to (many people crimp though) than a Deans and they are available to handle just about any amount of current you want.

Most of my e-planes are 40 - 60 size conversions and typically draw 40 - 50 amps, but that can surge to as high as 100 amps during takeoff and emergency maneuvers. The Deans I have seen do not handle that much and I prefer not to risk a "meltdown".

RE: bullet connectors question
 

You guys are awesome. Thanks for helping out.

I know the Dean ultra plugs are the hottest connector on the market right now, but I heard the bullet connectors offer the lowest resistance of all the common connectors.

With that said, I succumbed to peer pressure and ordered my charger (e-station bc-6) with the dean ultra connector. I am at the park-flyer stage so this should do me for a while.

Thanks again
Rob

RE: bullet connectors question
 

For the life of me I don't know why everybody likes those Dean plugs so much. I use bullet connectors. As for resistance, I have metered many of the leading plugs in circuit and all of them had an extremely small resistance value. So low that we would never ever come even close to noticing. There really wasn't a connector that stood out resistance wise.

RE: bullet connectors question
 

Thanks, Nathan. But you know how anal those electro-philes are. :-)

RE: bullet connectors question
 

Rob, another good habit to adopt is to make a "hump" on your connectors prior to heat shrink wraping them. That way you'll find them much easier to pull apart. My bullet conectors are so wraped, and I glue a tiny piece of plastic on each side of my Ultra connectors and shrink wrap them for the same reason. By having a "hump" on the connectors, it is very easy to "pinch" them apart (easier to do than to describe). If you ever migrate to 200A hotliners (or other high current applications like Campy referred to), you'll really appreciate the "hump" as your leads will be really short to minimize resistance in the circuit.

Fly safe, Glover