Bullet Connectors
 

You guys may not understand this, but I've actually been out of the hobby for a few years now. If it wasn't for sportbikes, I'd be back, but riding is my passion now, which brings me to my question.

I need bullet connectors. You know, the ones that they use to connect the ESC to brushed motors (If you guys even still use brushed stuff)? They are the ones that have the silicon boots on each end to form a waterproof connection. I'm looking for these connectors to use on my Ninja 250 project bike, and I can't find them any where. No one has a clue what I'm talking about when I ask for them, they just point me to the cheap, ill fitting crimp-on types that don't have the silicon boot.

Where can I pick some up?

RE: Bullet Connectors
 

check your local hobby shop. i just picked up a bag of 4mm gold plated bullets for 5 bux, no silicone though.

RE: Bullet Connectors
 

Castle Creations makes them in various sizes for their Brushless motors... they don't have the silicone ends, but you use heat shrink to keep the wires clean... being gold plated, they shouldn't tarnish or corrode.. I use them on my Brushless bike and Rustler.. I probably have a few old style bullet connectors at home, but never liked them much as they had a habbit of working themselves loose over time.. Check tower hobbies or Castle website directly... here is a link to tower.. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXTJH8&P=7

RE: Bullet Connectors
 

any good RC hobby shop should carry them in various sizes from 2.5mm up to 6mm. The "boots" are usually just shrink tubing.

RE: Bullet Connectors
 

Heres a kink to the ones I use to connect my batterise to the esc, Don't know if they are waterproof, but they are solder on and I like them better than the Deans that I used before.

http://cgi.ebay.com/6-pair-4-mm-4mm-...item25560fa6f2

RE: Bullet Connectors
 

I believe you are looking for these connectors:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAMH2&P=7

RE: Bullet Connectors
 

Im thinkin' Tweety found 'em.....................................

RE: Bullet Connectors
 

I went all over duratrax page on tower and didn't see those... I guess you have more time to look than I did... good find....

Coming Undone
 

A lot of my LiPo packs are not hard wired, so they have inboard tubes for plugging in leads. "Bird cage" style of 4mm bullet connectors are used in my charger-to-battery balance leads. I've started to see weird-ish fluctuations in voltage readings as I am charging. Starting a charge from storage voltage, I'd see one cell's voltage shoot up rapidly, sometimes showing over 4.2v on the charger's display. Puzzled? I sure was. I've seen this type of charging behavior happen before when a LiPo's internal solder joint has failed from off-road vibrations.

I opened two LiPo packs this morning trying to find failed solder joints...none found. Putting the two questionable batteries back on the charger, I got voltage readings that jumped back and forth. Twisting my charge lead's bullets brought the cell's voltage readings back to where they should be. I recreated the fluctuating voltages with some more twisting of the charge leads.

Long story short...the "bird cage", on the bullet connectors, have loosened up enough to cause the mess above. I've taken steps now to help insure connection is not interrupted. At the base of my bullets, I now solder the bird cage to the inner shaft. Continuity problem solved.

I have not seen any, but has anyone else come across "bird cage" bullets that are soldered after being crimped on from the factory? All the bird cage style bullets, that I know of, are able to rotate the "bird cage" on center shaft.

And yes, I do use low profile four-prong bullet connectors in some of my leads as well. It's just that most days I've come to enjoy bird cage style over others. Each has their positives and negatives (literally and figuratively :p).