90sparty

I think I came to the conclusion that I may have bought the wrong battery / connector for my e-flight Ultimate. This is my first electric (have a few years glow experience) and don't know much about anything electric. I have the Park 370 brushless 4100 kv motor and I plan on running the stock gearbox and prop for now. I bought a Thunder Power 1320 mah li-po battery, but I got the one with the JST connector. My thought being, "Hey why not get that one that already has the connector on it" as opposed to the battery with no connectors. Well as I now find out, the bat I bought has the JST and 18 ga wire as opposed to the other one that has 16 ga wire. I am now guessing that I bought the wrong battery.

My question is though, is this connector / wire adequate for the above setup? Should I cut the JST off and put a heavier duty connector on? Or is the 18 ga. wire inadequate?

Thanks,

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

Im not sure what amperage that motor will draw, but you should be fine with the JST connectors. Im not real fond of the JST connectors because I kept having intermittent continuity problems with them. It seemed like I had to wiggle them far to much to get a good connection. I normally chop them off of everything I own now, and replace them with Deans connectors. Deans can be a pain to solder on if your not experienced, so be prepared for that. But they provide a rock solid connection.

I think the main reason everyone puts those lousy JST's on is because they are keyed and light weight. The deans are not keyed, but they do have a small indentation to represent polarity.

Here's a little tip on the deans. The Dean's connectors have three connectors instead of two like the JST's. I solder the two closest connectors together, and solder the negative wire onto those two, and the positive on the single one thats left. This way I dont have that little prong hanging out.

Just remember if you change the connectors, you will probably have to change the connectors on everything else. The ESC, your charger...etc.

IMPORTANT!!!! Always use female connectors on the battery. NEVER use male connectors on a battery. The reason is because male connectors will short if they touch anything metal. If you short a LiPo, on a ring for example, it will remove a finger.

Here are my basic safety tips for battery packs.

Dont let them get overheated.
NEVER put a pack in your pocket...FOR ANY REASON. People assume that because they dont have any change in their pockets that this is safe....but they forgot that most jeans have metal rivets or grommets near the pocket area....Just dont do it.
Never charge a battery in the plane.
Verify settings on your charger before charging.
Dont leave charging LiPo's unattended
When soldering connectors on a battery, solder only ONE wire at a time, and make sure it is insulated (heat shrinked) before starting to solder the other wire.

Another type of connector I like is the bullet connectors. But they dont work well on batteries because they are difficult to insulate, and require to much force to pull apart on a regular basis.

Trogdor the Burninator

Along those same lines, don't snip off both wires of the old connector from the battery at the same time either. I did that once... it was sparky.

Also, Deans micro come in polarized as well. Each connector has a male and female plug so you can't get it wrong. I like those.