bullet connectors

[Ron Gray]

I too use similar ones to Peter, the only difference is that I go for the un-assembled ones as you don’t need to use heat shrink.

Edited By Ron Gray on 28/08/2018 07:35:18

[Engine Doctor]

You could wrap your ring and finger with a couple of turns of insulating tape provided your not alergic to the adhesive. Many firemen used to wrap their ring with tape while on duty not only to stop the electrical threat but to also prevent them catching on articles . I believe they have to remove any articles of jewelry that can cause accident or injury now when on duty or in the case of a ring that wont come off wrap it with tape . I learnt the shorting out lesson many years ago when I accidentally earthed out a 12v car supply with my watch while working on a car.. I wasn't injured but the watch had a neat arc mark across the case .A lucky warning and since then never wear a watch when messing in a engine compartment or with anything that can short .

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by Geoff Sleath on 31/05/2018 20:30:48:

Posted by Chris Bott - Moderator on 31/05/2018 15:04:05:
I think the issue is that there are bare negative connections around. Unused receiver ports for one.
If an uninsulated male is inadvertently allowed to drop into the model, there is the potential of it touching the Rx pins.
I've not had the issue myself, but I see the potential.
I use a short length of the white outer insulation off some 3 core 5A flex for my protective covers.

By the same token there are bare positive connections around, too. Unused receiver ports have both positive and negative pins as well as signal pins. I really don't see a problem. It would be really difficult to get a battery 4mm male connector onto an unused receiver input on any of my models. You'd have to try very hard.

 

Maybe the use of the word positive in Tom's OP is obscuring his meaning and he really meant having an exposed terminal? There is a case for having both battery lead terminals as females - the hazard is then limited to potential damage to the ESC rather than the danger of short circuit.

Having witnessed more than one incident where battery bullet "pairs" have been connected together in the confines of the dark recesses of fuselages, I would tend to recommend keyed pairs such as the XT series, Deans etc.

When I used 4mm bullets, I used the one male, one female layout but took the precaution of shrinking a small piece of heatshrink onto the cables close behind the connectors to make it impossible (without serious effort) to connect the two together.

P.S. With a little thought, there is no problem with having a bare connector on a battery lead anyway - just connect it first and disconnect it last so that there can never be a circuit made with any bare pins etc.

Edited By Martin Harris on 28/08/2018 10:47:50

[Rene Wallage]

For all the above reasons, and some, I recently re-standardized my fleet (and bags of lipos) from Deans to XT60 connectors.

Super simple to solder, and (as long as you keep the + wire on the + pole) you can't plug them together the wrong way.

[Peter Jenkins]

Posted by Martin Harris on 28/08/2018 10:39:15:

Having witnessed more than one incident where battery bullet "pairs" have been connected together in the confines of the dark recesses of fuselages, I would tend to recommend keyed pairs such as the XT series, Deans etc.

When I used 4mm bullets, I used the one male, one female layout but took the precaution of shrinking a small piece of heatshrink onto the cables close behind the connectors to make it impossible (without serious effort) to connect the two together.

 

Martin, that's the great advantage of the Hobby King bullet connectors, they are protected by the external plastic sheath and these are "polarised" i.e. one is larger than the other so difficult to cross connect. I've used XT and Deans connectors and they are the devil to separate sometimes, especially in a small fuselage. I find the easiest connectors in use are these HK 4 mm bullet connectors.

Ron is right about avoiding the need for heatshrink on the HK connectors you have to assemble but your soldering needs to be spot on to avoid any spillage into the channel that provides the positive lock into the plastic sheath - something that has caused me grief from time to time. That's why I like the pre-assembled ones and, as Ron has pointed out, the only downside is the need to use heatshrink over the soldered connection.

Edited By Peter Jenkins on 29/08/2018 00:06:12

[Kevin 216]

Posted by Rene Wallage on 28/08/2018 13:18:21:

For all the above reasons, and some, I recently re-standardized my fleet (and bags of lipos) from Deans to XT60 connectors.

Super simple to solder, and (as long as you keep the + wire on the + pole) you can't plug them together the wrong way.

I have done the same all lipo's and models are on XT60's - no more adaptor leads needed to connect Deans, EC3, etc.