RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

From an outside perspective, I prefer powerpole connectors to the deans connectors.

Much less chance of an inadvertant short, and a more positive lock.

I second that, powerpoles are great, a bit bulky but no worries of shorts and arcs like deans,plus they are great for saddle packs and stuff since you can use a single one to disconnect the 2 halves of the pack. Also, they are available in like a dozen colours so its easy to use different colour ones for motor leads. Ive never had a powerpole get hot enough to melt, deform, or stick together, even when i used them in a battlebot and way more amps than they were rated for.

civic83 wrote:..... but no worries of shorts and arcs like deans

I've seen genuine Deans plugs used in a plane (large GeeBee) running a 6s HV system pulling 3Kw. You should hear the massive "CRACK" sound when the plugs are first connected! The initial inrush current charging the esc's caps must be huge.

I've found knock off Deans to be fine pulling 500watts continuous in my own rc plane applications. They don't get warm. Terrible things to solder though (referring to all Deans plugs), but then again I just hate soldering. At 20 pairs for 10 bux, they are my connectors of choice.

I never liked the early deans 4 pin for power capability. The sermos/litespeed ones are the ones I switched to, and I really liked them except for the price. the modularity allowed for some flexibility.

I will say however that after long storage, the silver plating finally corroded along with the copper base. I have since been using the new 2 blade deans knock-offs for price and size, and I like them alot. Nice and compact.

though I do have some cars that will require split packs and I am thinking the sermos ones might be perfect in that application.

I'm surprised the sermos contacts corroded like that; I'm still using about 20 pairs from 1987-90 and they all look and work great yet.

yeah, i was kinda bummed, but it was a damp enviroment, and this was mostly on the batteries, so there was a dc voltage on them even if it was a tiny bit after long discharge.

Yeah, that will do it. Live and learn .

i have always used Deoxit contact cleaner (available at radioshack but i get it from work) on all my motor and battery connectors. it cleans,lubes,and protects the contacts and makes them last longer. just half a drop every few weeks and i never had any problems.
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.188/.f