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keen to know when they came about, WHAT YEAR APPROX? any others that come up from answers ill add to the list

deans 4 pin

sermos (red/black)

race prep (orange)

I think 4 pins was about 1981, 1982 onward.

Red and black, if I am not wrong, about 1990.

I don't know about the deans, but the red/black Sermos-type connector was created by Anderson Power Products in the mid 1960s. I recall the connectors got widespread R/C car use in the mid-80s when companies like Sermos and Lightspeed released copies of them (after the patent likely expired) that were targeted to the R/C crowd. I've been using them since 1987. Trivia: Anderson still sells their version in a rainbow of colors, not just red and black.

I believe the Race Prep connectors came out in 1988.

Regards,

Robert

Ive been using the power poles since about 88 as well and really like them much better than deans.

There were 2 types of 4 pin Dean's plugs back in the day. The earlier ones were black. We use to swap one pin from the male and female connectors so that the female side actually had 1 pin sticking out of it. I don't know why. I think it was just to be different. These were replaced by the red plugs. They were also 4 pin but had a slightly wider pin spacing so weren't compatible with the black ones. The transition was somewhere around 1988 or so.

black went to red didn't know that, thanks i have some new black one's great for some early cars then.

our electric forklifts and order pickers at work use the heavy duty 200 or 500 amp anderson connectors on the massive batteries.

Gary.

I used Power poles in 88.

They weren't cheap. I still remember i saved for 2 weeks to get 6 females and 2 males...

I switched to Deans micro four pin late in 88 i think.

See you soon.

in 88 i was using black and red power poles on the batts and the 4 pin deans on motors.