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Bullets or No Bullets in AC2 wiring

Posted by Limebear (Rob) on June 18, 2011 at 1:14am

From previous forum threads on here I had understood that current thinking about bullet connectors was that they are a generally bad idea. The first response to "I had a strange flip" would be along the lines of "Have you soldered your wires and removed those bullet connectors".

I recommended a manual change to reflect this, but had a comment today from Jason saying

"I think you should use bullets. Just get some decent ones."

So I'm confused.What's the party line on this?

Rob

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Replies

  • Marcel VDW October 18, 2011 at 12:54pm

    When I started with electric flight I read a recommendation, I think it was from the renowned German ESC manufacturer Schulze, one should avoid overheating the 'fins' of the male connector part when soldering as they loose their elasticity  causing bad contacts. I do this by inserting the male contact to be soldered into a spare female part that is clamped in a bench vice. I use bullet connectors for years and have never experience any problems with the ones I soldered myself following this method. But when one buys motors with the connectors ready soldered one never knows how these were treated.

  • Developer
    Olivier ADLER June 18, 2011 at 3:22am

     

    I would stay away from banana type bullet connectors, and use instead collet style spliced contact bullets like XT150 6mm, Polymax 5.5, Polymax 4mm  or similar ones with large contact surfaces.

     

    I prefer to solder all power connections (except LiPo batteries ones) so that there is always a perfect contact regardless vibrations, oxydation or mechanical miss adjustment of connectors.

     

     

  • Philip Fretwell June 18, 2011 at 2:24am
    Have  a look at the ones from Castle Creations.  They are top quality and are really hard to pull apart.  I know that technically they are not required as you could just solder the connections but when it comes to replacing an arm or just general maintenance I prefer not to have to re-solder the connections.  Remember the only technical issue is one of guaranteeing a connection which is able to pass lots of current without any arcing etc.  The cheap ones drop out on their own, an unnecessary risk.   If you can't find CC connectors or similar you should solder them.
  • DaveyWaveyBunsenBurner June 18, 2011 at 1:21am
    The bullets that come with the stock Arducopter motors arentgreat. They have a tendency to fail. My advice would be to not use them but to purchase some better quality ones if you wish to use them.

    Hope that helps
  • Oliver June 18, 2011 at 1:20am

    If they are high quality (gold plated, etc) and designed to take the current I don't think there is an issue using them. The power connectors to the Lipo are connectors as well in the end and are not soldered. They take 4 times the current.

    In fact, they saved me tons of money already by my motor holds coming off clean on small crashes instead of the motors wrecking collateral damage to the ESCs and the rest of the frame. (I use a semi rigid frame which allows the motor mounts to snap out if there is too much force on them).

     

     

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