Wiring/Connecting/Terminating Materials Thread.

[The Mighty Volt]

Lead free is indeed a pain to use. It just doesn't wet and flow well.

Yeah, I was noticing this. I got 2 rolls of really cheap lead junk solder off Ebay and the stuff was magic.

This stuff needs a daub of the flux from my little tin to work. It was also bloody expensive. I thought I was getting something special.

Back to the old reliable again: eBay. This is what I have my eye on: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250688023350&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT and http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kester-Solder-Wire-63-37-0-5mm-245flux-No-Clean-core-50-/170520353767?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27b3ce1be7

Thanks again.

 

[liveforphysics]

Lead free is indeed a pain to use. It just doesn't wet and flow well.

It also melts at a higher temp, so your parts have to get unnecessarily hot. It's down-right dangerous to use for semi-conductor work done by hand, as it can be nearly impossible to get the connection done without raising the chip above it's thermally damaged point.

Lead free has no place in DIY electronics work.


Volt- Go with the first stuff over the no-clean kester stuff. I've never found a no-clean flux that penetrated oxidized surfaces worth a damn.

If you ever want a fancy-pants solder, go for a gallium and/or Indium alloy solder. These things are sick. They naturally wet the surface of pretty much anything, even aluminum, and they melt at temps that keeps everything safe when you're working with them. You pay for it though, but at least you get a performance improvement back in return for your money, unlike the lead-free solders that cost more and suck more.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/300373688658?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&_dmd=Gallery&var=sbar&rvr_id=171112429139&crlp=1_263602_304692&UA=%3F*S%3F&GUID=7c0922221250a0aad0b7ed87fd724b00&itemid=300373688658&ff4=263602_304692

 

[GCinDC]

Here is a sub-d25 harness I made for my buddies BMS

how did you like it? is that 20AWG? i just got another female for my new pack and the bag says the solder terminals are rated 3A @ 250AC. the 20 is not as snug as i thought though. maybe the 18 is perfect...

 

[liveforphysics]

the 20 is not as snug as i thought though. maybe the 18 is perfect...

Not all things get better with age.

 

[GCinDC]

you got me again! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[The Mighty Volt]

the 20 is not as snug as i thought though. maybe the 18 is perfect...

Not all things get better with age.

Ha ha.....I am finding that the dirtier and crappier a roll of solder looks, the better it is. Some of the Kester stuff looked like it was from the 1970's and it flowed real good. Its all gone now though

Cheers.

 

[johnrobholmes]

It looked about 20ga. It didn't fill the solder cups fully, but the sheath took up the extra room.

 

[Alan B]

For those who don't want to breathe solder and flux smoke and fumes, some soldering pencils have suction pumps and a tube alongside the tip that pulls the smoke into a filter. It is really effective and very useful to keep the smoke out of your face, or when working under a stereo microscope where you don't want smoke to get into the optics. My Aoyue 968 has this, it is part of the hot air system that is used for soldering surface mount parts.

http://hackaday.com/2009/02/20/tools-aoyue-968-3-in-1-soldering-and-rework-station/

 

[The Mighty Volt]

For those who don't want to breathe solder and flux smoke and fumes, some soldering pencils have suction pumps and a tube alongside the tip that pulls the smoke into a filter. It is really effective and very useful to keep the smoke out of your face, or when working under a stereo microscope where you don't want smoke to get into the optics. My Aoyue 968 has this, it is part of the hot air system that is used for soldering surface mount parts.

http://hackaday.com/2009/02/20/tools-aoyue-968-3-in-1-soldering-and-rework-station/

I found that when I was paralleling the 10p A123 sub-packs, that I needed to have a small fan working to push smoke out the shed door. Lots of heat, lots of smoke.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[lifepo4ever]

what is the maximum current efficiency of standard anderson pole? because just realise i have big phase 8 gauge wire and 10 gauge wire for my power but I still have stock anderson pole with my 100 amps set up

 

[GCinDC]

Heat Shrink Butt-Connectors- Does anyone here have an opinion these. They look like this:-

Hate 'em. I must be doing it wrong because I have to crimp with all my strength, and consequently cut the shink tube. Then the wire slides out! Which is fine because I wouldn't trust the shrink afterwards anyway! And how much heat is required to shrink that? So my opinion is low.

I'm now trying to connect three 10AWG wires, and I just blew my 250W soldering iron. How bad could it be to get some big WIRE NUTS and tighten them down super hard and tape the crap out it? Lowbrow, of course, and I'd prefer to get some solder in there to fill the gaps. But what do you think?

And for the record, 18AWG (right) is snug in the db25 terminals. 20AWG (left) is not.

 

[liveforphysics]

what is the maximum current efficiency of standard anderson pole? because just realise i have big phase 8 gauge wire and 10 gauge wire for my power but I still have stock anderson pole with my 100 amps set up

Fortunately, the "current efficiency" of every connector is 100%.

 

[shorza]

These are my 3 phase wire connectors from my Conhismotor 48v 500w rear hub motor compared to the phase connectors from my Lyen 12 FET controller.
Does anyone know if this will cause a problem with too much current going through?

 

[oldpiper]

Heat Shrink Butt-Connectors- Does anyone here have an opinion these. They look like this:-

Hate 'em. I must be doing it wrong because I have to crimp with all my strength, and consequently cut the shink tube. Then the wire slides out! Which is fine because I wouldn't trust the shrink afterwards anyway! And how much heat is required to shrink that? So my opinion is low.

Are you using a crimper like this?

Squeeze your connector in one of the little U-shaped places back towards the grips, and it makes a dent which crimps the wire securely, doesn't even cut through the plastic coating. And they're cheap, found everywhere (this pic's from Home Depot), often come in a plastic box with a bunch of terminals .

Cameron

 

[The Mighty Volt]

These are my 3 phase wire connectors from my Conhismotor 48v 500w rear hub motor compared to the phase connectors from my Lyen 12 FET controller.
Does anyone know if this will cause a problem with too much current going through?

Wow. That's a pretty shocking disparity. Can you please tell us what Watts your hub is rated to? Also what watts do you want the controller to discharge.

If I am not mistaken, fat wire to thin wire can be like a bottleneck, depending on what current is already traveling down the fat wires.

 

[GCinDC]

Does anyone know if this will cause a problem with too much current going through?

Those look like stock motor phase wires to me. They're much thinner, but I don't think it's a problem. As far as I understand it, the stock motor wires won't be able to conduct as much current as the controller wires can supply, so the current that passes will necessarily be less. The connectors look like mates to me, so no prob there. If you're pushing more than 40A, I believe LFP has the definitive motor wire upgrade thread...

 

[lifepo4ever]

what is the maximum current efficiency of standard anderson pole? because just realise i have big phase 8 gauge wire and 10 gauge wire for my power but I still have stock anderson pole with my 100 amps set up

Fortunately, the "current efficiency" of every connector is 100%.

I just google it and find that its good for 30amps maybe 40 peak so anderson pole as a limited flow of current or i am wrong? what happen if I lets go 80 amps from the battery to my controller because i want 200 peak current phase current 80 x 2.5 =200amp peak phase current, anyway 80amp pass trougth the power wire its double the rated current for the anderson pole , can i have trouble of melting something ?

 

[Alan B]

If you want 80A you should change connectors. There are 75 amp Powerpoles that should do it, or the SB-50's will handle 80A for a short time, or the SB-120's for a long time. Some of the larger bullet connectors may handle that as well.

 

[The Mighty Volt]

If you want 80A you should change connectors. There are 75 amp Powerpoles that should do it, or the SB-50's will handle 80A for a short time, or the SB-120's for a long time. Some of the larger bullet connectors may handle that as well.

HobbyKing says its 6 and 8mm bullets can do well over 100A.

 

[Alan B]

HobbyKing says its 6 and 8mm bullets can do well over 100A.

Of course they never over-rate their products. Would be nice if they published current vs temperature rise charts.

We are at least a little skeptical of their ratings.

But they may work adequately. Test them, if they get hot toss them out and try again.

 

[lifepo4ever]

If you want 80A you should change connectors. There are 75 amp Powerpoles that should do it, or the SB-50's will handle 80A for a short time, or the SB-120's for a long time. Some of the larger bullet connectors may handle that as well.

HobbyKing says its 6 and 8mm bullets can do well over 100A.

i have some 4mm bullet from hobbyking and i just see they rated 93 amp so i will try to see if can do the job done anyway i will a burst only for fews seconds

 

[shorza]

These are my 3 phase wire connectors from my Conhismotor 48v 500w rear hub motor compared to the phase connectors from my Lyen 12 FET controller.
Does anyone know if this will cause a problem with too much current going through?

Wow. That's a pretty shocking disparity. Can you please tell us what Watts your hub is rated to? Also what watts do you want the controller to discharge.

If I am not mistaken, fat wire to thin wire can be like a bottleneck, depending on what current is already traveling down the fat wires.

I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about electronics, but the hub is meant to be 500w, so I guess I want the controller to out put that?

 

[The Mighty Volt]

Hi Shorba

Your battery will put out whatever power it is capable of, Batteries are dumb that way.

The controller does all the thinking and siphons the "correct" amount of power into the hub.

However, the battery and the controller have to be matched correctly with the hub.

Can you please tell me what sort of battery {chemistry, brand, Voltage and Ah} you have?

Is your controller stock? Or specialized?

Thanks.

 

[GCinDC]

slightly OT, but i'm building a lipo pack and am trying to keep all the power leads the same size so when they're in series.

how much does it matter if set of leads is a couple inches longer? will that result in increased resistance over those wires and consequently cause the pack to become imbalanced?

for 10AWG, how much distance difference can there be before it will matter?

 

[liveforphysics]

There seems to be a few concepts in here that aren't quite right.

First, no connector can lose current. Doesn't matter if it's a 4"x4" solid copper bus bolted to another of the same, or two paper clips resting upon each other, the current in will equal the current out.

Likewise, any connection, even just a thin line drawn with a carbon pencil on paper can enable 10's of thousands of amps to flow through it for a short enough period of time (think femto-seconds). Or a situation like a spark-gap on a Tesla-Coil, where just a half-inch section of air flows thousands of amps through a little path of ionized atmosphere.

The consideration for current handling is if the I^2*R loss heating can't find thermal equilibrium before it goes into thermal run-a-way as resistance increases.

This can mean, a given bullet connector may handle 1,000amps continuous if it's connected up to some 0000awg cables to dissipate heat. Likewise, the very same connector hooked up with 12awg wire and under 3 layers of heat shrink for insulation might fail under 30amps continuous.

There really is no "current rating" for a given connector, and no connector limits any amount of current flow.