Sparkle destroying my Powerpole 45A

cwah

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Hello,

Tired of doing solding with my bullet connector, I've replaced all of them with Powerpole 45A ones. I thought that crimping is a much neater and time saver option.

However, there is a sparkle everytime I connect them to my battery (60v), and after one month, a chunk of my connector was gone!!
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I had a 1h30 walk of shame last night with my bike.

Anyone know what I can do about that? I know about precharge resistor but I'm not fan of having to connect twice my bike before I can go

Have I bought the wrong connectors? With the bullets at least the sparkle wouldn't destroy the connector

Chiwah
 
Make a cellman-type of Anderson precharge connector where the precharge Anderson is offset slightly forward from the other two power connectors so it contacts first. There's a picture of one here somewhere if you look hard enough.
 
On one ebike I used PowerPole 45's and PowerPole 75's. I plugged in the 45's first. There was a resistor on that circuit. Then I plugged on the 75's. No sparks. Just 2 plugs, in the right order. Would work fine with two 45's as well.

They do have an earlier connecting pin for grounding that can be used, as mentioned.
 
Yes you got the wrong connector. The powerpole 45s are total and complete garbage for any rating over a few amps. The inrush to the caps on connection will absolutely destroy them as you found out. Instead look for the SB50 connectors. I run those and they are very solid. You may need to file down the connector after a while if you have particularly hard live connects.
 
Alan B said:
On one ebike I used PowerPole 45's and PowerPole 75's. I plugged in the 45's first. There was a resistor on that circuit. Then I plugged on the 75's. No sparks. Just 2 plugs, in the right order. Would work fine with two 45's as well.

They do have an earlier connecting pin for grounding that can be used, as mentioned.


Where can I find a version with grounding?
 
flat tire said:
Yes you got the wrong connector. The powerpole 45s are total and complete garbage for any rating over a few amps. The inrush to the caps on connection will absolutely destroy them as you found out. Instead look for the SB50 connectors. I run those and they are very solid. You may need to file down the connector after a while if you have particularly hard live connects.

I just bought the whole kit 1 month ago with the pp45 crimper..... do I bin it?

And maybe this works better?
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/xt90-s-anti-spark-connector-2pairs-bag.html?wrh_pdp=1
 
I've never used the anti spark XT90s but the XT90 connector is popular and will definitely work.
 
As soon as they get close they arc. If they separate a little while riding they also arc. I use breakers and shrink tube so they never arc and last for years. I didn't burn any pp45 for ages.
Xt90 is another option...
 
Is the spark happening when you plug the battery pack into the controller ?
or
Do you have more than one Lipo pack that you connect together ?

I am now using XT 90s , on the battery harness from the batteries to the controller. ( the s is for the anti-spark version of the XT 90 They have some green on the yellow connector the all yellow ones are not the anti spark ones )
and
I also make sure the on/off switch is in the off position before connecting batteries together and/or the harness to the controller.


You can buy the XT 90s connectors other places as well as H.K.
 
I use regular XT90 connectors with no issue with the sparkle. I check inside the connector, not even black marks on the casing.

Oh and Hobbyking sells XT90AS the AS stands for Anti Spark.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/xt90-s-anti-spark-connector-2pairs-bag.html
 
The amount of damage in the connector is a function of the voltage and the capacitance. If you have enough of either or both it will damage connectors unless they have anti-spark resistors. If you have enough voltage and capacitance it will burn out the anti-spark resistors, too. They have a limit on what they can handle.
 
Powepoles are cheap and easy to install or replace, and they seem to be designed to take a lot of spark erosion at the tip where they make initial contact and then move the electrical path to a different area of the terminal when they're fully plugged in.
 
They *are* specifically designed for that, according to information from Anderson. ;)

But to save the wear and tear, precharge resistors are still recommended.



BTW, for those having problems with their PP45 contacts, keep in mind there are multiple types from Anderson themselves, *and* there are also several kinds of clones out there--some of which are not very good, and both bend and burn away faster than the real thing.

That said, the PP75's use the same contacts as the SB50 series, and wear slower because they are MUCH thicker and MUCH wider.
 
I agree. I abused pp75 over the years without any visible wear. They are underrated. I dunno the exact cypher but they are way over 75 amps capable.
 
Alan B said:
The amount of damage in the connector is a function of the voltage and the capacitance. If you have enough of either or both it will damage connectors unless they have anti-spark resistors. If you have enough voltage and capacitance it will burn out the anti-spark resistors, too. They have a limit on what they can handle.

Is there a better solution?
 
Dude must have a controller with some huge caps inside. Best solution is an anti spark rig.

I find that replacing the 45 amps poles I use needs to be done about once in two years, but the whole connector can cook off sooner if you really do pull 45 amps continuous through them.

Why? Because I have them crimped on crooked. I suspect you might have too. The design of the PP is so that there is some slack in there, but if you crimp to larger wire than 12g, there is no slack. Then a tiny misalignment can cause them to contact on the corner of the flat blade, and heat up.

What to do? Well, you got a crimper now right, and some spares? Make a Y cable, using smaller wire than 10g. So from your battery to the controller, the wire splits, then goes to a pair of 45 amps power poles. Now your contact can float in the housing as designed, and a slight twist can resolve itself. Do try to get them straight though, so each contact lines up with the other in the pair, and you don't have to twist it to plug in.

Mark one of the PP's on each side. Use that one to plug in, and take the spark. then plug in the second one. Now you have potentially each one taking half. If nothing else, the clean one can handle it all.

FWIW, the 4mm bullets are not hard to solder at all, if you have a nice fat tip on the soldering tool. And they don't give a shit about twist. But they are also vulnerable to the spark.

One last bit of advice. Carry some wire nuts and a foot of wire. Then when stranded, you can cut off the tip of a fried Anderson, and just connect the wires with the nut and limp home.
 
why are you disconnecting and reconnecting the pack on a regular basis?
add a charge connector to the bike, then leave the battery connected, just plug the bike in. the charge plug wont spark if the charger is on first... it will do a tiny one if it is not on.

if you need it for an on/off switch, why not just add one for the logic? If you need a high power switch for whatever reason, get a mosfet based "anti-spark" switch.

but really, why are you disconnecting it in the first place?
 
MrDude_1 said:
why are you disconnecting and reconnecting the pack on a regular basis?
add a charge connector to the bike, then leave the battery connected, just plug the bike in. the charge plug wont spark if the charger is on first... it will do a tiny one if it is not on.

if you need it for an on/off switch, why not just add one for the logic? If you need a high power switch for whatever reason, get a mosfet based "anti-spark" switch.

but really, why are you disconnecting it in the first place?

I want to KISS (keep it supidly simple).

I have 1 connector for charge / discharge. When plugged all lights turn on. When unplugged all is off and I can use it for charging. KISS!

The other way is to add one more set of connector charging and also add a power switch... for which I haven't found any compact and reliable. Do you know where I can find a compact and reliable one?
 
I use a Fletcher designed circuit you can read here:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=40142&start=100

You can buy them premade as "anti-spark" switches from e skate shops too.
 
Bullet connectors with built in anti spark exist.

But seriously, the double plug trick works well. You will have a clean spare one that never sees any spark. Your rides pull more than Id want to run through a single set of PP 45's anyway.

Or just a bigger plug, large bullets, the XT 90's, monster andersons, etc.
 
cwah said:
Thanks but i don't have time to make a circuit board.... is there any ready made solution?

If not, I'll just keep it simple with other connectors

tons.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vedder+anti+spark+switch+for+sale
switch goes on the battery lead between your controller and your pack. then a small on/off switch can be mounted somewhere.
 
Just learning to crimp those andersons on with the right gage wire, and aligned, should do er.
 
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