Dielectric Grease to ensure your connections

[Sacman]

Does anyone else use dielectric grease on their connections like I do to ensure the connections are making solid contact? The first time I hooked up my Crystalyte kit I noticed some small spark or arching happening in the Anderson connectors between the controller and the battery sometimes when I gave throttle.

At first I stuck a small peices of foil in eact of the separate positive and negative connectors and the sparking stopped. I followed up with dielectric grease sparingly , again, to each separate connector. Definitely don't want to put too much in one side and have it oooze out into the other connector only to cause a small short between the two.

 

[John in CR]

Does anyone else use dielectric grease on their connections like I do to ensure the connections are making solid contact? The first time I hooked up my Crystalyte kit I noticed some small spark or arching happening in the Anderson connectors between the controller and the battery sometimes when I gave throttle.

At first I stuck a small peices of foil in eact of the separate positive and negative connectors and the sparking stopped. I followed up with dielectric grease sparingly , again, to each separate connector. Definitely don't want to put too much in one side and have it oooze out into the other connector only to cause a small short between the two.

Good thing you use it sparingly, because "dielectric" means electrically non-conductive, so if you put too much you'd have no connection. In the high end audio voodoo world there are some grease-like substances with silver and/or gold powder mixed in. They are used to enhance connections and prevent them from oxidizing. I believe there are some contact enhancers (not voodoo) used for electronics as well, and yes you would want to use it sparingly to avoid shorts. You could use a dielectric grease to help protect your connections from the elements, but you apply that after the connection is made, so it doesn't sound appropriate for a connection disconnected with some frequency.

John

 

[knoxie]

Hi

Nah you can fill the connector and it will still work, the spark you are seeing is the cap in the controller, this is usual, I fill my anderson connectors with the stuff, its great for keeping out moisture and preventing carbon deposits and corrosion, when you connect the plug and socket together the main part of the grease is pushed aside (there is no danger of it conducting across) you only ever get a light film between the contacts.

I fix up a few rides for local e-bikers that dont do it and there connections are in a very sorry state after 6 months of british weather, slap in the the grease!!

Knoxie

 

[snowcrow]

I've found GB "Ox-Gard" to be the best. Just a thin film is all you need, too much on a muli-pole connectors, (throttle, cruse, hall, etc.), will cause you problems, :? but a little extra on the Anderson connector wouldn't hurt.

Blessings, Snow Crow