Replacement female barrel plug socket rated 54.6v/3amps? Where? Please help

[Planet Indigo]

I have a tiger shark battery case which needs a replacement female barrel power plug connector socket on its charging port.
I am having the hardest time finding a barrel plug that is rated for 54.6v/3amp which is what my charger puts out. All the ones I find on ebay/amazon/google searches either show no specs or are rated 12v/3a, or 30v/0.5a, or just 12v, etc...
I need it to fit properly in the existing hole so it needs to be identical to the one I have. The one installed now looks like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L6GU858/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvpv2_3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=6375e697-f226-4dbd-a63a-5ec697811ee1&pd_rd_wg=geZcE&pf_rd_r=NAHN7HX6E61KHB3XKZD1&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-bottom-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B01L6GU858&pd_rd_w=Wz6MJ&pf_rd_i=5.5mm+x+2.1mm&pd_rd_r=41072102-449e-41d0-be53-491350994650&ie=UTF8&qid=1543854646&sr=3

Could someone help me find a usa based seller with such a plug in stock?
Mucho bonus points if it's a seller in the LA/Orange County area where I could locally pick up the part, so if any forum users in the la area know of a local seller that has this part, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[eee291]

It doesn't need to be rated for 54V. 12V 3A is fine.

 

[Planet Indigo]

Wait, how, why, what?! Are you entirely sure about that?
I thought that if they were not rated for the full voltage, they could arc and/or cause a short circuit? The voltage rating basically being a measurement of the insulation potential of the plug, no? That's quite the mismatch too between 12 to 55v. Why would they even give a voltage rating if it's somehow irrelevant? Don't get me wrong, that's a good news if I can indeed use any 12v/3a plug but I'd hate to have shorts in the future if that would cause issues.

 

[amberwolf]

The ratings are not irrelevant, but these barrel connectors were designed for low voltages and currents, so they dont' have protection against a failure that could cause arc damage, etc. There have been examples posted over the years of these connectors failing in that way, but it's usually because of physical damage or other problems with the barrel plug on the cord allowing a short to occur within the jack as it's inserted.

It's just not that likely for an arcing problem to occur, so many places misuse these (and many other) connectors for voltages and/or currents they're not made for.

Also, arcing generally doesn't cause a problem unless there is sufficient current flow at the time, usually during disconnect rather than connect. Exceptions to that are plugging a battery into a controller, where the caps in the controller have no voltage yet, so there is a huge current inrush thru the still-just-barely-touching contacts.

Their biggest failure potential is not arcing, but the jack itself cracking and disintegrating (sometimes just causign a poor connection, and sometimes none at all), because most of them are pretty crappily made, using brittle plastics, and often placed such that there will be stress on a connector that it's not meant to take, if the cord gets pulled on accidentally.


The highest voltage I've seen with the barrel connectors on stuff that's actually tested and UL listed (not just marked as such) is 32v, on one of the midsize barrels (at only about a couple of amps, on an HP printer adapter).

The highest current I've seen is 5A, on the largest of those barrels with the largest center pin diameter (at only 15v, on an old Toshiba laptop adapter).

But I've seen them "successfully" misused at voltages up to 120VAC (at a few mA) on a battery-powered handheld vacuum with no brand or anything else on it, that had it's "badboy" charger for the nicads built into it's housing, and a barrel plug sticking out of the holder on the wall that went right to an outlet (no transformer).

DC voltages I've seen up to about 60v for charger ports on ebike stuff, usually at a couple of amps or so.

 

[Planet Indigo]

Amberwolf, thanks for that lenghty post. With all that said, would you consider it "safe" to use one of those on an ebike battery at 55v/3a? The one I'm replacing was badly damaged because of the "plug battery into unplugged charger" situation you decribed. But outside of that, do you see a problem using them for this application?

 

[amberwolf]

I'm good at lengthy posts.

The barrel connectors're used in tens (hundreds?) of thousands of ebike packs just like that every day, (and millions of other devices, possibly billions) and most of them don't fail, so the odds are with you that it'll be fine.

Myself, I prefer connectors with more distance between contacts for battery stuff (on either charge or discharge), but those will always be larger because of that, and probably won't fit in the same hole / space the original does (and would require you change the plug on the charger, too, which itself has a risk of you accidentally miswiring something, or shorting things at teh charger end, just like changing the battery-end plug does).

For convenience and inter-operability, and relative durability, and because my Cycle Satiator charger from Grin Tech http://ebikes.ca uses it, I've gone with the XLR female connectors on the batteries/bikes for the low-current (<8A, max the Satiator can output) stuff. They're available in panelmount or inline, plastic or metal frame, weather resistant covers, etc. I use the metal ones, becuase its' much less likely I'll break the connector at jack or plug by either me or one of hte dogs getting tangled in a cord. I also like their size, because they're a lot easier for me to handle when my hands go numb, since the plug end is about the size of my thumb instead of a dinky little thing smaller than my pinky's last joint.

They're also easier to wire to--soldering wires in their big cups is easier for me than with little tabs on the barrel jacks and plugs (which can easily melt if you aren't quick with the iron, especially with the cheapest plastic stuff).

They aren't really any better at surviving a high-voltage-difference @ high-current event, since they can still vaporize essential parts of teh contacts, or even weld together, but with the Satiator it doesn't output anything until it's checked that the battery is connected (it actually has a relay inside to prevent connection if it's not powered on, etc.), so that can't happen with it anyway.


But XLRs are at least twice as big as what you've got there, and can be more expensive depending on the type. So if you have to match the size because of lack of space inside the case, or shape/etc of the area around the hole, you might as well just go with the existing type of connector.


There's literally thousands of connector types, and each has it's own designed purpose, for which it is well-suited, and many many uses to which they have been put that they are not designed for, some of which they do well, and some of which they don't. So...whether using something different is worth it depends on how worried you are of an event taking place that a different connector would have prevented.




Oh, FWIW, there are types of connectors like Andersons that have sacrificial tips not involved in the actual current-carrying contact surfaces that are more appropriate for anything that might see arcing events upon plugin or disconnect, but they are much larger (though they do also come in panel mount), and they have other disadvantages (such as that the contacts must be able to float in the housings, or they can't self align during plugin, and thus have high contact resistance and can cause overheating or damage under high currents).

 

[Planet Indigo]

Lol, you weren't kidding about loving lengthy posts!
Well, thanks again, good info there.