SLA faston connectors are pain to keep connected

[auraslip]

I have to stop and reconnect them after every freakin bump.

I've tried duct tape to hold them on, and based on the saying "if you can't duct it, frock it" I'm about to throw my battery pack into the lake.

Is there a secret I'm not getting? I was thinking that I could put a safety pin through them to hold them on...

 

[morph999]

yep, I had the same problem. I had to duct tape the wires to the battery. I duct taped the wires about 2 inches from the clip-on connectors, that way, I could disconnect them without removing the duct tape. Also, I duct taped the batteries together too so they wouldn't disconnect the wires.

How are your SLA batteries holding up? What kind of range do you get without pedaling? Maybe if you wait long enough, elitepowersolutions will do another sale on their thundersky batteries. I think you just missed the sale. They were about $108 / 12v20AH pack which is an absolute bargain. They are $120 now.

 

[deardancer3]

I have to stop and reconnect them after every freakin bump.

I've tried duct tape to hold them on, and based on the saying "if you can't duct it, I want to hug it" I'm about to throw my battery pack into the lake.

Is there a secret I'm not getting? I was thinking that I could put a safety pin through them to hold them on...

This happpened to a frinds ebike; we drilled real small holes thru the connectors and put in xtra small sheetmetal screws holding things to gether.. Duct tape on top of that for good karma. some things already have small holes.

d

 

[amberwolf]

Those spade connectors are one reason I'd much rather have the bolt-on connectors that are used on larger cells, like my 17Ah and 20Ah SLAs.

What I would do if I had to use spade-type SLAs now is to solder some ring terminals to the spades. Get large-gauge rings, so the crimp ends are large enough to fit over the spades when squished almost flat. Take the crimp-end insulation off the ring terminals, spread out the crimp tube, slip over the spades, and squish them flat on the spade surfaces. Solder them on there (requires a very powerful soldering iron, at least 50-100W, because you want to do it quickly rather than sending heat down into the battery).

Once the ring terminals are on there, put matching ones on your wires, and then bolt them together with lockwashers on nut and bolt. No more loosey problems.

 

[dogman dan]

I found that spade connectors do wear out. Replacing them could help a lot, and then give the new ones an extra pinch to make em nice and tight. Pinching the old connectors could help, but they tend to spread back open easy if bent too many times. Yellow is the color that fits the large wires.

 

[Ypedal]

I solder the wires direct to the SLA tabs.. done deal.. :wink:

When i used SLA that is... have not touched those in years.

 

[auraslip]

I got some alligator clips at radio shack yesterday. They haven't come undone while riding yet. Not as secure as I would like.

I suppose the best option would be to solder a wire to the faston and then connect an anderson to it. I'll probably do that when I order my next bunch of andersons.

I should probably get a higher wattage soldering iron before I do that though. I don't want to damage the SLAs with my old dinky weller.

 

[Ypedal]

SLA's are tough like that.. clean tip, clean wire, clean solder and shazam..

 

[vanilla ice]

I soldered one of our sla's that wouldn't hold a spade on the terminals. Best thing if you have no need to move wires

The spades have a sprung dimple, but they loose the springiness after a few attaches. Sometimes I mash them so they will be tighter, works for a while.

 

[dogman dan]

It may also help to mash the connector on the battery itself. Putting just a bit of cup into the male end can make em stick better.

Soldered wires and andersons sounds like a real good permanent fix. If the andersons want to pop apart, duct tape those.

 

[auraslip]

I had a good thought;

If I ever wanted to jump start someones car I could unhook the andersons and wire them in parallel and into the jumper cables.

I figure 14 amps x 4 = 54 x 10c burst is 540 cranking amps.

That should be enough to jump start a car.

Maybe not a diesel though...

 

[veloman]

I had a hard time pulling off the spade connectors on my SLAs. The only time they came off was when I added padding to the battery case I have, which rubbed the connector off after a lot of bumps. Electrical tape over the wires onto the batteries solved it.

 

[auraslip]

Uhg
Alligator clips were a bad idea. Especially the ones I got.

They are getting hot enough to melt the duct tape holding them down.

Can't wait until the andersons arrive...

 

[amberwolf]

I'm not terribly surprised. When you clip an alligator clip onto a small tab like that, you might get 6 or 8 points of contact. And they are indeed just points, probably with a total cross-sectional area of about a 22 or 24 gauge wire, for each point, at best, usually a lot less. If either the clip or the tab are not completely flat, probably not even that many points will make actual contact.

Plus, most of those clips are made of steel, sometimes chrome or zinc plated, and none of those things are great conductors.

That's a pretty high-resistance connection, and does get hot.

No, I have never ever never ever used alligator clips for power sources. Of course not...I am only guessing and this has nothing to do with experience, really! Why are you all staring at me like that?

 

[auraslip]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to not think alligator clips though

 

[auraslip]

five lessons:

1. Always order twice as many andersons then you think you'll need. You will always find a need for more. For me it was adding an anderson tap to my battery pack for my multimeter that I also put andersons on.

2. 10 gauge wire is hard to fit into 15/30/45 anderson housings and connectors. Especially the thick stranded thhn home depot stuff.

3. You cannot solder sla tabs with a 25 watt soldering iron. The tabs get warm and the ten pounds of lead dissipates the heat. All I could get was a cold solder joint.

4. Bullet connecters blow. Look at how they burned. The wire melted the plastic top to my "microwave safe" controller tupperware. Replaced with andersons....another reason to order extra andersons.

5. Twists are cheap, easy, and available. Just like your sister. ZING.