What to do, what to do? Connectors!

[markz]

I am trying to figure out what type of Anderson PowerPoles I have on my mxus 3000w v2 motor.

Wikipedia says "Powerpole connectors are available with current ratings up to 180 Amp. The size most commonly used is the 15 / 30 / 45 ampere variety. These sizes all use the same plastic housing in multiple colors, differing only in the metal contact inserted into the housing (selected based on the ampacity and wire size).[1]"

I cracked open a PP housing 15/30/45 and nothing is noted on blade conductor.
My wire is 2.46mm wide (including insulation). So going by this website my conductor is ~22AWG
http://www.panduit.com/heiler/SelectionGuides/WW-WASG03 Electrical Wire Sizes-WEB 7-7-11.pdf

I honestly cant tell by the dimensions of the blade conductor. They are all so close, plus the PP on the motor are soldered. Big Gobs of Solder.
*Look at the very bottom, 2nd page gives dimensions of contact*
http://www.powerwerx.com/techdata/PP15.pdf
http://www.powerwerx.com/techdata/PP30.pdf
http://www.powerwerx.com/techdata/PP45.pdf

View attachment 3

Im rocking PP-15.


See the mismatch in sizes. Like 10AWG blades to 22AWG Anderson PP-15's.
View attachment 2

Plastic coffee container battery setup.
View attachment 1
the male-male goes into red parallel harness I bought from HobbyKing

This will do for now, ideally I wanted an extra battery but the harness from hk doesnt have an extra branch. So I might reduce overall voltage from 74V to 60V, it will give me an extra 5Ah with spare batteries for a total of 20Ah. I will see what the reduced speeds are in the motor simulator on ebikes.ca.

So 74V 15Ah = 61.5kmh and 26km range, 59.2V 20Ah = 51.4kmh and 38km range.

 

[teslanv]

Cut off the Anderson's on the motor, and the blades from the controller and solder on some 4mm or larger HXT connectors.

Anderson's are woefully inadequate for the MXUS motors.

 

[Alan B]

The PowerPole 15/30/45 pins are sized to the wire, and they are compatible with each other. The current will be limited by the pin/wire size, and those numbers are short term ratings. Continuously they need to be de-rated about 1/3, so the 30A pins are good for about 20A continuous, but it depends on the wire size, airflow, and how hot you are willing to run them.

 

[markz]

Just a quick little question.
Are the crimp style PP able to take solder, is it recommended. Or they must sell solder style PP's.
Even though I aint going with PP's anymore, if my local store sells them at a decent price I will buy some for learning purposes.
APP has a distrubition centre in my city so I will see if they sell to the public. If not Acklands-Grainger might have 'em. They are national retailer of tons of stuff.

I tell you my blades on the controller look like the 45A PP, except with 2 of the fold-over tabs (one wider (front) then the other (back)).
All I did is strip to length, bend tabs with pliers, solder. Leaving the tip, b/c I think if I get solder on the blade itself most likely its toast. Something I saw on the PP youtube.
Not sure if those blades have a special tool or not, I bet they do.

 

[teslanv]

I always solder my Anderson's after I crimp them. You should get a crimping tool, though.

 

[Ykick]

I soldered APP’s before I had the proper crimp tool. You can get away with it but you should be aware of something called “wicking” which as the name implies is solder flowing into the stranded wire.

When this happens wire flexibility is severely compromised and a few bends back & forth the wire will easily break. If you choose to solder success greatly depends on how the wires will be dressed/secured and how you perform the soldering…

Since I got proper crimp tool I haven’t used solder and I’ve assembled 100’s of APPs with zero problems over 3-4 years. Only solder bullets now…

 

[Modbikemax]

Crimping gives consistent and repeatable quality joints. It's why manufactures prefer this method. Soldering also gives good results but relies heavily on the skills of the person doing the soldering. I have done a lot of both. If you have the right tool crimping wins every time. If you don't practice makes perfect. I would use a small blow torch instead of an iron to get plenty of heat into the joint quickly and reduce the wicking mentioned earlier. When connecting to wet lead acid batteries I prefered soldering to prevent acid creeping into the joint.

 

[cal3thousand]

Crimping gives consistent and repeatable quality joints. It's why manufactures prefer this method. Soldering also gives good results but relies heavily on the skills of the person doing the soldering. I have done a lot of both. If you have the right tool crimping wins every time. If you don't practice makes perfect. I would use a small blow torch instead of an iron to get plenty of heat into the joint quickly and reduce the wicking mentioned earlier. When connecting to wet lead acid batteries I prefered soldering to prevent acid creeping into the joint.

Count me as another person for crimping. Properly done, the mechanical and electrical connection surpasses even the best solder job (which untrained folks cannot do). And a proper crimp is MUCH faster and easily done. I currently run Anderson 45 PP on my phase wires at 3kW without issue. I wish there was a crimped connector capable of handling higher power and not an unholy size like the PP75.

 

[teslanv]

So I am being super-anal by Crimping (With the proper crimping tool) AND soldering, then?
+1 for a high-amp Anderson that isn't thumb-sized...

Here is the crimper you need:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANDERSON-POWERPOLE-TC-1-CRIMPER-FOR-15-30-45-AMP-CONNECTORS-/261500366941?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce2a2f05d

 

[cal3thousand]

So I am being super-anal by Crimping (With the proper crimping tool) AND soldering, then?
+1 for a high-amp Anderson that isn't thumb-sized...

Here is the crimper you need:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANDERSON-POWERPOLE-TC-1-CRIMPER-FOR-15-30-45-AMP-CONNECTORS-/261500366941?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce2a2f05d

Personally, I think the solder part is time wasted and an introduction of another possible failure mechanism (wicking that leads to vibration induced failure). You only have to look at milspec stuff to see that solder is reserved for circuit boards where there is a solid mechanical foundation and crimping is reserved for wires and environments where vibration and movement will occur.

 

[Alan B]

I spent some time with the Anderson Powerpole West Coast USA account manager at a convention, and they NEVER recommend soldering the wire crimp type pins. For many reasons, including that solder stiffens the wire (causing failures) and adds resistance (tin-lead is much less conductive than copper), and the solder fails at a much lower temperature than the crimp.

Ham Radio stores generally carry the PowerPoles, and some crimpers made for them that work quite well. Hobby stores that have RC gear often carry them as well.

 

[dogman dan]

Yes, a good crimp is merely compromised if you get wicking when you solder it. But if you solder it without wicking, it can't hurt. The solder won't increase resistance, since the crimp is good in the first place. The solder just a paint on top in that case.

However, it's hardly needed if you crimp properly.

Since you are a pro now, get your crimp up to snuff. When using soldered type connectors like bullets, reject any connection where wicking resulted.

I would never consider a 45 amps powerpole, for a 3000w set up now. I did run that at one time, and it worked for a while, but long use will result in eventual melt down of the 45's when you run a 40 amps controller. About 2000 miles of use did the trick for me. So my choice now would be larger bullets for a large motor like a big muxus. Or larger power poles.

I still run 45 amps powerpoles on my cargo bike, but I limit it to 30 amps now, 2000w. This is done more for battery's sake, and range, than the connectors, but it did allow me to keep 45 amps PP as my standard connector on my stand alone CA's, and batteries.