Are Anderson PowerPole connectors the de-facto standard?

PeteCress

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Paoli (near Philadelphia) Pennsylvania USA
I have been using Anderson PowerPoles, but to me, they look less than optimal:
  • A bit too easy to disconnect.
  • Not weatherproof - as in extended exposure to a driving rain and/or seashore conditions
Or are those considerations moot in the real world?

If not, what are you using?
 
I thought XT90 was the somewhat "standard"...if there is such a thing.
 
Anderson's may have been considered the standard at one time but XT90's have certainly seemed to have stolen the crown. They fit tightly, are fairly water resistant, and can handle bursts far exceeding their rating. They've been the RC lipo standard for some time now, for good reason.
 
Andersons are quite adequate for an indoor charger (typically 10A or less), but I find them to be bulkier than necessary for ebikes between the battery and controller (or any other ebike connection). I am uneasy using them for high amps. The larger Andersons are quite fat. The ones on forklifts are enormous.

powerpole_cutaway.gif
 
Probably not de-facto , but very popular. Andersons are good connectors and easy to use and work well for indoor light application use, but do have a downside. They can't handle high amperage and weather very well. I end up having to replace the pins every year that have corroded or look like they were welded. I am not a power user at all. I have had one connection with a melted housing. I also noticed that their 12 awg pins are better than the 10awg narrow pins. I see others using barrell or bullet connectors for high power applications, the soldering required is a deal breaker for me. I am currently looking into block connectors with custom connector plates and some a weather proofing case - or just running wire straight to my controller. JST connectors have also been a problem and i switched all that stuff to Andersons without any issues. I imagine beside andersons and XT , there must be other vendors providing reliable connectors, but havn't tried any yet

I see TE has some weather proof connectors
 
Standard for kits and diy components are cheap generic connectors.
The good sellers who step their game up and sell kits with better connectors use better parts and their standards are much better. XT60's, XT90's, Anderso PP's, 3 pin MT60, XLR, Neutrick, XT150 bullets.
I done my own XT90 connectors, solder joints are holding up well gotta be 2 winters now
plug and unplug everyday a series harness (3 XT90's)
The new battery I got with Satiator has a connector with 3 pins, hard to find its position to slip in but its holding up.
4mm bullets from Hobbyking are good, I use them for the phase wires. Sensorless controller, hard wired throttle.
 
You set your own standards

and there will be use cases that justify exceptions.

For high current (above 5A) DC

IMO yes, PPs are the way to go, long term reliability when crimped properly - no soldering!

But they are bulky compared to the "hobby standards" like XTs, and some people prefer / are skilled at soldering.
 
I've routinely run hundreds of amps through PP's on race vehicles for many years and also use them for connecting a charger albeit at only a few amps.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk

 
OSE is Off Shore Electrics...QS8 8mm-pin connectors

https://www.offshoreelectrics.com/proddetail.php?prod=ose-qs8-anti

I like female XT60's for the battery side, as a charging connection (5A-10A?), and for power ranges up to temporary peaks of 50A, I'm happy with the battery having a female XT90.

If I was using frequent high amps and the connectors were showing signs of excessive heat, I'd upgrade to the QS8, which is almost identical to the XT90, but twice the mass. The 7mm sockets accept 6AWG-8AWG, and 8AWG cable can be locally sourced at car audio supply businesses. 6AWG is light welding cable and can usually be locally sourced for less than $1.00/foot...

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john61ct said:
SB series way to go for real big amps

Those are what we use for the forklifts at work. I've seen them carrying hundreds of amps, but they suffer from issues as well and do require periodic replacement at my workplace.

spinningmagnets said:
If I was using frequent high amps and the connectors were showing signs of excessive heat, I'd upgrade to the QS8, which is almost identical to the XT90, but twice the mass.

mqdefault.jpg

Well hello there. I like the looks of those.
 
Just my 2 cents, PPs aren't very reliable out in the real world, except for charger leads.

In a perfect installation they can handle the rated amps, but they're very sensitive to having a neutral flex in the wires. If the wires are trying to twist or flex too much from say being shoved in a battery bag etc, they don't maintain alignment at the terminals, and they start heating up.

I've had a few that started heating, and very slightly deforming the housings, which allowed more flex at the terminals, leading to overheating death spiral over time.

Part of their design is the self wiping contacts, so in an installation when you hardly ever unplug it, corrosion can build up still, where again, as charger leads, it gets self wiped a lot.

For a high amp power wires you want to plug in once and forget about for a while, most of the modern RC plugs are better options. I heard PPs were originally developed for the ham radio market?

And it sounds horribly primitive, but I've had great success with good old wire nuts, esp as I do a lot of prototyping, and testing different components with mismatched plugs, etc. When you make the exposed wire the right length they hold great, and rarely overheat. A zip tie around the wires after keeps tugging from pulling them apart, and they're easy to open up and inspect. One key is make sure they're pointed up, but that goes for plugs and having a drip loop also, ideally.
If you leave your battery on the bike most of the time, the charger is about the only part of the power system where a quick disconnect is really handy, to me anyway.

Right now I'm testing a bunch of random 36v modules for a boat motor, and guess where the hot spots are? Not at the cheap hardware store plugs, the wire nuts, the fuse holders, or the recycled packs is the correct answer. 🤣
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XT90 fits too tightly IMO, I prefer XT60 if anything (though I still use Powerpole for everything). I think the battery connector should be able to break away. This overly tight fit causes a secondary problem: the connector itself can separate under the tug required to remove it from the battery, exposing the gold tips which are very near one another.
 

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by via » Aug 05 2021 1:57pm

XT90 fits too tightly IMO, I prefer XT60 if anything (though I still use Powerpole for everything). I think the battery connector should be able to break away. This overly tight fit causes a secondary problem: the connector itself can separate under the tug required to remove it from the battery, exposing the gold tips which are very near one another.

Started out using 45a PowerPoles, on my phase wires. Right from the start had to zip tie them to keep a good connection, no problems after that. Need to pull my motor off at some point and will replace that mess with L1019 HiGo or solder the wires together.

My batteries came with the XT90 connectors and after two years of plugging and unplugging them still hard to do. The never come lose or short.
 
via said:
XT90 fits too tightly IMO, I prefer XT60 if anything (though I still use Powerpole for everything). I think the battery connector should be able to break away. This overly tight fit causes a secondary problem: the connector itself can separate under the tug required to remove it from the battery, exposing the gold tips which are very near one another.
Shrink wrapping them helps alleviate that issue. Or a healthy wrap of electrical tape
 
You have to learn how to unplug XT's by grabbing the connector from the housing not the wire. You pull the connector from the wire until it breaks when your out riding once or twice and it never happens again. XT90's are big enough you dont have to worry about your fingers slipping off, where as XT60's are smaller and slips off easier. Then other factors are wearing riding gloves, or winter gloves, and unplugging/pluggin-in when tired.
 
XT90's will unplug properly even when using them as a backpack battery connection system. In a crash or just a step-off on the mountain bike trail, I've not had the connector fail to unplug and do so without damage to the wires. As another poster already mentioned, when unplugging them by hand under normal operation, the trick is grabbing the opposing ends at the right spots. Also, I guess one could dab a "tiny" film of dielectric grease or such with a Q-tip where the connectors make contact if the problem continues.
 

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by markz » Aug 05 2021 9:26pm

You have to learn how to unplug XT's by grabbing the connector from the housing not the wire. You pull the connector from the wire until it breaks when your out riding once or twice and it never happens again. XT90's are big enough you dont have to worry about your fingers slipping off, where as XT60's are smaller and slips off easier. Then other factors are wearing riding gloves, or winter gloves, and unplugging/pluggin-in when tired.

I'm sure some do. But I do need to take a good look to see which side pulls out. Only unplug them when I swap batteries once a month or three.
 
Well I know which way mine are, female (inside) is adapter side, male (outside) is battery side so I always pull backwards.
Controller is up near fork on the bottom of the top bar with the wires facing forward. Battery is behind it.
I used to paint the positive side of housing but it fades to fast, but I've never had it go in wrong even trying plug it in wrong, not knowing and has never sparked or :kff:

But I have pulled from wire and broken solder joint and twice had to buy some $5 electrical tape from 7-eleven conv. store to get back home. I dont think I'd want to go anything bigger then XT90, like some of the big power poles have handles but they are huge. https://powerwerx.com/anderson-power-sb120-hdl-red-handle
 
I have noticed with XT90s that with my crappy soldering skills and equipment they can easily get slightly deformed from the heat, even when attached to each other during the process, and thus unplugging can be more difficult than it should be.
 
by ilu » Aug 06 2021 7:48am

I have noticed with XT90s that with my crappy soldering skills and equipment they can easily get slightly deformed from the heat, even when attached to each other during the process, and thus unplugging can be more difficult than it should be.

Will pay more attention next time I solder an end on. My skills will not win any awards. Maybe plug it together and hold the wires down straight on a jig.
 
A key element in soldering to XT90's is not only inserting the male/females together, the soldering must take place quickly.

I use a 100W soldering iron, and the job is done rapidly. If I used a weaker soldering iron, I might be forced to hold the hot iron onto the socket for a longer amount of time.

It's the length of time that allows the heat to travel up into the plastic...
 
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