Zippy Lipo battery connections?

[ElectricEd]

Hi,
I have just received a charger, power supply and various Zippy Lipo packs from HobbyKing. The positive lead on the batteries are a 4mm female bullet into which a banana plug happily fits.
The negative lead has what looks like a castle-ated 3.5mm female bullet but it is completely shrouded by heatshrink. If I trim back the heatshrink to allow something to connect, I find that nothing fits, I have to use an alligator clip.
WTF?
Can somebody tell me what's going on here?

 

[neptronix]

Get the opposite end type plug and permanently solder that to the end of that charger.

My 20C, 15C zippy packs and 20C Turnigy packs all came with 4mm bullets, so that's what i use.

Pics would help too.

 

[adrian_sm]

Hi,
I have just received a charger, power supply and various Zippy Lipo packs from HobbyKing.

Ooo. Going LiPo hey mate.

You will have huuuuuge range if you fill that metal battery box on your bike with it. :lol:

- Adrian

 

[ElectricEd]

Get the opposite end type plug and permanently solder that to the end of that charger.

My 20C, 15C zippy packs and 20C Turnigy packs all came with 4mm bullets, so that's what i use.

Pics would help too.

2 questions:
Just wondering, do the male bullets come with extra heatshrink for safety in transport and you trim it off before you use it?
On the battery, is the negative terminal supposed to be the male bullet?

The connectors on my zippy packs don't look like yours. In the picture below I have trimmed the heatshrink back on the negative lead. Sorry about the lowsy picture, I used my phone and it's a bit dark in the office.

 

[neptronix]

..woah, what the hell is that? do they all look like that?

Is that the lippy lifepo4 ? could start explaining things if so..

 

[ElectricEd]

Ooo. Going LiPo hey mate.
You will have huuuuuge range if you fill that metal battery box on your bike with it. :lol:

- Adrian

Hi Adrian,
No, not going LiPo, these are for our battery operated scales at work. They come with lead acid batteries and are often left in a discharged state which ruins the battery. The batteries are an unusual type and can only be bought from the scales supplier at a ripoff price or from China by the container load. I figured that LiPo would be a lot cheaper in the long run. They come in sizes that nicely fit the space available.

See you Feb 4 on the next ride.

 

[adrian_sm]

Looking at the listing on Hobbyking for the Lage Zippy packs it says they use 5.5mm bullet connectors without the housing.
Zippy 6s 8Ah http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=19531
Zippy 6s 5.8Ah http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=19522
Zippy 6s 5Ah http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=22751

So it looks like they are just heatshrunk for transport, and don't have housings.
Here is a link to their 5.5mm connectors in raw form. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=2087
But your photo shows the male parts has 6 sprung bits, more like the bigger variety, like the 6mm & 8mm ones.

So either trim the heatshrink back on the male connectors to allow the packs to be joined up in series, or chop these connectors off (one at a time), and put different sheilded connectors of your choice on.

Interesting that the equivalent Turnigy packs already have the heatshrink cut back to allow connection.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=14715

 

[ElectricEd]

..woah, what the hell is that? do they all look like that?

Is that the lippy lifepo4 ? could start explaining things if so..

Wow, a big OOPS!
I just realised that I had ordered LiFePO4 for the extra life. It took so long to arrive that I had forgotten just what I'd ordered. Doh!
They are LiFePO4.
So, I am still in a quandary. What's going on with the connections, and why would it be different for lifepo4?

 

[adrian_sm]

And here I was thinking you were turning to the dark side.

If these batteries are just for scales, then just use whatever connectors you have access to. As you will need the mating connectors for the scales and charge lead. I have a bunch of different connectors if you need some. Anderson PP45s, HXT, Deans, 4mm bullets with shrouds etc. Let me know if you need some.

- Adrian

 

[ElectricEd]

Thanks Adrian,
You are bang on correct. I just trimmed back the heatshrink and it fits into the female bullet of the next battery beautifully.
Thanks all, problem solved.

 

[neptronix]

That is a big oops. Hope you didn't order too many. 3.2-3.3v nominal means higher cell count for the same voltage, and makes life a bit harder for balance charging due to that.

Let us know how those cells turn out. I have not heard of anyone ordering them. But i did read bad reviews... that's all the info i can think of on these..

 

[ElectricEd]

And here I was thinking you were turning to the dark side...
- Adrian

I'm already there. One very jaded hippy.

Thanks for the offer re parts. Jaycar is just down the road so there's no probs getting the connectors I need.