installing deans plugs - help needed!

[julesbristol]

I have soldered on deans connectors to my battery and ESc and let them cool down. however the moment i hook them up it all heats up (the wires and ESC) really quickly. any idea what i have done wrong?

[OCD]

Sounds to me like you have a lot of resistance in the connector.. Are

you experienced at soldering?  It could be a weak connection in

the solder that is causing the excessive heat.  Do you by any

chance have a picture of the questionable connector?  If I could

see a detailed pic of the joints, I'd probably be able to say for sure..

-Steve

[julesbristol]

yep - all caught fire now! the battery literally set fire as soon as i hooked it up. i'm not a brilliant solderer but its all soldered in the right place...

[OCD]

OUCH!  Careful there!!!

Sounds like a dead short - unplug immediately!

Soldering can be tricky if you've never done it before.  You might

wanna check your LHS and see if there is a qualified solderer willing

to contract his time -  Might save you a few headaches and a

battery pack.?

-Steve

[julesbristol]

whats a dead short?

's

[bugged]

Sounds like there is a short. Possably between the positive and negative poles on the plugs !

After soldering the plugs, Did you heatshrink the poles on the deans connectors ???

Shane

[julesbristol]

what is heatshrinking? no...

[OCD]

Seriously -Please be careful if you don't know what you're doing -

batteries can cause SERIOUS injury if improperly handled. 

Heatshrink is the black tubing that acts as an insulator for the

terminals - absolutely necessary to prevent short circuiting. 

Without it, you'll have a fire. (Sounds like you already have)

-Steve

[bugged]

You can get *heatshrink* At maplins. I advise it on all soldered connetion !

[Floyd]

Every Dean's connectors I ever bought came with two little pieces of heat shrink tube . If it was a new pack it should have been in the bag with the connector .....Though like everyone else here . You definately have a dead short and as long as you have all your positives to positive and your negatives to negative the only other thing it could be is where you solderd the wires on .

[julesbristol]

yeah i think i had the wires the wrong way round on the battery. the soldering is ok but i didn't know to keep the wired pos to pos etc. which way round does it go? red = neg, black = pos etc? thanks guys. my finger/thumb are a bit better this morning!!

[bugged]

You shoould see on the end on the deans plugs that each plugs is labeled. One pole is + And the other is -

Battery wires are :-

Red = Positive ( + )

Black = Negative ( - )

And on the motor :-

Yellow = Positive ( + )

Green = Negatative ( - )

So black goes to black, And red to red etc. And same with the motor wires Hope this helps you Jules !

Cheers

Shane

[Hillman666]

Battery wires are as follows -

Red = Positive (+)

Black = Negative (-)

Motor wires are as follows -

Yellow = Positive (+)

Green = Negative (-)

There is a good guide on how to do deans plugs here -

www.misbehavin-rc.com/pit-lane/deans-plugs/g-deans-plugs.asp

Hope this helps! []

[bugged]

So basically your plugs should look like this after Installing them. These are in my super hornet !

[julesbristol]

right i'm having one more go...then i'm going to buy some ready made on ebay if it doesn't work. I melted my tamiya plugs with a 7 turn motor and want a set up that won't melt anything...but i also don't want to melt my hands or set my flat on fire...

what do you all use? do you do it yourselves? I guess you are all a million times better with a solering iron and generally know what you're doing...

[terry.sc]

I don't use Deans connectors, I use Powerpoles instead. They are colour

coded so you can't connect them wrong, easier to solder and you don't

need bits of heatshrink to insulate them.

You might find this article helpful

http://www.rccaraction.com/rc/online_ex/ht_installnlc.asp

[Tinno]

I have just gone through the deans connector learing curve so I can sympathise, and say stay with it, its worth it.

All thats happened here is that youv'e made a simple error from the sound of it, black to red, and red to black. its easy enough to do.

Here are some of my thoughts.

Firstly make sure that you've got the right tools for the job. 

1) a Good soldering iron, I am using a 60w fine tip and this seems fine  There are some people that are using 40w, and others that are using 80w.  as long as it does the job, then no problems.

A soldering GUN seems to me to not be the right tool for the job, I popped mine doing deans connectors.

2) Use a good solder. If you use one with a rosin core in it, this precleans the wire and the deans connector when applied and makes the solder stick better to the surface.

3) do one wire and one connector at a time. this helps prevent shorts.

4) I found that you need about 2 pairs of hands. So I have one of these handy mate type things (a pair of crocodile clips on supports really) and two extra loose croc clips as well.  I use the loose croc clips for keeping extra wires away from the hot bits by clipping them together, or bending the wires back on themselves so that they are out of the way.

5) The deans connectors specifically have markings next to the sections you are solding to indicate +, and - (red to + and black to -)

Here is how I go about wiring up my deans from a battery. (put the female deans on the end of the battery)

Firstly positive first. Snip the red wire as close to the tamiya connector, so that the black wire is still attached.

Use a stanley knife and peel back around 2-3mm of plastic sheath (you really don't need to show much wire.) Then twist the wire together, this prevents strands from sticking out and causing shorts.

Now put the heatshrink over the wire and slip it right down to the battery (I hold this in place with one of my loose croc clips)

Then apply your soldering iron to the exposed wire end(the wire is gripped in one of my croc clips over a piece of off cut wood) and in your other hand hold your solder. Once your wire is heated touch the solder to the wire (you can apply it to the iron and the solder should slip onto the wire, but if the wire is not to temerature you won't get a clean bond between solder and wire and this may lead to a weak joint)

This is known as "tinning"

Right, leave the wire now, and tin the deans connector, follow the same process.

Fine the female connector (the one with just one pair of metal pins sticking out) and look for the connector with the + next to one of the poles. That the one you want to tin now.

Hold the connector in the croc clip, with the flat side horizontal. (You will see that there is a little dent in the connector, aim to solder this edge, but it's not essential)

Apply the iron to the deans plug, and leave it there for 20-30 seconds, (this is dependant on the power of your iron, and the temperature around you as well as what you are holding the deans plug in as well.  anything that conducts heat away will lengthen the time.) if you gently move the soldering iron accross the connector's tab you will notice a very slight discolouration, this means that its getting hot, you may notice as well, if you have some extra solder on the tip of your iron that some of the excess will start to apply, you are nearly ready.

Once you think that its at temperature, get your solder and apply it to the connector, if it doesnt melt it's not hot enough, but just to make sure, apply a little bit to where the iron meets the connector, this will let the rosin flow across the connector, and you might find that once the rosin has cleaned the connector, the solder will flow across the tab of the deans plug.

Dont just apply a scraping, put a "reasonable amount" on, (think of it like a heaped teaspoon), but dont' apply too much.

Once the "heap" is in place, get the wire, hold it  on top of the heap and apply the soldering iron to the wire.  The heat goes through the wire, melts the heap, the wire sinks through to the metal plate, (or at least into the solder) now remove the iron but hold the wire in the right place

Now repeat the process for the negative connection. (dont' forget the heat shrink)

 

Once this has been finished. you should have a working deans plug.

Now slide the heatshrink up to the connection ends of both wires. ( I hold them in place with the croc clips)

use a lighter and hold it around 2-3 inches under the wire and you'll see why its called heat shrink.  rotate the wires round gently to ensure an even shrink and "Bob's your uncle"

One last thing.  I have found it invaluable to make a "converter cable.  This is a female Tamiya connector one end, to a male Deans plug.

This allows you to charge your female deans batteries with a standard tamiya connector charger.

or run a non deans car with your deans battery.  this is worth it's weight in gold. (probably worth £5 of anyones money if you were to buy it) (but you would still have the resistance of the tamiya connector in between the battery and the ESC so on a hot car it may still melt.

Anyway, I hope that this helps you some. If you want any more help you can PM me if you like