Contact surface of Tamiya, Deans, XT60

[Juggular]

A shorty arrived today.  It is a good fit for the vintage Wild WIlly1.  It also fits Montero Wheelie on the top rear deck (like 1980's vintage).  But it came with a deans plug, so I replaced it with an XT60.  I meant to figure out the contact surface of each plugs, so here they are. 

 

 

1) Tamiya Plug 

Diameter: 2mm (x 3.14=6.28)  x Contact length: 6mm =  37.68 sq mm. 

Because of the nature of the thin material, the male plug isn't circular, it's slightly triangular.  Female receptacle is also egg-shaped, instead of being perfectly round.  I wouldn't be surprised if the actual surface contact area is 60-70% of above number.  The contacts are set 3mm deep into the protective housings, but the male tip is pointed, and the female tip is widened, further sacrificing 1mm contact length.  Normally Tamiya plug is fine, but a Juggernaut running two modified motors with 8.4v batteries would get it hot.  

 

2) Deans Plug (T-plug)

 

7mm x4mm = 28 sq mm.  

The male contact you see is 8mm long, but the female contact is 1mm offset inside of the housing.  Deans is good is because leaf springs under the prongs ensure good contacts.  They are hard to pull apart in my short experience.  Some come with ridges to give you traction on your fingertips.  

 

3) XT60 Plug

 

Diameter 3mm (x 3.14= 9.42 -1mm for slits=8.42) x Contact length: 6mm =  50.52 sq mm.

Plug housing overlap is 8mm deep.  The contacts start from 1mm inside the housings.  The male tips are rounded, so I subtracted 1mm again.  There are 4 slits in the male plug, they work like the spring in Deans plug.  I would assume the slits would be reduced to about 0.25mm when inside the female receptacle, so I subtracted 1mm from the circumference.  

 

[Conclusion]

The conclusion is : it does not matter much.  12 gauge wire is about 3mm in diameter.  Cutaway would be 9.42 sq. mm.  If all three plugs are made from the same material as the 12 gauge wires, and if they make good contacts, all we need would be 9.42 sq. mm.  All of the above should work fine. 

However, Tamiya's plug is made out of thin sheet metal that bends easily.  On paper, Tamiya should have more contact surface than Deans.  But plugging a triangle prong into an oblong-shaped receptacle is not an ideal situation.  I suspect that spotty connection is why Tamiya would heat up when Deans or XT60 wouldn't get hot.  For a silver can running on 2S, Tamiya is enough.  

Also Deans material is better.  I don't know the exact material for each plug.  But let's assume that Tamiya is aluminum, Deans ts copper alloy, and XT60 is gold plated aluminum.  I would guess 61% conductivity for Tamiya, 80% conductivity for Deans and 70% conductivity for XT60.  Aluminum melts at about 600 degrees while copper melts at 1000.  I would guess the conductivity and higher melting point would give Deans higher amp. 

Despite lower amp, however, I like XT60 because it's easier to work with.  You can put a wire in each hole and solder it.  I painted positive side with a red sharpie to quickly connect without fumbling.  I've seen bad quality T-plugs that connects slanted at an angle (see the wear in above photo) and XT60 that melts when soldering.  Those are probably not worth your time.  Whatever you prefer, I just thought I'd toss in the contact surface areas for people who would like to know useless information (like me).  

 

 

[lentner3]

+1 for the xt 60s so much easier to solder, easier to use and less chance to have a bad solder joint. Plus lots of batteries have them pre installed now. I have a fleet of about 30 vehicles all with esc and about the same number of batteries and battery leads and charging leads. I have just this last few weeks changed that all over from deans to xt60 and I'm very pleased. 

[taffer]

I've used traxxas plugs for the last ten years without issues, the new style having the balance plug integrated, which seems nice

[stu22]

What would be more important than the surface area is the resistance of the connector. Since you have all three can you stick an Ohm meter on them and see what it reads? 

I'm guessing that the Deans and XT60 will be consistent, while the Tamiya will change quite a bit as you wiggle the wires around. 

I've standardized on Deans connectors (with the exception of a few stock Traxxas toys) after melting Tamiya connectors on some very mild setups. Tamiya connectors were fine 40 years ago but these days they just can't handle the current that a modern battery pack can deliver.