Tamiya plugs.....
 

So, I bought a load of lovely new Deans plugs with the intention of upgrading my six battery packs, 2 chargers and the esc; that was the plan anyway.
So I chose one of my naff battery packs to start with, just incase, and carefully removed the tamiya connector by cutting each wire individually. I then trimmed back the insulation and tried to tin up the wire- wouldnt work. No matter how much flux I applied the damn wire wouldnt take any solder. So I gave up and tried to tin up the deans plug- wouldnt work either. I ended up melting the plug because I had to hold the soldering iron on the tab so long for the solder to melt. After about 3 attempts I gave in and decided that tamiya connectors are actually cool:007: . I believe the problem was cheap nasty solder and a kack soldering iron- which then decided to break- so I have ordered a new one and some lead free solder.
I then had a poke at my tamiya connector and was very intrigued to find that after removing the plastic plug bit to expose the metal inner connector, it is only crimped on to the wire = this must be why they over heat and melt the plastic parts together. Now, when my replacement tamiya connector arrives (monday), I will tin the battery wire before crimping it to the plug part, and then heat it up so that there is a direct connection between the wire & plug. If I am correct this should improve the current handling of the tamiya plugs and make it 99% as good as a deans- in theory- though the deans does have a slightly larger contact area between the male/female plugs; we shall see.

EDIT: Deans are for sale on ebay= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...0460&rd=1&rd=1

Personally, I would end the auction...The main problem with Tamiya's, aside from not being soldered, is that the connection isn't good. Ever notice how they are easy to pull apart and Deans aren't?

I did yes, but that is also a worry for me. I have, um, stubby fingers so I found it impossible to seperate the deans without clamping onto each half with some pliers and then pulling them apart. Otherwise I would have to grab the wires to disconnect them, and thats a big no-no. They are great pieces, and the metal-metal contact is much better than a tamiya plug, but I think I'll have a bash at the soldering trick. If not then I will buy some deans pig-tails, and just solder them onto the batteries and esc- even I can manage that ( batteries dont melt like plastic plugs I hope...). You never know, the HVmaxx doesnt get that hot anyway so I might not need the deans anyway- Im not a serious racer after all, just a general basher/fast driver.

Besides being crimped on a huge source of resistance/heat is simply the poor connection at the plugs.It's a slip fit with little in the way of tension devices.Honestly you'd be far better off getting good quality solder and an iron that's capable of heating the solder tab quick enough that the heat doesn't migrate to the plastic housings before you get it to flow onto the surface.Tinning everything first and then letting them cool before doing the final solder joint goes miles towards keeping the plastic housing intact IMHO.
I use a weller 140/100 watt solder gun for 95% of my battery and connector soldering requirements, and smaller irons for small work like soldering an antennae onto a circuit board


I call Tamiya Plugs "Hand warmers" because they get so hot when trying to allow 50-100 amps flow through them :005:

sorry to be so discouraging

pinolelst

Dont apologise, I know exactly what you're saying and you're quite right. Im just not all that great at soldering as it is, and trying to solder thick stranded wire onto a tiny little metal tab, which is half inside a piece of plastic is somwwhat challenging for me, to say the least. When I was running the TXT-1 the whole lot used to get 'quite warm', but never what I would deem 'too warm', if you know what I mean. The pig tails would be best for me, straight forward solder direct onto the batts and the pcb of the esc- that would be easy enough - I had a 25w iron which broke, so now Im getting a 30w iron and silver solder. I will practice my soldering on the half melted deans, and if I can do it properly, and it turns out the new rig puts a lot of strain on the electrics, then I'll get the pig tails. I guess tamiya plugs are okay for lower draw machines, not our big bad brushless monsters.....

Much of how well a soldering iron works is dependent on how it is used. You have to have a clean tip free of any oxidation. You might want to read the thread on soldering if you haven't already.

If Deans are too small to grasp, there are other connectors you can use which have a larger "handle" and work just as well as Deans. Anything is better than those Tamiyas.

Yea, you might want to try the Powerpoles instead. They even make a special crimping tool just for them that makes them super easy to install. Surprisingly, the crimper does such a good job, you don't have to worry about it just being crimped.

I just watched the video of 'how to solder deans' -

http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/ima...lder_deans.WMV

Now that was impressive. Didnt happen like that when I tried it, but after reading the thread (thanks for the tip) it seems clear now that my iron wasnt hot enough (25w), and I lack the finess of a true solder-er. I got my new iron today (30w); blimey its so much better. It heats up in just 3 minutes and melts solder instantly- I also made sure to tin the tip properly and that helps alot. I did the soldering trick on the crimped tamiya connectors for the time-being, but I will have a look at other larger connectors like the powerpoles ( heard of them from my robotwars days ). Thanks for all your help guys, it is very much appreciated.