Quote:
Originally Posted by ahartnet
I've used them at my day job (NASA). They definitely do require more heat than many other things that require a heat gun.
My use cases have been when we need to solder a wire to a braided shield (surrounding the wires). I do not know if that is the main purpose of them or not, but soldering a wire to a shield can be either tricky or difficult to provide a strong mechanical connection.
I agree with the other sentiments expressed here - if it is able to help those teams that may not have someone to teach them how to solder - great! Do I think this is particularly helpful in FRC (as opposed to butt splices, levernuts, andersons, or soldering) - eh I won't be pushing to move to these instead, but I won't deem it a poor decision by those that do.
This is what I see:
-Advantage over levernuts: cheaper
-Advantage over butt splices: stronger connection and more obvious that it's completed (crimping done by inexperienced people are likely to either crimp the wrong place, or not crimp hard enough). It is obvious (and like bilfred said - satisfying - to see the solder melt
-Advantage over Andersons: cheaper (probably, I haven't confirmed), more permanent, and same crimp issues noted before
-advantage over soldering: probably quicker, requires less experience
-disadvantage over levernuts: takes longer, requires more tools than a wire stripper (or sharp edge), requires electrical power (or battery powered heat gun)
-disadvantage over butt splices: more expensive, requires electrical power (or battery powered heat gun)
-disadvantage over andersons: can't disconnect
-disadvantage over soldering: more expensive, requires a decent check of wire on both ends (i.e. - there are some situations you can only solder to connect wires)
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You can get these type of connectors to work properly with just a lighter or candle. Of course there is a risk with using an open flame and not something you could do in the pits, however there are some butane torch units that don't have an open flame that are intended to be used in a heat gun type of application.