Anderson Power Pole for motors

[Joe Johnson]

I think they are without peer for FRC applications.

I highly recommend the official crimp tool from Anderson as have others. I will add that you need a variety of terminals (15A, 30A, & 45A) to suit different gauge wires that you want to crimp to.

Other best practices:
Tie wrap the connections together to prevent accidental unplugging.

Use different colors on the battery side of the speed controller/spike (e.g. red/black) than on the motor side (e.g. white/blue).

Make a Gold Master bit of wire that you can use to keep your polarity consistent when you make connections. You will be switching things around an you don't want to burn up a Victor or have a motor run backwards.

Make a special tool from a cheap pliars that will let you separate housings. I will post a picture of this when I get back to Boston but it is basically it involves grinding away half of each leg of the pliars. This tool lets you split the two housings easily, which can be a real pain (a literal pain actually) to do, especially if you're in a hurry.

Dr. Joe J.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

I think they are without peer for FRC applications.

I highly recommend the official crimp tool from Anderson as have others. I will add that you need a variety of terminals (15A, 30A, & 45A) to suit different gauge wires that you want to crimp to.

Other best practices:
Tie wrap the connections together to prevent accidental unplugging.

Use different colors on the battery side of the speed controller/spike (e.g. red/black) than on the motor side (e.g. white/blue).

Make a Gold Master bit of wire that you can use to keep your polarity consistent when you make connections. You will be switching things around an you don't want to burn up a Victor or have a motor run backwards.

Make a special tool from a cheap pliers that will let you separate housings. I will post a picture of this when I get back to Boston but it is basically it involves grinding away half of each leg of the pliers. This tool lets you split the two housings easily, which can be a real pain (a literal pain actually) to do, especially if you're in a hurry.

Dr. Joe J.

Thanks for the "Best Practices" Joe!

I really like the custom ground "cheap pliers" trick, guaranteed that will happen!

[adciv]

Originally Posted by electroken

14 AWG is rated for 32 continuous amps, reinforcing the point that the Anderson PP45 contacts are adequate.

What is your source for this?

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by billbo911

Thanks for the "Best Practices" Joe!

I really like the custom ground "cheap pliers" trick, guaranteed that will happen!

Glad to help. I am sure there are others have good tips to share as well.

Two more I just realized

On the motor connections I recommend using an "off standard" color (e.g. green) on one lead. That one lead is the one that positive voltage makes the motor go FORWARD/RIGHT/UP. This is very useful when you are debugging. You can hook up an outside power supply and know which ready the wheels will spin or the arm will move.

The next tip is powerwerx.com
Which is your one stop shop for all things Anderson Power Pole.

Share your tips.

Dr. Joe J.

[StephenNutt]

Originally Posted by adciv

What is your source for this?

Checkout http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by StephenNutt

Checkout http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

There is no one size fits all ampacity chart, as mentioned the link above

As you might guess, the rated ampacities are just a rule of thumb. In careful engineering the voltage drop, insulation temperature limit, thickness, thermal conductivity, and air convection and temperature should all be taken into account.

Here is a good calculator http://www.wirebarn.com/Wire-Calculator-_ep_41.html which does allow you to include the total circuit length and desired maximum voltage drop.

Note it does not take into affect the insulation type and the CIM uses high temp insulation since it goes inside the motor where it is subject to heating caused by the motor. It is also a very short section of wire. That is why we are required to use 12ga with a CIM if we want it to be connected to a 40a breaker even if the wire that exits the CIM is 14ga.

[Sparkyshires]

We used them last year along with a detachable drive rail design that made any drive maintenance an absolute breeze. Highly recommend them!

[Joe Johnson]

One more tip. This is the first year I have purchased this pick tool for removing wires/terminals from housings.

For $12 I think it is a good addition to the toolbox. Yes, you can live without it but it works pretty well.

Also, I recommended using cable ties (aka tie wraps) to hold connections together. Other teams swear by these BLOK LOK Clamps. I used them one year but at $1.39 each it seemed like cable ties were a better solution. What do others think?

Also, I see there is another option I have never tried. These Retention Clips These are only $0.49 each. Still not as cheap as a cable tie, but more reasonable than the BLOK LOK. has anyone had success using these? Do Tell...

Dr. Joe J.

[dradel]

I've always used a cable tie, zip tie or however many more names they go by.
But 49 cents isn't bad at all.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

...
Other best practices:
Tie wrap the connections together to prevent accidental unplugging.

Use different colors on the battery side of the speed controller/spike (e.g. red/black) than on the motor side (e.g. white/blue).

Make a Gold Master bit of wire that you can use to keep your polarity consistent when you make connections. You will be switching things around an you don't want to burn up a Victor or have a motor run backwards.

...

Dr. Joe J.

One of the great things about power poles is that they don't accidentally unplug. The connectors are angled towards each other so that the spring in the contact holds the connector on, not friction. If you get enough force to unplug a power pole connector, I'd rather have it disconnect than start ripping crimp connections or components apart.

What's the advantage of mis-matched colors? We used all red-black last year, matching the wires. We were thinking of using the colors as labels, but we would have used the same color housing on both sides to ensure we made the correct connection, saving some sticky labels. The biggest reason we didn't do this is it would require that we re-terminate a motor to use it in a different location on the robot; last year we had generic spares with connectors pre-crimped, and just had to add a label.

Also, power poles make their own polarity enforcer. Just orient all of the poles the same direction, and there's only one way to connect the equivalent mate. In order to make them non-polarity-enforcing, you'd have to make a shape with 180-degree rotational symmetry. All of these 2-pole shapes I can find would require that you connect two tongues or two grooves together.

[nixiebunny]

We were considering using the Anderson connectors for motors, but thought about other possibilities. We came up with the XT60 connector that Hobbyking and other RC companies sell for connecting those high-current LiPo battery packs to quadcopters. Low cost, simple solder connection, keyed for polarity protection.

We bought a few bags of thee, and will see how they do.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...arehouse_.html

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by nixiebunny

We were considering using the Anderson connectors for motors, but thought about other possibilities. We came up with the XT60 connector that Hobbyking and other RC companies sell for connecting those high-current LiPo battery packs to quadcopters. Low cost, simple solder connection, keyed for polarity protection.

We bought a few bags of thee, and will see how they do.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...arehouse_.html

They're not insanely cheaper than andersons, and require soldering so they take far more time.

[billbo911]

To apply XT60s properly, you need to also use heat shrink, or electrical tape, to cover the back side of the terminals. That is not required with the Anderson connectors.

[Zaque]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

Also, I see there is another option I have never tried. These Retention Clips These are only $0.49 each. Still not as cheap as a cable tie, but more reasonable than the BLOK LOK. has anyone had success using these? Do Tell...

We started using power poles for the first time this past year, and we purchased a large supply of the retention clips to go with our housings, and used them on every connection. We used them on a competition bot, practice bot, and a third off-season bot. All told, our robot went through four different competitions and we never had a problem with a wire coming unplugged.

Unrelated to the clips, Powerwerx sells these housings, which we used throughout the season. Those housings are bonded and as such have built in polarity protection. We may have had one of these seperate, but it was not on the robot and I believe it went through a serious trauma (hit with a hammer).

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by Zaque

Unrelated to the clips, Powerwerx sells these housings, which we used throughout the season. Those housings are bonded and as such have built in polarity protection. We may have had one of these seperate, but it was not on the robot and I believe it went through a serious trauma (hit with a hammer).

The ultrasonically welded housings are great. I'd never buy the individual housings, because there aren't many scenarios where you need to keep the + and the - wire separate. Plus you can use the hole where the roll-pin normally goes to run a zip-tie through for locking.