Question about Anderson PowerPoles

[Jon Stratis]

My team uses the 45's. I've had good luck ordering both contacts and housings from Mouser and Allied Electronics, with decent shipping time from both vendors (i really wish Digi-Key carried them, as shipping here is about 1 day for them!).

Having had 15's, 30's, and 45's in our shop, I can tell you that the issue really comes down to wire size. If you have one of the standard PowerPole crimpers, it could have trouble with a 12 gauge wire in a pp30 contact.

From an inspection standpoint, I would be unable to look at your robot and tell the difference between the 30 and 45's- once the wires are in place and they are in the housing, there's just no way to know.

Unfortunately, I don't know quite enough to know if it would be safe or not to use them - that's why I rely on company listed ratings on parts. To me, having a part that is "rated" for 45 amps sitting being a 40 amp breaker is safe.. Having one that is rated for 30 amps behind a 40 amp breaker is taking a risk. My guess would be that the risk is minimal, as we run short matches with long cool down times, and you rarely reach currents into the 30's for extended periods on a normal robot. That should mean the contacts wouldn't have enough time to get hot enough to cause problems. But I'm not willing to bet the success of my team (or the trigger finger of the FTA with the fire extinguisher) on it!