Backup battery connector

[BrianBSL]

These are Tyco/AMP MATE-N-LOK's. I don't have exact part numbers, but I have ordered them from digikey before.

Digikey also sells "RC-Car Style" connectors, which are great for making little adapter cables with these to use vex style batteries and other standard rc car batteries.

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by BrianBSL

These are Tyco/AMP MATE-N-LOK's. I don't have exact part numbers, but I have ordered them from digikey before.

Digikey also sells "RC-Car Style" connectors, which are great for making little adapter cables with these to use vex style batteries and other standard rc car batteries.

While the IFI "backup batteries" may well be a MATE-N-LOK I believe digikey lists the connectors that connect to the VEX batteries as "Toy Car" connectors, with part numbers WM2308-ND (plug), WM2311-ND (socket), WM2309-ND (receptacle) and WM2310-ND (pin).

Note: The following does not follow official rules for VEX competitions. That doesn't mean it is unsafe or improper (so long as you have a "clue")... just don't plan on doing it at competitions. For classroom, demonstration, and other uses, however, once you have the correct connectors you have many alternative power sources for VEX robots.

For instance this means that you can purchase connectors that will allow you to adapt fast charging "peak detection" chargers to your vex batteries (you can reasonably charge most NiCd batteries at 3C, or six amps for the 2000MAh vex batteries, for a 20-minute charge rather than the two hour charge from the one amp VEX chargers.. and get a better charge as you are relying on peak detection, rather than temperature detection on when to stop charging) or adapt other battery technologies to your VEX robot. For those of us who fly RC electric airplanes, we have old Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh battery packs and peak chargers sitting around that are just perfect for use in VEX. But I won't be converting my Li-Polys just yet.

Jason