Anderson Power Pole for motors

[adciv]

We've been using the powerpoles for several years now. We do not zip tie or use anything other than the natural friction between the connectors. The only issue we've had is the occasional plugging the wrong things together. We've never had anything come undone during competition. Mind you, we also make sure our robot wiring is fairly neat and well secured to the robot. We avoid birds nests on the robot.

Originally Posted by droswell

We are hoping to use the andersons for quick disconnects for our CAN bus as well - anyone see an issue with that?

It's overkill and very large, but this is FIRST. The PP15 crimp is for 16-20 AWG wire, just make sure you don't try using 22 AWG or the crimps won't work. During beta testing, we used 19AWG wire (I didn't even realize 19 existed until just now) and have had no issues. This included running it through an offseason competition.

I'm considering using some new connectors from molex but they won't be available until March, so next season?

[droswell]

We ordered the 15A connectors for the CAN bus wires and 18 gauge stranded hookup wire. I thought it was overkill, but if you're going to do it, you may as well overdo it

Originally Posted by adciv

We've been using the powerpoles for several years now. We do not zip tie or use anything other than the natural friction between the connectors. The only issue we've had is the occasional plugging the wrong things together. We've never had anything come undone during competition. Mind you, we also make sure our robot wiring is fairly neat and well secured to the robot. We avoid birds nests on the robot.



It's overkill and very large, but this is FIRST. The PP15 crimp is for 16-20 AWG wire, just make sure you don't try using 22 AWG or the crimps won't work. During beta testing, we used 19AWG wire (I didn't even realize 19 existed until just now) and have had no issues. This included running it through an offseason competition.

I'm considering using some new connectors from molex but they won't be available until March, so next season?

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by adciv

I'm considering using some new connectors from molex but they won't be available until March, so next season?

Yes, those look good! And with the 2.50 mm pitch, we can probably adapt them to 0.1" pin tech for the relatively short runs.

[Levansic]

Originally Posted by adciv

I'm considering using some new connectors from molex but they won't be available until March, so next season?

I completely glossed over this, but that looks like what I'd like to use, except for not being able to color code them like the power poles. I guess Sharpies would work. Bummer that they are unobtainium until March.

[Gary Dillard]

We've been having problems with the 12AWG stranded wire on the Victor SP's being too large for the PowerPole PP30 12-14 AWG contacts. We haven't had any problems with other 12AWG wire - has anyone else run into this?

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

We've been having problems with the 12AWG stranded wire on the Victor SP's being too large for the PowerPole PP30 12-14 AWG contacts. We haven't had any problems with other 12AWG wire - has anyone else run into this?

It's a common problem that finely stranded wire has a considerably larger outer diameter than the solid round wire of the same gauge. I've seen that issue with other crimp connectors.

Maybe you could try Anderson's open-topped crimps instead of the ones with the closed barrel? Anderson sells slightly larger "super flex" connectors in some sizes that are intended to solve this specific problem.

Alternatively, it wouldn't be the end of the world to lose a few strands out of a 259-strand wire (if that's what they're using) over a short distance. The impact in terms of resistance would be negligible.

[Levansic]

Originally Posted by droswell

I just bought a bunch of Green, Yellow, and white ...

We are hoping to use the andersons for quick disconnects for our CAN bus as well - anyone see an issue with that?

and

Originally Posted by droswell

We ordered the 15A connectors for the CAN bus wires and 18 gauge stranded hookup wire. I thought it was overkill, but if you're going to do it, you may as well overdo it

I've been thinking about this for the last few days. I really wish there was a 50% size PowerPole housing with ~5 amp contacts, for use on the CAN/PWM wires on the new Talons. The polarized but non-gendered PowerPoles are well-suited to the CAN daisy chaining, and for color coding the ends of PWM cables. Anderson doesn't make a smaller housing, and I've been unable to find something similar from any other manufacturer.

We've been using PowerPoles for the last two years, color coding pigtails attached to spikes and jaguars for quick swaps (red/black on supply green/gray on loads). They are awesome for this, but it just seems wrong to use the same connectors for high current power and low current signaling. Our friend Murphy has shown us time and again that there is no limit to what a new and under-mentored student can plug together incorrectly.

[adciv]

We've been using PowerPoles for the last two years, color coding pigtails attached to spikes and jaguars for quick swaps (red/black on supply green/gray on loads). They are awesome for this, but it just seems wrong to use the same connectors for high current power and low current signaling. Our friend Murphy has shown us time and again that there is no limit to what a new and under-mentored student can plug together incorrectly.

Oh, I've done that myself. I have this bad habit of connecting the output of a TALON to the output of the PDB or some other motor controller. I may try using your color coding change this year.

[Peter Johnson]

Originally Posted by Levansic

I've been thinking about this for the last few days. I really wish there was a 50% size PowerPole housing with ~5 amp contacts, for use on the CAN/PWM wires on the new Talons. The polarized but non-gendered PowerPoles are well-suited to the CAN daisy chaining, and for color coding the ends of PWM cables. Anderson doesn't make a smaller housing, and I've been unable to find something similar from any other manufacturer.

During beta test, we used the 2-pin 0.1" latching polarized connectors from Hansen Hobbies (http://www.hansenhobbies.com/product...nlpconnectors/) for CAN bus cabling. The pin size and spacing are the same as PWM. The housings are a tiny bit bigger, but the latching and polarization features won me over. Hanson also sells 3-pin versions for those who want to make their Talon SRX'es dual use. We're planning to use these connectors on our robot in 2015.

[electroken]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

CIM wires are 14 AWG.

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

[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!

[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.

[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