Deans on 8S

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Greywolf74

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This was kind of discussed in a different thread involving my Kraton 8S but I wanted to make a separate thread about running Deans on 8S and whether or not they will hold up under high current.

Last night I got one run in on my Kraton 8S using Deans connectors. I did notice they were a bit warmer than the EC5/IC5 plugs that are on it now but they did not suffer any damage from it yet. The Deans connectors were about the same temp as the 12AWG maybe a tad warmer. These are generic Deans too btw so even if one of these does fail I have plans to go all original Deans on the kit and see how they hold up in comparison. I will make updates here as I can. Waiting for my 4S lipos to arrive.
 
@Greywolf74 there wouldn't be no one in heck I'd use Deans plugs anywhere near most 6s setups, let alone an 8s.

The Kraton 8s comes with a Spektrum Firma that's capable of drawing more than 160amps. Deans plugs are rated more in the 60-75 amp rang. Extremely inadequate.

I'd highly recommend checking out the XT90 or EC5 connectors or 6.5mm or larger bullets. Another option are Anderson Powerpoles.

I've ditched using deans a long time ago.
 
@Greywolf74 there wouldn't be no one in heck I'd use Deans plugs anywhere near most 6s setups, let alone an 8s.

The Kraton 8s comes with a Spektrum Firma that's capable of drawing more than 160amps. Deans plugs are rated more in the 60-75 amp rang. Extremely inadequate.

I'd highly recommend checking out the XT90 or EC5 connectors or 6.5mm or larger bullets. Another option are Anderson Powerpoles.

I've ditched using deans a long time ago.
Right, I'm familiar with all of that but The owner of Deans assures me that his plugs are slightly better than XT90 or EC5s. Plus Deans states that the blades in their connectors have less resistance than an equal length of 12AWG wire. If thats true then the 12AWG on the LiPos should fail before the Deans connector does. So I figured Id put them to the test. Cloned Deans first and then original ones if those fail because Robin claims that original Deans are much more capable than the Chinese knock offs.

I've been using Deans on 6S for a long time now on my LST2-E conversion and my 100+MPH Rusty and I've never had a Chinese clone Deans fail on me yet. (I specify clone Deans because the majority of what I do have are cloned Deans). I will buy some original Deans for testing if I do have a failure with the clones. Inquiring minds want to know :)
 
Well you're certainly free to use what you want to use but you said yourself, "The Deans connectors were about the same temp as the 12AWG maybe a tad warmer". I can tell you this, never has my XT90's or EC5 ever been warm after any of my runs.

Keep us posted how the deans work out. :)
 
Well you're certainly free to use what you want to use but you said yourself, "The Deans connectors were about the same temp as the 12AWG maybe a tad warmer". I can tell you this, never has my XT90's or EC5 ever been warm after any of my runs.

Keep us posted how the deans work out. :)
Its true that the clone Deans might have been a tad warmer than the wire not 100% sure but they werent hot so I feel like they will be fine. At least for a single run. I'm gonna get my temp gun out next time. As I get more LiPos to test with Ill see how they fair after 2 or 3 back to back runs.

What concerns me more than that is how hot the motor itself is getting. I need to see what pinion is installed on the kit. It does cog a tad here and there too when gunning it from a stand still so it may need a couple teeth knocked down off the pinion.
 
Two more runs on the fake Deans. So far today the hottest I saw the connector get was about 140F which was just slightly warmer than the 12AWG wire of the LiPo which clocked in at around 130F. Thats after running it fairly hard through grass and a fair amount of WOT. Generic Deans are not as good as the IC5 connectors which dont get as warm. I'm starting to wonder how much better the original Deans really are but I'm not going to test that until I'm satisfied with testing the generics.

I used a pair of Zeee 4S 5200mah 50C lipos. (Second set of budget 4S lipos I've ordered that dont fit in the Kraton battery trays lol. The LiPos where at about 125F, ESC was at about 155F, and the back of the motor can (only part I could get a temp gauge on) was 170F. ESC and motor are slightly warmer than I like but not to much. All in all probably fine.

Side note, I currently have one other set of 4S lipos for this thing which are HoVoo 4S 5200mah 60C lipos. They work fine but I felt like I got more run time out of the Zeee's. Completely subjective I know but thats just my observation.
 
Two more runs in on the fake Deans today. It was only about 60F out today so everything in general was much cooler running today. My LiPos were at about 114F, ESC was at about 135F, Motor was at about 151F, The Deans connectors were only at about 117F and this time I also Temped the IC5 connectors which were only 10F cooler than the Deans coming in at 107F.
 
Been raining a lot here lately so I havent gotten much more drive time in. I did get one run in with em a couple days ago bashing in my back yard and testing out my new ramp :)
So far the fake deans are still holding up fine. 140F is still the hottest I've seen them which admittedly is a little warmer than Id like but as long as the plastic isnt softening or melting then were still good. Once I've built my 120A discharger I'm going to test with Deans connectors also so we'll see what happens in those tests as well.
 
Can't wait to see the temperatures when you test XT-90's ;)
 
Can't wait to see the temperatures when you test XT-90's ;)
I mean I have no intentions of testing XT90s as I'm sure they are more than adequate for the job. My main interest is do Deans hold up because I really dont want to change all my deans connectors lol. I'm guessing other folks using Deans will want to know this too. I'm sure the XT90s will be cooler but I want to know if I can get the Deans to fail. If they fail then I will admit defeat and resolder all new connectors on my batteries/devices/kits/etc :)
 
If they fail then I will admit defeat and resolder all new connectors on my batteries/devices/kits/etc
You better get to re-soldering then as it looks like you already shown defeat ;)

Heat in wires and your connectors is a tale tale sign of exactly the issue of using a connector that's rated less than the demand on the system.

When ESC pulls more power from the battery than the connector can handle, then you get more resistance which in turn shows up as heat. More resistance means less efficiency and more heat. More heat can result in melted connectors and/or even fires.

The very fact that you've experienced connectors at 140F just very much proves the above point. In fact it's causing so much resistance that even your LiPo battery wires are heating up. If that's not defeat I'm not sure what is? :D

It's like the Challenger shuttle, the o-rings clearly shown they were an issue, but it wasn't an issue until it WAS an issue. Maybe defeat means an RC going up in smoke? ;)
 
I get what your saying but EC5 connectors on my Hoovo LiPos have reached 120+F also and the Lipo wires were still very warm also. (Dont remember exact amounts because I havent really been checking these that much) I'm not saying the Deans wont be out performed by bigger connectors. If the deans get 20F warmer than EC5 or XT90s as long as the connectors dont fail that is my main objective. Again the main thing I'm trying to not have to do is rewire all my connectors cuz I'm pretty sure Id want to quit the hobby if I have to do that lol.

That being said now you do have my wanting to compare the EC5s but not so much for the connector but rather what is happening to the 12AWG Lipo wires when using them compared to using a Deans connector. I will start doing more comparison testing using the EC5s. If there is a big enough difference in battery wire temps then I'll admit defeat and start ordering a whole bunch of XT90s.
 
I talked to Robin again today and he said 140F is still a non damaging temp for Deans. At least the real Deans. These are generics. I've got 5 pairs of original Deans on back order that I want to test with because Robin claims that the real deal will out perform the generics and keep up with XT90 and EC5. Once I'm dont testing with original deans Ill do some tests using EC5 since I have a couple of those already. Once all the data is in we can make a final call on if Deans are comparable or not.
 
I get it, you don't want to change your connectors and that is PERFECTLY fine.

Weather or not 140F will "damage" a connector or not isn't the point. The point is it's 140F... it's hot. Why is it hot? Because it's running into resistance which causes heat.

Like I've said earlier, never has any of my EC5's or XT90's been warm/hot to the touch after running them. 140F is crazy.
 
I get it, you don't want to change your connectors and that is PERFECTLY fine.

Weather or not 140F will "damage" a connector or not isn't the point. The point is it's 140F... it's hot. Why is it hot? Because it's running into resistance which causes heat.

Like I've said earlier, never has any of my EC5's or XT90's been warm/hot to the touch after running them. 140F is crazy.
140F isnt hot to the touch. Its very warm but its not like you can't hold on to it but again this is generic Deans were talking about too. The real deal could perform as good or better than the EC5s. I've seen EC5s reach around 121F IIRC so its not like the generic deans are all that worse than EC5s. Bear in mind too that I'm having to use EC5 to generic Deans adapters too in order to do these initial tests. That could be causing extra resistance that the EC5 LiPos arent experiencing. I'm going to eliminate the adapters eventually but I'm going to get some EC5 data first before i cut the IC5s off. I'm gonna do a comparison today after I get home. I'm gonna run EC5s and then let the kit cool off completely and then do a Deans run and compare temps albeit with the adapters for now.

All that being said the data is going to be inconclusive until I have real deans in my hands to test with and I've done apples to apples comparisons. This first wave was just to see if the generic Deans would fail on a 8S system. I've got at least 8 or 9 runs in on those packs so far with no failures or connector damage. There wasn't anything else i could test at the time so I figured why not.

Dont get me wrong if I'm still seeing big differences in temps between original deans and EC5s then theres a good chance I'll end up switching but I feel like your condemning Deans connectors based off of apples to oranges comparisons of EC5s and generic Deans. I havent even tested the real deal yet.
 
Bear in mind too that I'm having to use EC5 to generic Deans adapters too in order to do these initial tests. That could be causing extra resistance that the EC5 LiPos arent experiencing
Oh Brother Reaction GIF by reactionseditor


but I feel like your condemning Deans connectors based off of apples to oranges comparisons of EC5s and generic Deans.
No not all, but you do you man. ;) :D
 
So this is puzzling...

Today at 5:37pm it was 86F out today with very high humidity. I ran one run using my Hoovo 4S packs that have an EC5 connector. Heres the temp results.
EC5 connector : 136F
LiPo pack: 131F
10AWG pos batt lead: 118F (measured at the midway point)
Motor: 171F (measured at the rear edge of the can)
ESC: 151F (measured at the base of the heatsink on the side)

at 7:22 it was 84F and the humidity had dropped a decent amount and I'm still currently using the ESC5 to Deans adapters
Deans connector: 112F
LiPo pack: 110F
12AWG pos batt lead: 108F
Motor: 172F
ESC: 156F

So thats puzzling. I ran the K8 harder with the Deans in it as shown my the motor and ESC temps being a tad higher in order to try and compensate for the 2F drop in temp outside. The only big difference was humidity dropped some but it wasn't a super drastic difference. This is the first time I really measured the temps on the Hoovo packs, the EC5 connectors, and the batt lead. I mean technically it was the second time but the first time I only really just did it quickly in passing and didnt really give much thought to it at the time. I'm going to repeat this test tomorrow and try to do both runs within 30-60 minutes of each other mid day since its supposed to be 90F. I'm wondering how much the humidty played a roll in the temps I got cuz the temp outside was on 2F cooler and I actually ran the truck a bit harder than I did on the first run. The only big change was in humity and direct sunlight.

Also, interestingly enough I discovered that the Hoovo LiPos also had 10AWG. after realizing this I checked my other 2 sets of 4S lipos and the Liperiors also have 10AWG leads but the Zeee packs only have 12AWG leads. I'm glad to see some companies are going the extra mile and using 10AWG on their LiPos. I think they all should at least on 4S and bigger packs.
 
Oh Brother Reaction GIF by reactionseditor



No not all, but you do you man. ;) :D
Why is the fact that I used an EC5 to deans adapter to do connector failure tests worthy of a facepalm? I'm confused by that but ok. You say your EC5s never got anywhere near 140 yet mine just got to 136F. Have you ever actually temped your EC5s especially when its hot outside?
 
Run #1 today - 3:02PM - 88F - EC5 connectors
EC5 connector: 138F
LiPo pack: 119F
10AWG pos batt lead: 109F (measured at the midway point)
Motor: 169F (measured at the rear edge of the can)
ESC: 149F (measured at the base of the heatsink on the side)

Run #2 - 4:17pm - 90F -Fake Deans connectors
Deans connector: 161F
LiPo pack: 116F
12AWG pos batt lead: 109F (measured at the midway point)
Motor: 176F (measured at the rear edge of the can) (Fan Stopped working)
ESC: 141F (measured at the base of the heatsink on the side)

Still no actual failure on the fake Deans but today is the hottest day so far this year and they was hot! 161F is getting to the point where its to hot to hold for very long. I mean it doesn't surprise me but its not to see the numbers for reference. Now if only my back ordered original Deans would show up I could move forward with more testing.
 
Ok, Finally have my real Deans finally but I only had time for 1 run today. To much crap to do today. Now I never updated this thread with runs I did after the ones that i posted but I did finally get a generic deans failure on about the 9th or 10th run. Now I'm going to start running the real Deans connectors and see what they do. Now bear in mind some of these temps are gonna change because I did install those 2 high speed fans but also I cranked up everything but the break strength (Set to 62.5%) and the motor timing (currently set to 0).

Run #1 - 3:15ish pm - 80F -REAL Deans connectors
Deans connector: 118F
LiPo pack: 131F
Motor: 171F (measured at the rear edge of the can) (High RPM fan)
ESC: 132F (measured at the base of the heatsink on the side) (High RPM Fan)

So intial testing with real Deans looks promising. 118F is a lot cooler than the generics were running. LiPo packs getting pretty warm but within limits. Motor still about the same as before. I think its a bit of a wash between cranking up the ESC settings like punch etc and adding the high rpm fan. ESC definitely stayed cooler probably from the high rpm fan and less resistance in the connectors. Ill run some more tests tomorrow.

BTW, when I'm doing these tests, I'm trying to run this thing as much WOT as possible to really tax the system.
 
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