What are Traxxas "ID" and Spektrum "Smart" connectors? Explained...

[STONER RC]

I know I just started getting into to the whole electric side of hobby. But I know I don't like the whole idea of being tied to one kind of batteries or charger that only can do one maybe two at a time.

 

[Greywolf74]

So what's the whole backwards compatible? Black to red ?

Not sure I understand the question

I know I just started getting into to the whole electric side of hobby. But I know I don't like the whole idea of being tied to one kind of batteries or charger that only can do one maybe two at a time.

Yeah, The idea has merit but only if all the brands get on board and standardize the connector.

 

[STONER RC]

And that would be very unlikely. What's ur opinion about adapters? It's probably not good to have that many electrical joints.to much resistance.not a even flow of power.

 

[STONER RC]

Haha sorry the whole he said the trx and id are backwards compatible

 

[Greywolf74]

And that would be very unlikely. What's ur opinion about adapters? It's probably not good to have that many electrical joints.to much resistance.not a even flow of power.

Adapters are fine. Theyre even better if you can make them in such a way so theres no wire between the connectors. In other words solder two different connectors directly together.

 

[STONER RC]

Ok I can definitely do that straight up back to back and shrink wrap it

 

[p0ndo]

It would be so much easier if all the companies just said hey, lets make all the plugs the same.

 

[STONER RC]

Yes it would be a hell of a lot easier if they did. I wouldn't be going crazy looking for batteries lol

 

[p0ndo]

Honestly tho, I like the traxxas connectors. And the ID feature is pretty cool

 

[STONER RC]

I won't lie it a nice and easy set up but for the price of it that's crazy. basically thats what ur paying for the new connector which only can be charged in their traxxas charger unless u get adaptors Beside the development and all the time and energy into the design.

 

[STONER RC]

Honestly tho, I like the traxxas connectors. And the ID feature is pretty cool

I'm new to the lipo side. And I've spent a lot of $$ over the yrs but for a battery to be 139$ or the newest one159 for the newest 6700mah 4s. That's crazy talk IMO sorry Your over 300- 400 just for one set.thats crazy I can build a whole car/truck for that, or just buy a RTR. Because one set isn't enough.20- 30 mins in and I'm just getting started to have fun.

 

[p0ndo]

I'm new to the lipo side. And I've spent a lot of $$ over the yrs but for a battery to be 139$ or the newest one159 for the newest 6700mah 4s. That's crazy talk IMO sorry Your over 300- 400 just for one set.thats crazy I can build a whole car/truck for that, or just buy a RTR. Because one set isn't enough.20- 30 mins in and I'm just getting started to have fun.

yeah. but you get used to the shorter run times

 

[STONER RC]

Thats y u need a few set of batteries in my eys. Change them out and keep on going

 

[Greywolf74]

Thats y u need a few set of batteries in my eys. Change them out and keep on going

Thats why Ill never buy anything besides budget LiPos. If I was competing then OK fine Ill drop the extra cash but I'm not so I wont lol

 

[STONER RC]

100% agree with that

 

[Jerold]

Great write up and having just gone through this I figured I will throw in my 2 cents.

I have never run a Traxxas battery in any of my Traxxas cars. Nothing wrong with the batteries, they are just expensive.

Without a Traxxas branded battery all the telemetry works. The telemetry goes through the receiver to your transmitter which bridges it to Bluetooth and back to your phone. The extra wire is only for balance charging. If you have a Traxxas battery you might be able to still get the "balance adapter" to use it in a non-Traxxas charger. https://www.ebay.com/itm/393116630276?hash=item5b8793bd04:g:A6sAAOSwlJRgFznL

The Spektrum IC3 has a single wire between the barrels that is used with Spektrum chargers. I do not know about telemetry features of Spektrum so it may be used but I suspect it works similar to Traxxas as a battery is just a cells and wires (Except for the fancy Spektrum batteries)

I have switched everything to XT60 for two reasons. The first is it's seems to be gaining traction over the others and not just with RC stuff. The second reason is it stays together on the hard hits where I've had Deans come disconnect.

The internals of XT60 and IC3/EC3 are still a simple barrel and plug.

 

[freelosophy]

the new connectors are not for kids, are to lock in the noobs that don't know how to solder so they are committed to one brand since the connectors are not interchangeable with the legacy connectors. Once you buy the charger/battery, you need to make an adapter to go with a universal battery which is unthinkable for a noob. So noobs get stuck with their proprietary charger and batteries. To me that's taking advantage of the consumers that doesn't know any better. To them it's legal marketing strategy to increase battery and charger sales. Not in the RC world, but I've been in to many marketing/engineering meetings. It's called "close the architecture and make it proprietary" under guise that's it easier or better or cheaper for the consumer when it's just about making more $. Am not loyal to a brand, am loyal to price/performance. Try to lock me in with proprietary anything and I run away from the brand. Give me an open architecture or give me nothing! And that's the reason that I don't like MACs and love PCs. And why I bought a Bolt EV and not a Tesla. I shouldn't of had coffee before starting on this rant lol.

 

[Greywolf74]

Great write up and having just gone through this I figured I will throw in my 2 cents.

I have never run a Traxxas battery in any of my Traxxas cars. Nothing wrong with the batteries, they are just expensive.

Without a Traxxas branded battery all the telemetry works. The telemetry goes through the receiver to your transmitter which bridges it to Bluetooth and back to your phone. The extra wire is only for balance charging. If you have a Traxxas battery you might be able to still get the "balance adapter" to use it in a non-Traxxas charger. https://www.ebay.com/itm/393116630276?hash=item5b8793bd04:g:A6sAAOSwlJRgFznL

The Spektrum IC3 has a single wire between the barrels that is used with Spektrum chargers. I do not know about telemetry features of Spektrum so it may be used but I suspect it works similar to Traxxas as a battery is just a cells and wires (Except for the fancy Spektrum batteries)

I have switched everything to XT60 for two reasons. The first is it's seems to be gaining traction over the others and not just with RC stuff. The second reason is it stays together on the hard hits where I've had Deans come disconnect.

The internals of XT60 and IC3/EC3 are still a simple barrel and plug.

This is good to know! I thought that the telemetry (or most of it) would still work, I just didnt know if it would affect battery readings and what not.

If I had it to do all over again Id probably go with XT60 myself but I've got tons of deans connectors on everything and I've got tons of spares so I guess I'm not going back anytime soon lol.

the new connectors are not for kids, are to lock in the noobs that don't know how to solder so they are committed to one brand since the connectors are not interchangeable with the legacy connectors. Once you buy the charger/battery, you need to make an adapter to go with a universal battery which is unthinkable for a noob. So noobs get stuck with their proprietary charger and batteries. To me that's taking advantage of the consumers that doesn't know any better. To them it's legal marketing strategy to increase battery and charger sales. Not in the RC world, but I've been in to many marketing/engineering meetings. It's called "close the architecture and make it proprietary" under guise that's it easier or better or cheaper for the consumer when it's just about making more $. Am not loyal to a brand, am loyal to price/performance. Try to lock me in with proprietary anything and I run away from the brand. Give me an open architecture or give me nothing! And that's the reason that I don't like MACs and love PCs. And why I bought a Bolt EV and not a Tesla. I shouldn't of had coffee before starting on this rant lol.

Yep, I been sayin' for years that everything in this world is nothing but a racket designed to drain money out of the wallets of honest hard working people.

 

[Jerold]

the new connectors are not for kids, are to lock in the noobs that don't know how to solder so they are committed to one brand since the connectors are not interchangeable with the legacy connectors. Once you buy the charger/battery, you need to make an adapter to go with a universal battery which is unthinkable for a noob. So noobs get stuck with their proprietary charger and batteries. To me that's taking advantage of the consumers that doesn't know any better. To them it's legal marketing strategy to increase battery and charger sales. Not in the RC world, but I've been in to many marketing/engineering meetings. It's called "close the architecture and make it proprietary" under guise that's it easier or better or cheaper for the consumer when it's just about making more $. Am not loyal to a brand, am loyal to price/performance. Try to lock me in with proprietary anything and I run away from the brand. Give me an open architecture or give me nothing! And that's the reason that I don't like MACs and love PCs. And why I bought a Bolt EV and not a Tesla. I shouldn't of had coffee before starting on this rant lol.

90% agreed. There is some advantages to having the Traxxas batteries and Spektrum Smart batteries.

The Traxxas connector and charger do allow you less setup when you charge. They have the ability to detect what the battery is (Traxxas ID) and balance charge it auto-magically.

Similarly the Spektrum takes it a step further and the battery has built in voltage monitoring and can actually go to a storage charge if the battery is not used.

In the end, even with all the magic, it's very exensive. For the extra money, I can learn to read an instruction manual and manage a few batteries.

 

[AjayRC]

New to the hobby. Hello all! Can I use the new spektrum gen 2 smart lipos in my stock Trx4?
Where do I get connectors?