Manuel

Don't worry 'unknown', I understand your question, popsracer probably didnt read the posts where you said you'd change to deans, so dont take it badly.

He's asking that, once he has replaced his tamiya plugs with the FEMALE deans, how will he clip the alligator clips onto the deans terminals?

Unless they are tiny alligator clips, I cant see it being done (not that I've bothered trying).

What i'd do is change the alligator clips to a deans plug as well, then later on you can change over yet again if you must.

unknown

I didn't even know I could just cut off the alligator clips and change them to Deans as well....thanks

popsracer

Read some of his posts in the other forums. I think UNKNOWN is playing games with us.

unknown

actually....i am not playing games. With the battery pack that I have and with the female Deans connector, there is no place to connect the alligator clip. Am I right? Yes.

Imagine a female Deans connector on this battery pack...


Now where would I connect the alligator clips? I don't see any place where they would even fit. I know for a fact that they won't fit into the holes of the female Deans connector.

Now, my point is: If I buy the discharger that has the alligator clips on it...that discharger is really meant for hand made battery packs, not the pack that I have. RIGHT?

unknown

as popracer said...i am playing games.

NO, i am not playing games. I just don't want to go out a buy a $40 dollar discharger and not be able to use it. I want to buy something that I will be able to use once I get into the hobby more. I don't wanna make the mistake that I did when I bought the piece of crap Traxxas 4-Tec, then found out I should have got the TC3. That is one mistake...I wanna keep those to a minimum.

Manuel

Yes unknown, you can cut off the alligator clips and solder a deans plug on, and yes, alligator clips would be suited to hand made (or side by side) battery packs, where you could attatch the clips onto the terminating bars.

If unknown's a newbie then im happy to help, as i am a newbie who has done his research.
Very few people listened to me or assisted me when I started playing with little cars, so now I try to help with the questions I can answer.

If unknown's fooling around, then so be it, maybe he is asking questions others are too afraid to ask, due to persecution by the seasoned racers.

either way, lets all play nice

unknown

thank you for the help. Now I understand that I can just swap the alligator clips out for replace them with Deans connectors. I wasn't sure if that was ok. Now that I know I can swap everything out with the Deans connectors, I am going to do so. Thanks for everyones help.

unknown

I have hit another stump. I was thinking about the male and female thing and how our homes don't have male prongs sticking out of the walls. Well, I know I need a female Deans connector for my battery pack. But, I was thinking about my charger. Since the charger is an electrical source, shouldn't the charger also have a female Deans connector? If that is the case, then both the battery and charger will have female connectors...they will not be able to connect to eachother. Or is it all right for the charger to have a male connector? This may be the stupidest question in the world....but I want to get this right because I start cutting and going out a buying the Deans connectors.

Pit Crew

Well, as far as I know, you aren't going to have the charger pluged in and on charge mode with no battery connected or in your tool box... So a male plug on the charger is AWESOME!! just don't press the start button on the charger when no battery is hooked up and then short the two little prongs comming out of the male deans .

Does that help.

unknown

That answers the question. Thanks for the help. I will be going out and getting 1 female and 2 male Deans connectors right now.

Manuel

...and if you put Deans on your motor wires as well, make sure to put a male on the motor end and a female on the ESC end.

That way you'll never accidentally plug the motor and the battery in the wrong ends of the ESC

unknown

I am going to keep the motor wires the way they are. They have those easy connectors on them so you can easily swap out motors.

Iso Octane

Regardless, it's a pretty informative thread. But the same conflicting opinions on batteries still keep popping up. It seems there's no definitive word on how to maintain them.

I have a question... how long does it take you guys to charge your packs? For me, it's 40+ mins for 2400mah, 50+ min for 3000mah. At 4 amps (that's the max on my "within budget" charger). Are these respectable charging times?

unknown

My 2400mAh battery pack takes about a half hour to charge on the charger I posted earlier. Thats at 4 amps

popsracer

There are formulas to calculate charge rate and time for the Mah of the pack. Maybe someone can post if they have them. You can also keep a hand written log of the time it takes to charge. (too much work for me)

From my experience, UNmatched packs should not be charged higher than 4 amps. One weak cell in the pack can be damaged at a higher rate. Matched cells should be able to handle at least
5 amps. More if you can afford to buy batteries more often.
I usually charge my matched 2400 packs at 5.5 amps. But I have friends that charge at 7 amps. 3000HV's seem to like a high charge rate.
I have a discharge tray and have tried deep discharging like some people recommend. I did not see any improvement in doing so and my packs false peaked several times before accepting a full charge.
I really wouldn't worry about charge times unless you are having some problem in the discharge cycle.