Posted: 9/6/2007 5:20:07 PM EDT
|
Do you use them? Like them? Do you crimp (buy the tool) or solder or both? Thinking about outfitting my equipment with PowerPole connectors and a RigRunner DC power strip to make it more portable. |
|
Everywhere...I love it. Have the 8012, 4012 and 4005. I crimp for shack connections that won't be moved much. Have had no problems. I crimp and soldier for mobile connection. Little extra hold for the high vibration environment. I strongly recommend the crimper sold by WMR if you go that route...you'll never miss a crimp or waste parts. |
|
I have maybe three dozen 12 volt devices that draw well under 10 amps - which any 30-cent Molex 2-pin connector can handle. I have exactly three 12 volt devices that draw enough current to make a PowerPole-style connector necessary. IMO, for 95 percent of all uses, PowerPole connectors are expensive overkill - Putting one on a 3-amp radio is like putting a 50 amp electric range plug on an electric shaver. My strategy is to standardize on a connector that is cheap and readily available (every Radio Shack stocks the Molex 2-pin 0.93" connector), reserving the pricier connectors for applications that actually demand it. If you want to hedge your bets, a PowerPole-to-Molex pigtail makes it easy to adapt between the two connector styles. |
|
I use the Molex connector, too. It WAS the ARES standard power connector, until some people decided they needed to add some more standards. Now I have to have adapters so that my standard adapters can interface with other standard adapters.  Anyway, I stick with the Molex. Cheap, haven't ever had one fail. |
Ya know, AM used to be hot stuff. I see no reason to use SSB, FM, or <gasp> P-25 
Be careful, I remember when every radio shack sold ham radios  |
|
I like mine , I have fun just making stuff with them . They are a little more money but its worth it to be able to reverse stuff . I have them on my gel cell pack so I can hook it up to the charger or to a radio or the charger to the radio or my aa batt pack to the charger or to the gel cell ..... I dont know why I would do that last one but it is a option . Plus they hold auto fuses ok and they lock together to make nice neat power blocks. BTW I dont have the crimper . I have a off name crimper that has a spot that works good for them , plus I solder the smaller wires. |
|
I bought a $5 crimp tool from Harbor Freight on a tip that they crimp 30A PP's. It works fine. I just start the crimp with a little safety distance (down the barrel) away from the spade or else the spade will bend over a bit when crimped (requiring you to make unwanted back and forth bending of the spade which will break after a couple bends). I then "choke up" a little and complete the crimp as needed. It's worked so far. As Skibane said, many things I'm PP'ing are low-current and use small wires, so sometimes I strip enough to let me double or triple-over the bare end for more contact (and gripping) area for the PP barrel. All of my methods are pretty much trial and error, so YMMV. I'm open to criticism. |
|
When I first got started with PPs I bought the 10.95 cheapie crimpers. The problem I ran into is that while they work, they don't (imho) work efficiently. I found that unless I was very careful the crimping action would push the connector out of of spec. This meant that the connector was now wider than allowed by the housing and I'd have to force the connector in with some fine-tip needlenose pliers. Sometimes this took a lot of effort. I bought the WMR crimpers and there's no thought at all. The best part for me is that the crimper doesn't allow the connector body to expand so you crimp and it slips very easily into the housing. They give a very nice crimp. For me the time savings is worth the cost. |
|
KS_Physicist, What is the point of slavishly adhering to a standard when something better comes along? Your point is well taken, but I don't think the reason that most (all?) ARES/RACES groups and a lot of individual hams have switched over is arbitrary. I believe they changed because they felt that Powerpoles are a superior solution. Before my introduction to Powerpoles I used the same Molex connector in all my equipment and 12V gear (~30 devices). At significant expense (time and money) I switched everything to Powerpoles because of their much greater current capacity and the facts that they're genderless and can handle much larger wires. YMMV. |
i would reply to this but i'm having a hard time getting this page to load in Firefox.  ar-jedi ps i'm a fan of the PP, as is my wife. (i'm here all week, folks. don't forget to tip the waitress) |
|
For me, it seems the answer is easier. I'm new to this and only have about (wow, more than I thought) 6 pieces of equipment to deal with plus two batteries, charger. PowerPole's are the way I'm going, but it'll probably set me back $150 to get fully setup. This hobby is worse than black rifles. Need: 30A connectors 2 pair 15A connectors Crimp Tool Rigrunner 4005 Either pre-made PP to 4 pin Molex power (Kenwood 480SAT) and a PP to 2 Pin T Molex (yaesu 2800). I guess I could make both of those from scratch. Buying or making those cables will free the ones that came with the radio to go into a vehicle plus they don't need to be fused with the rigrunner. I can also shorten them up so there is not as much excess wire in the shack (or portable). I want to be able to quickly pack it up and take it remote even if it is not quite as cool as ar-jedi's  .
|
comments: there are *at least* three ways to attach the powerpole contacts: (1) use the official, expensive Andersen crimp tool. (2) use an unofficial, inexpensive generic crimp tool. (3) use a soldering iron. method (1) provides a reliable, gas-tight connection; the copper wire and surrounding contact body are cold flowed together under extremely high pressure. as many have figured out, method (2) requires a bit of finess to prevent distortion of the contact body, and subsequent difficulty in seating the contact in the plastic housing. method (3) works very well and takes just a few moments. it is helpful to use the smaller diameter contact body when soldering to smaller diameter wire (e.g., 18AWG or smaller).
i don't own one. the folks who run the local RACES trailer have one installed. of course, during the last TOPOFF they managed to blow a fuse, which there were no spares of handy. so keep spares taped to the bottom or similar. btw, you can make a "poor man's" rigrunner using the 2-up and 4-up powerpole chassis mount housings from PowerWerx. link other notes: i almost always cut the power connector off of a new radio about 7 minutes after i take it off of the box, replacing the termination with a powerpole. i save the OEM connector, and if needed for any reason i simply put a powerpole back on it. see below for some "take-offs". ar-jedi     |
I had already found the PowerWerx site.  I had not thought about cutting off the connectors and just putting PP's on them. The pics are helpful as well. I need to get my wife's explorer outfitted for vacation here in a couple of weeks. Might use some of these suggestions to make that easier as well. |
|
see also this page for some ideas: home.comcast.net/~buck0/app.htm ar-jedi     |
| Looks like we do pretty much the same thing with our stuff, jedi. I cut my radio wires immediately and my batteries are outfitted with PPs. I also have a cigarette adapter with PPs but it's the male end. It was impossible to find a way through the firewall in my mom's car so I put one together to use the radio in her car if we go on a trip. Not optimal but it works. |
+1 My radios either have direct Powerpole, or a Powerpole->radio adapter. All batteries have Powerpoles, all positive battery cables have an ATC inline fuse - and yes, I keep spare fuses with power supplies and with radios both, as well as the main kit I can "borrow" them from my car if I really need to! I very much like the RigRunner 4008 - the under/correct/over voltage LED's make it more than worth it for me - instantly having warning my power supply's cranked up too high from the last time I charged batteries is nice. Note that a multi-connector (parallel) Powerpole cable can also be useful. I keep a box of Powerpole -> xxx adapters, of which the female cigarette plug is the most used. Powerpole->generic clamps is also nice. Since I never had the molex connectors, I just used the RACES/ARES standard, and it's very nice. As a note, the West Mountain tool for 45A powerpole (I use 10 gauge cable whenever possible, on the premise that it's much more capable, and has much lower electrical loss) has a tendancy to "stick", making it difficult to open without bending the connector severely. 15A and 30A are trivial to crimp, though. |
ar-jedi- I hope you connect a fuse between the two....I'm sure you do, but making sure others who are checking out the pics realize you should always have a fuse between your source and load. |
|
I picked up the cheap crimper at Lowes, but will probably get the West Mountain Radio crimper in a month or so. Powerpoles are cheap enough, I just got 30 for $.75 each through an ARES group buy in addition to what I already had. I'll put PPs on everything but the toaster But really, there are enough 12v cables that I use that will be powerpoled, and that will make things easier. From radio adaptors, flashlight mobile chargers, scanner powercords, and lots of other stuff. The zip tie trick to keep them together looks like the best bet, and small zip ties are easy enough to cut and cheap enough to have a lot of them as replacements. |
there is no doubt that the ratchet style, high pressure crimper does the best job on the contacts. in fact, in a pull test i'd wager that the wire will break before the contact comes back off of the wire. i have cross sectioned one of these contacts after being crimped on and the copper really does cold flow into place. that said, i would try your first few with a plier style crimper if you have one around. proceed with caution -- again, if the body distorts too much, you will not be able seat the contact in the colored plastic housing. you'll then have to "pinch" the contact skirt with a std pair of pliers to round it back off a bit. this will tend to decrease the crimp pressure on the wire. alternatively, you can solder the contacts onto the wire. no distortion of the contact, good electrical properties, but perhaps less pull out strength. for this application, i think soldering works fine. you'll need a decent size iron, though, to solder 14 and 12 AWG wire -- that much copper wicks away a lot of heat. ar-jedi |
|
On order. Getting setup for my Colorado trip. I wanted to setup a Cabela's ammo box for portable operation, but it is not deep enough for my Kenwood 480SAT. I'll have to look around some. I may just pack it in there and not try for the uber cool ar-jedi effect this go round. That might have to be a winter project. |
see, for example, the MTM and other boxes in these pics... webpages.charter.net/n3ljs/jumpbox.htm home.comcast.net/%7Ebuck0/combox.htm www.wi-aresraces.org/ideas_projects.htm www.larkfield.org/staticpages/index.php?page=20040821182540501 mywebpages.comcast.net/cuti/N1HY/ARES/ ar-jedi ETA: www.mtmcase-gard.com/products/camping/dry_boxes.html |
The cheap one at lowes is $10, and the one from west mountain is $50, I would say to do what you think is best. I bought a cheap one at first, but will get the better one soon. One reason I didn't mind getting a cheap one was so I coukd have it as a spare, or something ot keep in a small radio kit, or as something to loan without being too scared about getting it back. |
+1 Somebody posted a link to Harbor Freight a while back but I just searched and couldn't find them. I think they were about $5 there. |
|
From near the bottom of home.comcast.net/~buck0/app.htm, it's Item number 36411 The wake ares site is also a good one. www.wakeares.org/powerpole/index2.html Google search for "Harbor Freight power pole crimper"  |
|
Thanks, had trouble getting the link correct. Did a search, and there a few stores within 40 miles. Maybe the next time I'm in the area I'll stop by and check things out. I'm going to start getting everything switched over to PPs, maybe even the commercial stuff. I'm not sure if I'll even need to take out the new remote mount spectra, but I know I'll be able to power it if I do
|
| The connectors, RigRunner, and tool arrived today. I did screw up about 3 or 4 with the less than ideal crimper until I got the hang of it, but once you set up it makes things SO much easier to manipulate in the shack. Taking it portable will be a piece of cake now. Switching from power supply to battery takes about 60 seconds. Only complaint so far is they do seem a little loose in the rigrunner if the two powerpoles are not joined. I am definitely not disappointed in my buy. |
|
Congratulations! As a note, a trick I discovered yesterday is, once a connector is crimped, to bend the contact "up" (towards the wire) very, very slightly (so the very tip is perhaps 1/16th of an inch farther "up"), which will result in a more robust contact without it slipping off the spring inside. Reason: My 45A contacts tend to "stick" in the crimper, which bends the connector down, and if you can't see the metal when looking in the front of the PowerPole, it can result in a flakey connection. Your mileage may vary. Another word of warning: Be careful when trying to put PowerPoles on other devices - one cheap 5" TV I had ("gift" from a high-pressure sales tour) had what appears to be 24ga or 26ga wire with a very thick insulator. My telescope mount, at least, had 18 or 20ga, and worked very well with the 15A connector. |
i have had the exact same experience and have used the exact same solution. ar-jedi |
I'll give this a try. I did not always get what I thought was a definite click when it locked in. But, it wont' come out and it seems to work. ar-jedi, where did you get your 'go-box' you use for RACES/ARES? |
starting from, losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/ham/RACES-box.html you'll see,
i picked up my orange SPUD7 (along with a couple of others in dark green) at the CampMor store (link), located about 45mins north of me. ETA: MTM provides the following list of online retailers: www.mtmcase-gard.com/dloc/nmailo.htm e.g. www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=00008SPUD7 or www.wholesalehunter.com/product.asp?productid=41348 or www.ammoboxes.com/spud7-35.html or www.bigbuckatvproducts.com/mtm.htm also try ebay search for SPUD7 ar-jedi |
| I picked up my dry box from West Marine. There's a larger size that's not listed on their website for some reason. It's about $20. The one I got is from Plano and was $15. The main compartment has an O-ring and then there's a small storage area in the lid. |
I too have PP'd several very light gauge wires using 30A contacts (that's all I've bought thus far). Most times I'll strip about 3x as much length as needed and carefully fold over (w/o creasing) the leads to put more surface area inside the PP contact for better gripping & electrical connection. I then treat them with kid gloves since the wires no longer have the insulation to reinforce for strength. Any repeated flexing of the PP connectors would snap the little wires, I'm sure. Next time I'll experiment with trying to "bite" a little section of insulation when crimping if possible. Might not work, dunno. |
There is a West Marine not too far from my house. Thanks for the tip. |