Do Not Short A123..
 

I just assembled the 6S1P Fully charged pack.. and the ends just happen to touch, and crap.. my eyes was flashed, and things was blury for about 30 seconds... I thought my retina was damaged... I was scared.. is there some kind of plastic/rubber cap I could use to cap off the 6.0mm connectors...?

http://us.share.geocities.com/aqwut/.../A123Short.JPG

Wow! That was a BIG spark! Good thing nothing got in your eyes, that would have been bad.

I usually fold a piece of electrical tape over the male connector when the pack isn't in use or I'm working on it.

I'm using tape also, but something like a cap for the nitro bottles would work great... I want something that looks neat... I'm going to take a browse through home depot tomorrow...

I think you should be using female on both + and - on battery...

You should never EVER have a battery wired with a male end. Assuming those are the +/- battery plugs, why is it like that?

This is what I don't understand with the MMM. It has female plugs all over it. Shouldn't is have male ones on the battery side.

I'll NEVER put both males nor females on the battery.. with my luck, I'd connect them reverse polarity and fry everything... I just need a cap for them, this is kinda nice because I don't have to use pig tails to connect in series... just one to another... all my ESC are wired the same.. and all the batteries are wired the same...
ESC: Male - Negative, Female - Positive
BAT: Male - Positve, Female - Negative

Before, I had the batteries all Female.. but A few times I connected them in reverse... and fried 2 Schulze....
Would you be afraid of connecting them wrong, if using both females on the battery?...

Brown trouser time...

I got a wicked spark when I accidently shorted my cheapo lipos a few months back- no damage done, but it scared the crap outta me for certain. I think something like a tire valve cap from a car or bike would look okay (enough designs to choose from). Or those little rubber caps you get on the bottom of clothes airers (look like little bullets).

I have seen it done the way you do it aqwut. I would say make your wires different lengths by an inch or 2. That way they will be far less likely to touch. You could even shink wrap the wires together close enough to the plugs so it would be almost impossible for them to touch.

Thanks... I'll take a browse, at the home depot for those things...

Cr*p, it's a little too late to shorten the wires now... I should've thought of this before... takes a long time to solder 10 Gauge wires on them bullets...

...or you can use those new SuperDeans they have out now rated for 100A continuous.


Oh wait, that was a dream...

I once lost my little cap that went over my fuel bottle.
The only replacement I found was I cut an inch section off my camel back, then I heated one end with a lighter, then used pliers the 'squish' the heated ends together.

It made a nice replacement cap since I had a camel back around.

Where are the super Deans... LOL

Before the bullets, I was thinking of using 1 Deans for + and 1 Deans for -.. but it would've been way too big...

Have you guys ever used that super thick Shrinkwrap..?

I've got some really thick shrink wrap- its like about 1mm thick, and very rubbery. If 'they' had some tube like that it would be ideal... *ding* aquarium tubing, for the airpump- a short length of the 5-6mm inner diameter stuff would be perfect. :yes:

any auto parts store should have a variety of vacuum caps, should be pretty cheap too

I use 5.5 bullet too. I use :
Batt: male -
female +

ESC: female -
male +

But on the batterie female + plug, i put a piece of fuel tubing in it when i don't use the pack:yes:

Thanks GUYS... I really like the Clear flex and the Fuel tubing idea.... I'll give that a shot tomorrow....

You can easily put the packs in series if they're like that.

It happen to me, while sodering a A123pack in my garden last year. I did accidentally touch 2 battery with the body of my handheld gaz welder. The spark did make a hole on the gaz tank !, nothing bad happen, except that was damn scary to ear the pressurized gaz going outside, I just throw away the gaz tank as far as I can.

They pack a nice punch. My pliers lost that fight in less then a sec.

You got it bro, I need it for 12S, makes an easy connection....

MisterT, crap man... near a gas tank u are lucky...

Lutach, I bet it would probably put a nice dent on the pliers... I couldn't imaging what a 30C 5000mAh lipo pack could do.... scary now to think about it.... I know it scared the crap out of me...

ack. why not switch to traxxas high current, deans, power poles, or anything. Too many safety issues having exposed plugs on your batteries. YIKES.


J>

...Probably because all those connectors are only rated for around 50A continuous. The 5.5-6mm bullets are rated for higher current.

I never mentioned this, but when I shorted my pack I was :gasp: and afterwards I was even sweeting cold. It freaked me out for a moment and I have a lot more respect for them. I didn't get scared whith 220V and 12V 1000A (High power Competition batteries), but the A123 pack had me scared. Good thing for rubber handles :lol:.

lol, I would be more scared with 220v systems! And depending on battery type, exploding acid is never a good thing either.

Actually 220V felt good. Made my body numb and I was walking funny. I had goose bumps for a few minutes and afterwards it felt like a million ants was crawling on my body. Now those high amp audio batteries are no joke. They pack a punch and that didn't feel too good. I was watching TLC a few days ago about Gadget's garage and I swear, I almost saw Mr. Gadget get is trouble with his batteries. Now I have attached a picture of what I thinks is the best looking lipo packs out there. It's for a very large electric boat.

OMG!!! Those are some HUGE packs!

And they are nice Kokam cells too. I know people think Enerland is the greatest, but Kokams are very good also and are proven to be safe and have awesome cycle life.

220v felt good? Hmmm, you need to get out more. :wink: I never feel 12v battery voltage - I only start feeling around 60v. The worst bite I got was playing around with an old console TV flyback transformer - in the neighborhood of 75kv, but the current was low so no lasting effects.

I heard Kokam is the choice for the F5B (Something like that) guys who sees currents of 300A+. BTW the packs in the picture are 6S8P (12S8P total) and the guy said they put back 28Ah into the pack.

The 220V happened back in Brasil. Now the incident with 12V happened in Florida. Something was connected and I have no clue what happened, but I still remember the punch.

Exactly that, it was still in my hand when it happen ...

http://www.carlroth.com/media/_en-co...00014883_0.jpg

MOTHER OF GOD!!.. those are beautiful packs.... they must get some crazy run times with them packs.... I went to a few air plane shows, and them guys are seriously insane, I saw a few of their packs, and it was the size of a friggin' log...

Worst shock I had was 680 Volts, 50Amps... it did not feel good... you could hear it, definately feel it... and you also could smell it on ya... :oh:

I like that idea of using heatshrink to hold the wires together near the connectors. Of course it can only work if both of your wires take the same path to your ESC.