I’m now realizing that would have been the best thing to do.
post pics
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I will if I can find any. These are the old connectors that broke.
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Have you guys tried heat shrink with adhesive inside?
Not only will it waterproof your connection, but it’ll keep it from coming loose.
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That’s what I did. Put un-shrunk heatsink on it, shot hot glue into the heatsink. Hot glue made the heatshrink do its thing. Still broke free easy.
That’s not what I’m talking about. They make an adhesive lined heat shrink. It is a really cool product. It’s not hot glue and shrink wrap
Adhesive lined heatshrink is sometimes called double walled marine heatshrink.
Glue will squeeze out the end, so apply heat to center first.
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I have that too. I have no reason to think that would have worked any better than what I used.
It’s mostly for water proofing. My wires fatigued right out of the connector.
Instead of second guessing something that works when you haven’t tried it. Maybe try it.
If you have the good marine heat shrink with glue inside, you cannot pull the connector apart unless you cut the heat shrink off.
Or, I just use what I currently have, where I won’t have to worry about the connectors at all, because they are not at a strain point, and if I need to work on it, it takes me a whopping extra 5 seconds to pull the connector out.
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Check out these connectors I found;
DB9W4
DB13W3
They seem to be readily available on digikey in a huge variety of styles, for about $10~15 per connector (Though, you’ll probably need to buy the power contacts and backshell separately)
They would *probably* be able to handle motor currents for not-crazy builds
This is the current vs temperature graph for the larger connector (DB13W3)
It clearly shows max 20A per connector. HOWEVER- this derating curve is assuming 7.5A of current going through each signal pin. Our sensor wires only use a negligible few mA. At 10 signal pins, that’s 75A of current that we won’t be using. Connector heating is mostly the limiting factor, so this could be “”“reallocated”“” to the power pins
The power contacts they are rated for 40A continuous
Also, considering that “nominal” amps are about 63% of motor amps(iiuc), and that most of our loading is burst loading from acceleration and braking.
Admitively, lots of hand waiving here.
There’s also a whole larger family of connectors, most of which seem relatively available
No locking feature besides screw terminals. These are meant for stationary applications
More locking features then XT60 or bullet connectors🙃
I use dsub on my raceboard, haven’t had any issues with them yet
but you just use it for non ride time connections like charging/balancing right?
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Yup, G300s too.
However, selecting the 15-pin dsub for charging was dumb and I regret it😂 merging the two p-groups of the batteries requires plugging in a connector who has live pins that can short against the housing. I stress every time I use it now.
I have a half finished zbms replacement harness that I’ve been wanting to finish to get rid of them…but more urgent things keep coming up
I’ll note none of the power connections are through the DSUB. 
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hi-go seems to make some cool stuff.
hi-go minib
idk if these are clones or back channel, but you can get em on ali express:
here’s a 6 pin that could be used for the sensor connections.
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Oh neat! I think evolve uses that connector
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A little something that I whipped up yesterday. Still a work in progress, but I’ll be printing a final version in cf-nylon to stick on my board today for field testing.
I’m calling this the MT5.5 for it’s my configuration but using 5.5 mm bullet connectors.
I use weipu SA8 waterproof 6pin connectors for my sensor wires.
I am making a couple versions for in-line use and panel mounted. Id like to have these mounted on my enclosure, but I don’t feel like extending all my phase wires right now so I am going with the in line version for now.
I’ll probably make an MT4 at some point since most stock setups use 4 mm bullets.
Assembly-
Basically you slide this on the wires before adding the bullets, then you solder your bullets on. Then you slide the connector over the bullets. It’s a pretty tight fit in the sockets, but I added a drop of superglue before sliding them in. Then I used flowable silicone in a syringe and potted the wires in place. The connector has a 5mm deep dish in the back specifically to fill up with silicon. This further anchors the bullets in place, adds strain relief and adds waterproofing.
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