Popular R/C Battery Connector

Today we're talking about RC connectors. We're gonna focus mainly on battery connectors that you'll most commonly find in the surface world of RC and as you're probably aware of there are a lot of different connectors out there, available in different sizes suitable for different applications. So why would you choose one over the other, let’s talk about it.

Now battery connectors are a necessity, they allow you to plug a battery into the vehicle's electronic speed control to power that vehicle, but to do this, both the connector and the vehicle and on the battery must be the same type to be compatible. I know this seems like pretty basic stuff, but if you're new to the world of RC, and maybe you just picked up a brand new ready to run vehicle, it would be easiest and most convenient to buy also a battery that just has the same connector as on the vehicle. When you get a battery charger, you would also want to make sure that you have a charge lead that has the same connector then, as that battery you just bought. But what if you want to change that connector or maybe you just bought a new kit and ESC, and you need to add your own connector to it, or maybe you've got now a fleet of RCS and you want to get them all on the same connector system.

There are a lot of options out there, so let's jump into it. Here we have the most popular connectors used today.

We have the t style, deans, bullets an xt60 and EC3 and lastly the IC3, but these are all the most commonly connectors use, these work really well for your 1s Lipo, 2s and 3s Lipo applications, because they're all rated for up to 60 amps of continuous power draw, so they'll work really great even with a high powered brushless 3s vehicle.

Now I know somebody's watching this thinking well I've used a larger battery with, one of these connectors and I didn't have any issues, and I believe you there's a lot of different variables that come into play here, so this is kind of just a rough guideline. Now of all these connectors the bullet plugs are more specialized for racing, and they're really easy to plug in backwards to reverse the polarity. Usually race guys will try to put the positive wire with, maybe some red shrink tube on it, or sometimes if possible just to have one wire lead shorter than the other, so it's impossible to plug them in backwards. With some electronic speed controls, they don't have reverse polarity protection, so if you plug in that battery backwards, it's such a massive bummer to fry your ESC from doing this, which is a very expensive mistake.

Now if you're not racing, you should be using those bullets. The next connectors we have for you, they're all keyed in some way so you can't plug them in backwards. First up is this t style connector and it's super common, it's been around for years and it's really easy to work with, it's easy to solder, and it's really easy finding batteries that already have t style connectors attached. The most chargers will include a t style charge lead right out of the box.

The next is the XT60 another great plug, it's less common than the t style, but it's been gaining a lot of popularity in the last few years. So you'll be seeing more and more batteries with XT60 connectors attached. It's a really easy to use, easy to work with and easy to solder plug.

 The next plug you commonly see is the EC3, this plug is easy to use and easy to work with but soldering is a bit more of a challenge. This connector uses a two piece bullet and plastic housing that must be made it together once you solder the wire to the bullet. It is possible to unlock the bullet so you can push it out of the housing for reuse, but each time you do this, the housing becomes a little bit more fatigued, so it's generally not recommended. But that doesn't really matter so much because the EC3 will probably slowly fade off into the distance as it's being replaced by the next plug we have for you and that's the IC3.

Now this newer IC3 and that older EC3 are interchangeable and compatible with each other, so you can make them together without problem. But this newer IC3 is a one piece housing and metal design, unlike the EC3, so it's a lot easier to solder and unsolder for reuse. These ic3 connectors are part of the new Spectrum Smart technology family, so you're gonna be seeing them used a lot more in all the horizon hobby ready to run vehicles like Arrma, LowC, axial and more. So those are all great connectors for around the 3s brushless power use.

But what about larger systems for larger power demands like your 4s, 6s and 8s brushless power popular options include the XT90 the EC 5 and then the IC5 and these are just larger, more capable versions of the last connectors we just looked at. All of these connectors are rated up to 90 amps of continuous current except the EC5 which is rated up to 120 amps. These are gonna be your go to options for really high powered brushless applications. Even if your vehicle requires two 3S batteries to become 6S or 2 of 4S batteries to be 8s, it's still recommended to use one of these larger more capable connectors on those batteries.

With the XT90 it's designed similar to the smaller XT60, it's just larger and capable of more current but it's still easy to use, easy to work with and easy to solder.

The next connector the EC5 is designed just like the smaller EC3, so it has bullet plugs that snap into a plastic housing. Again it's a great plug easy to use easy to work with, just not as easy to solder and re-use.

Lastly the C5 connector is just like the smaller IC3 in design, it's easy to use and easy to solder and just like the ic3 and EC3 were compatible. So is the IC5 with the EC5 with Arrma's large brushless vehicles their 6s and 8s range, you're gonna see those IC5 connectors used exclusively.

Now let's talk about the Traxxis ID connector. This is the connector you're going to find on all of their current vehicles and batteries. Now this ID connector is a really interesting connector, it's capable of low end high power you see it between their 2s vehicles or even their 8s vehicles, and it incorporates the balance wires and the power wires into that single connector. Because of this the connector is really specialized, so you're gonna need a Traxxas specific charger if you're going to charge any of your Traxxas batteries with the ID connector. Now it is possible to remove the ID connector from the ESC within the vehicle, you can add in and solder up any plug that you want to, but keep in mind that it will void your Traxxas warranty.

Now there are connector adapters out there that will allow you to take two different connectors and plug them in and be compatible, but adapters aren't usually recommended especially for really high power applications, because those adapters generally cause a lot of resistance and a lot of heat in the system. These adapters can be a good temporary fix for lower powered vehicles but they should never be a permanent solution. So those are definitely some of the most common and most popular connectors you'll find in those two different power ratings for RC vehicles, but it's definitely not all of the connectors out there, and available in the XT line, they make an XT30 and then there's also an EC2, which are just smaller connectors made for smaller current applications, you'll see that maybe in like small scale RCS, if you have like an auxiliary battery that you're plugging into your model for something, maybe LED lights or something like that, those connectors work good in those lower power draw applications.

There's also this company out there called RC Pro Plus, they make a lot of different connectors. Most of them are for the really high current applications the connectors are capable of like 200 and up to 300 amps of continuous power, it's really insane stuff, it's usually reserved for RC helicopter pilots who are using like 12s Lipo power in their helicopters, but there's some surface vehicles that could benefit from this like if you have an extreme speedrun car with a lot of power in it and that's an application where you're just pulling the throttle wide open for an extended period of time a connector of this magnitude could really benefit you. With connectors if your vehicle or the ESC is trying to drop more power from the battery than your connector is capable of what happens is resistance is, present heat builds up, and you're just gonna have lower efficiency. In extreme cases sometimes connectors can even melt, so when using connectors it's important to pick one that will keep up with the demands of your vehicle, so you just have less heat less resistance, and ultimately more efficiency and power.