[time-nuts] Anderson PowerPole (was Charles Wenzel GPSDO)

[Brandon Graham]

Having followed Time nuts for a bit, I guess I'll finally chime in.

For the PPs, it's like all other things, knowing the goods and bads.  I've
been using PPs for years, starting with RC Warship Combat (Battleships that
shoot and sink each other, so lots of interchangeable parts), and have seen
some of the other hobby connectors in use.  The hermaphroditic nature of
PPs are useful because you don't have to follow a standard as you can see
the polarity. Tamiya connectors from RC to Ham radio had a different
standard of opposite polarity with the same gender, allowing them to be
connected and blow equipment.  If you are using a lot of PPs (We've gone
through several hundred at this point) you don't create a mismatch of male
vs female connectors in your stock.  The double edge is that you can
connect things that shouldn't be connected if you are not careful.

The silver plated PPs also hold up better in wet environments.  PPs are
bulkier than some other hobby connectors, but for a connector that is
connected and disconnected frequently, the PPs work very well.

A safety factor the PPs have is that all contacts are covered.  There is no
exposed metal that could lead to a short. They have a audible and tactile
click when they are connected.  They can also be oriented in ways to
prevent plugging different voltages together.  They can also be very useful
in making large "bus" connectors, but are horribly bulky if something
smaller would do.

I'm not always a fan of chassis PPs on equipment (K3), and a short pigtale
from the equipment or a captive connector like the Molex is preferred to
then go to PP's. A command strip or other attachment on the equipment with
the power cable held to prevent disconnecting alleviates unplugging it
however.

My experience.
Brandon
W0GPR (ex-KB3IGC)

On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 11:25 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist <
richard at karlquist.com> wrote:

> No one has brought up the issue of hermaphrodicity, so
> I will.  Only PP's are hermaphroditic.  Why does this
> matter?  It matters in the case of a battery.  A battery
> is both a power source and a power sink.  In the PP
> system, you can make a 3 way connection between a
> power source, a power sink, and a battery, where
> the battery float charges on the 12V bus it is connected
> to.  Non-hermaphroditic connector schemes do not allow
> a 3 way connection.  Attempting to do a work around
> would require fabricating a special 3 way harness,
> which would not be idiot proof.
>
> This is the fundamental reason for using PP's.
>
> If you never use batteries, then all the other
> gendered connector schemes are fair game.
>
> As far as connectors pulling out is concerned:
> use a cable clamp to strain relieve the connection.
>
> Rick N6RK
>
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