I had the same problem with the ones I bought from an eBay seller. Once I went to the real Anderson power poles that the problems went away. The chinese made ones slide together, the real Andersons snap together.
I had a friend of mine buy me a small stash of the real ones from K7WWG (http://www.dcpwr.com) at a convention up in Oregon a while back. And there is a simple way to keep both the chinese ones and the Andersons from coming apart - look at this drawing by W6HK (the one that has been copied by a lot of folks): <http://www.ocraces.org/powerpole45.html> That page is worth bookmarking - it has a good drawing and all the part numbers. I use super glue instead of the roll pin to secure the red and black bodies together. In fact, I have been known to glue up a half dozen plug body sets long before I use them - it saves a step later on, and by doing them all at the same time they are correct. Using the glue leaves the roll pin hole open. I cut a piece of coathanger wire, then after bending into a shallow U-shape, I file the ends round. When the legs are bent just a little more than parallel the wire serves as a clip to snap together two pairs of powerpoles. Or just use a piece of solid hookup wire as a twist-tie to hold the pairs together. As a final comment, I use the 15a or 30 a contacts (which ever is appropriate) on the cord that connects to the load (15a contacts on 16 ga wire or 30a contacts and 12ga wire). The extension cords and the battery taps get 10ga wire and the 45a contacts. Mike WA6ILQ At 10:19 AM 05/08/09, you wrote: >Hi Martin, > >I normally would crimp and solder the wire into the small >power pole connectors at fixed station (not moving and >vibrating) locations. > >The intermittent was the contact(s). The contact pressure >wasn't consistent and the finger "tong" would bend with >simple force. > >After the second extra long service call drive to find >the intermittent power connection (wiggle to restore power), >I jerked them all out and never looked back. > >Don't have the problems with the larger power pole >connectors... just the smaller ones that tend to be popular >with the Amateur Radio (Ham) crowd. > >cheers >skipp > > > "rahwayflynn" <mafl...@...> wrote: > > Re your problem with the Power Pole Connectors: Was the > > contact itself intermittent or the wire / contact crimp? > > > > I have yet to have a prblem with them in DC service, however > > for signal and data, I generally use Amp CPC series. > > > > Martin > > > > > "skipp025" <skipp025@> wrote: > > > > > > I stopped using small Anderson Power Pole connectors > > > because of all the grief they caused me on the commercial > > > radio side of my life. A lot of people like and use them but > > > I don't trust or use them anymore after a few 10 hour days > > > sourced back to intermittent small power-pole connectors.
