[WARC] Anderson Powerpole Instructions

[James Jarvis]

Hi Len and List,

The connectors shouldn't require repairs that involve splitting apart 
the red and black connectors. So we occasionally use super glue for 
stuff in house. Without roll pins. We never super glue the connectors we 
send out and never have had any problems.

re: mating force
Once again, in thousands of units, no complaints. The only time I can 
imagine it being an issue is with an improperly assembled connector. 
I've seen a few that with just drop apart.

A couple of stories:
We use the powerpole connectors inside expensive units that go 400 feet 
up a tracked crawler crane. The vibration is something fierce up there, 
as I understand. No unmating problems. The customer informs me that if 
they have a failure of this piece of equipment it costs them over 
$50,000 to lower the crane boom to fix. I didn't hesitate to use the 
power pole connectors. You can see a few photos at:
http://www.aprsworld.com/gallery/craneLogger/inside
Fasteners without loctite in this enviroment will vibrate out within a 
few hours.

I used power pole connector in my truck radio installation. For reasons 
I won't get into, the truck was headed for scrap last Friday. Thursday 
night I took the truck offroading, just to say good bye to it. I beat 
the heck out of the truck. Did some jumping of the truck. A few jumps I 
got more than 4 feet of air. The landings were rather harsh. The radio 
was operating the whole time and there were no power interruptions. No 
roll pins or anything besides the mating force holding the connectors 
together.

If you are very concerned, a small zip tie can go through the roll pin 
holes and secure a connector together. I think a big key is designing 
your installation so as not to have mechanical pull on the connectors 
and to crimp the pins with the right size contact and in the specified 
manner.

In summary, my experience has shown the 15-45 amp series of power poles 
not to disconnect in normal use.

-Jim KB0THN

Len Litvan wrote:
> Some more websites with interesting PowerPole information.
> 
> I am reading of some concerns with the PowerPole design concept.  One is 
> that the red/black shell pairs are held together by a sliding dovetail 
> arrangement and then kept from sliding apart by a roll pin or spiral 
> pin.  It has been reported that the pins can fall out sometimes--and 
> fall into electrical/electronic equipment in the area!  Anderson 
> apparently has said that a touch of Superglue will keep the pins from 
> coming out or keep the shells together.  Doesn't sound too good for 
> repairs--if ever needed.
> 
> The second concern I have read about is that when plugged together, the 
> connectors (source pair connected to load pair) are held together by 
> friction of the contacts.  Some users have reported problems with 
> connections coming apart in mobile or other installations where 
> vibration is a factor.
> 
> Len
> 
> http://www.w5fc.org/pse_docs/KNOWLEDGE/anderson_powerpole_instructions.htm
> 
> http://home.comcast.net/~buck0/app.htm 
> <http://home.comcast.net/%7Ebuck0/app.htm>
> 
> http://www.qsradio.com/Powerpoles.htm#Tool
> 
> http://www.wakeares.org/powerpole/index2.html
> 
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-- 
-James Jefferson Jarvis
APRS World, LLC
+1-507-454-2727
www.aprsworld.com