I believe the "AMP" connectors you are referring to are what I would call a "Cannon" connector.  A good choice for that application IMHO.

Mark Spencer

mark@alignedsolutions.com

Hi,

The ITT Cannon XLR range became known as Cannon-connector and
XLR-connector, with the later as the long term name. Often the 3-pole
XLR connector is being used, but many other exists, including different
sizes of pins and shells.

One should ba a bit careful to use the vendor name to identify a
connector type.

BTW, I agree with Rick's comment on power-pole and use on batteries.
This is the reason I use power-poles on my ham-equipment. It also allows
for combining adapters in interestinng ways.

Cheers,
Magnus

On 06/22/2017 06:11 PM, Mark Spencer wrote:

These are the ones we use:

AMP part # 206708-1

Standard Circular Connector PLUG 9 POSITION shell size 13

On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 12:11 PM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com
wrote:

One of the problems of power poles is they are expensive.  Not a
problem if you only need a few of them.  I've been buying DC
connectors by the bag full as I've working on some battery powered
mobile robots  I robot does not need many but for every finish one
you've build maybe four breadboard systems and then you have the
battery charging systems and the cables that connect battery chargers
to power supplies. (LiPo battery charging is complex when you get into
18 volt 10 amp hour sizes.

Power poles are also rather bulky.  OK if the equipment is stationary
but not good for something that flies or drives around where weight
and volume matter a lot.

I've standardized on XT60 type connectors  These very compact and
rated for 60 amps continuous.  Much easier to assemble and they cost
about 80 cents per mating pair.    They are common in the electric
power drone industry as battery connectors
the XT60 is easy to use because they don't come apart.  the metal pins
are permanently molded into the shell, you simply solder the wires on.
The shell is high temperate plastic and withstands even unskilled
soldering.

I did something stupid last might and assembled power distribution not
as designed with a mosfet switch and diode in backwards then connected
a high power density battery.  I had an open flame along an entire run
of #18 cable but finally the coper conductor failed (the metal
vaporized) and the circuit opened and the flame stopped.  I have some
chared remains of wires and crunchy black melted plastic.  But the
XT60 connectors are still good.  The metal parts inside are still
shiny gold plated and the nylon shells are good as new, after cleaning
the soot off.

I was actually holding the connecter in my hand when the thing went
off like a bomb, but just minor burns.  Still amazed the connecter is
fine after unsoldering the little stubs of burned wire from the pins.

On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 12:19 AM, Tom Van Baak tvb@leapsecond.com wrote:

--

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California

Good point and for hobby use (ie. Amateur radio, time nuts pursuits etc.) I can see this being a consideration.

That being said in my prior day jobs where we had various solar panel, battery, charge controller, AC powered charger,  load combinations etc.. as far as I can recall I never encountered equipment that  allowed for that  specific use case via hermaphroditic connectors.  It is still a good point however.

Mark Spencer

mark@alignedsolutions.com
604 762 4099

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@karlquist.com> wrote:

Never seen the XT60.  Thanks for the heads up - looks promising - and cheap.

Brent

On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 12:48 PM, Chris Albertson <albertson.chris@gmail.com

On 6/22/17 7:37 AM, Chris Caudle wrote:

Most important, the power and speaker connectors are NOT intermateable.
The little tabs and notches are different.

In the movie biz, the 4 pin XLR is pretty standard for 12 and 24VDC
battery packs. It's been almost 20 years, so I don't remember the pinout.

The 3 pin XLR is a pretty good sized pin that can take a lot of current.
The 4 pin is smaller, and the 5 pin is really pretty small.

The XLR is nice and rugged (although not waterproof, it can be made so),
and it tolerates being driven over or stepped on, and it locks. The
chassis mount is fairly small (not much bigger than a Anderson PP with
chassis mount housing/bracketry)

For what it's worth, I use PowerPoles extensively -- I use them for all
my 12V distribution on ham gear as well as time-nuts stuff.  One great
advantage of the genderless design is that you can use extension cables,
breakout boxes, and other tools to solve lots of problems.

But they do lack as a chassis-mount connector.  I was looking for
something inexpensive and reliable for 12V power on some rack enclosures
I was building, and came upon a series of connectors that I really
liked.  They are Conxall/Switchcraft "Mini-Con-X" series, available in a
bunch of configurations from 2 to 8 or so pins.  I use a 2-pin version
with solder-cup connectors that take up to 16 gauge wire.  The chassis
version mounts in a 0.61 inch hole.

They're not throw-away cheap, but not unreasonable: the chassis
connector (Conxall/Switchcraft 7382-2PG-300, DigiKey SC2130-ND) is $4.32
quantity 1, and the matching in-line connector (Conxall/Switchcraft
6382-2SG-3DC, DigiKey SC1893-ND) is $7.06 quantity 1.  I'm standardizing
on these for any 12V project that goes into a box.  (If I do anything
with 24V, I'll probably use a 3 or 4 pin version to avoid mis-plugging
across the voltages.)

John

On 06/22/2017 01:45 PM, Brandon Graham wrote: