Airsoft Canada - View Single Post - Review: HobbyKing / Turnigy XT60 Connectors

MaciekA · January 1st, 2012, 14:39

This review is not complete and will not cover the entire spectrum of everything that is the XT60 Connector. Rather, I wanted to get the ball rolling and encourage some of the other fence-sitters on ASC (you know who you are!) to finally get off their butts and try this connector out, give it a proper shake, and leave their additions here. If any of you have also tried this connector, please leave some comments below to help others figure out whether XT60 is for them or not. (If you haven't tried the connector and only want to leave cynical flames, please don't crap on my thread. i.e. don't just leave a post like this: "just use Deans lol")

On to the review..

Just before Christmas I received a huge box of goodies from Hobby King, so here I am on holidays trying some of these things out together. Since this was a group order for my airsoft crew, I ordered a ton of batteries, connectors, wiring, chargers, tools, and other assorted stuff. Among them were the XT60 connectors. Hobby King's prices are low enough on a lot of things that your thoughts of "I'm not sure I have the budget for that" quickly turn into "I should pick some up just to experiment with". XT60 connectors fall into this category.

If you ever order anything from Hobby King -- which you will once you realize there's no point in buying expensive LiPos -- you will inevitably run into XT60 connectors. Upon Googling what the heck XT60 is, you'll discover that they're what years ago many in the RC world have moved onto after Deans connectors. Like Deans connectors and as the name implies, they're rated for around 60 Amps and have extremely low resistance. RC people love them for a number of reasons, and it doesn't take too much searching to find people in that world who already consider Deans "old and busted".

Claims:

1) easier to solder than Deans,
2) tougher design,
3) open design and therefore free to produce by any company,
4) are easier to grip, disconnect, and reconnect,
5) HobbyKing/Turnigy, the company that makes them, is selling them for dirt cheap.

I ordered a pack because they were next to nothing in cost and I wanted to verify a few of these claims myself.

Quality/Toughness:

Out of the package these connectors give an impression of quality and durability. Connecting and rapidly disconnecting a pair of connectors gives distinct metallic ringing sound from the contacts like a unsheathed sword. The insides of the contacts (not sure what metal they are) look to be machined/drilled (see one of the pictures below) and the contacts feel very strong when given the wiggle test. I have only begun to use these connectors so only abusive long-term usage will reveal any issues with durability, but so far, they feel at least on par with Deans, if not better.

One area of durability where I feel XT60 has a big edge over Deans is in the quality of the solder connections you'll make, which leads me to the next part..

Soldering:

I can wholeheartedly attest to the fact that these are a pleasure to solder, even for a complete idiot like myself. I cannot understate how much of a piece of cake soldering these connectors is compared to Deans. Tin your wire, stage it in the half-pipe, and pour on the solder. Again, a clumsy idiot like me can do it in seconds, so those of you who are experts will be able to quickly solder a batch of these in minutes.

One small drawback of XT60 I noticed was the trickiness of getting your heat shrink to grip the circular edge of the contact against the Nylon connector body. This may eventually prove to be a major annoyance, though the risk of short with XT60 in practice (i.e. if the heat shrink slid off) seems much lower than with Deans and Tamiya. Also, it's possible that I suck at putting on heat shrink tubing

. During soldering my gun made contact with the Nylon connector body and while the surface charred a little bit, it did not melt or deform, which is a big plus. I did not see any deformation, nevertheless, it's always wise to solder your connectors with a sacrificial connector connected, and if possible, a wire on the other connector end to serve as a heat sink.

Testing/Ergonomics/Usability/Fit:

I'm testing these connectors on my "project" AEG with a G&P gearbox, G&P M120 motor, AWS Raptor FET and a 1.3Ah, 11.1V Turnigy nano-tech series battery. As you can see, the gun I'm using has the super-long ACE stock and therefore has a TON of room for gigantic LiPo batteries, as well as room for bigger connectors. Both the Turnigy battery and the Raptor FET come with Tamiya connectors by default (!!), so naturally I wanted to swap these out, and I decided to try the XT60 connectors. During initial testing with Tamiya connectors, I observed a lot of heat at both the motor and at the Tamiya connection. The gun fired about 26 rps and about 380ft per second with Tamiya. With XT60, the heat at the connector was mostly gone, which is not a surprise given the low resistance of XT60. Subjectively, the rate of fire seems dramatically higher than with Tamiya, but I will have verify this at the chrono.

The XT60 connectors maintain a very secure connection, so my concern was that they'd be hard to disconnect. On the other hand, they have a larger and more textured gripping surface than Deans, so I found that even with slippery gloves on I was able to disconnect them easier than Deans. Tamiya is much easier to connect and disconnect, but the drawbacks of Tamiya are not worth the ease of use compared to Deans or XT60.

Finally, I found fit to be painless inside of my ACE stock, with plenty of room to spare. Obviously, this impression is heavily biased since the ACE stock has enough room for a king-size bed. In evalutating the XT60 connector for your own setup, staging it inside of your buffer tube or handguard to see if there is enough room for it will be a primary concern, because XT60 is bulkier than Deans.

Conclusion:

I'm loving these things so far, with some caveats.

I'm hesitant to convert my entire collection to XT60, for reasons that will be obvious to any readers who play on a team and need to swap/borrow batteries or guns from time to time. In addition, the biggest concern to people considering XT60 will be whether it can co-exist in a buffer tube with a battery. Deans has a definite edge on compactness, however, it suffices to say that if XT60 were shrunk to match the size of Deans, it would be a winner, hands down.

I'm going to be very tempted to try XT60 in a buffer tube. My buffer tube batteries are the 1000mAh G&P sticks, so it's quite likely they will fit. The G&P 1000mAh LiPos are exceptionally short, however. EDIT: After reading this review, a teammate convinced me to test to see if these fit in a G&P C8 buffer tube with my G&P 1000mAh LiPo battery. They fit, and I actually managed to fit a pair of XT60 connectors and a pair of Deans connectors with the battery at the same time, so 1100 - 1200 mAh may also be possible depending on precise dimensions.

For the next few months, I'm going to continue testing XT60 on my project rifle with the two large batteries which are too big to fit in any of my other rifles or any of my teammates rifles, i.e. an isolated test platform. Hopefully I will get a more comprehensive picture of XT60's viability for airsoft.

January 1st, 2012, 14:39	#1
MaciekA Trader rating Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Portland, Oregon, USA	Review: HobbyKing / Turnigy XT60 Connectors This review is not complete and will not cover the entire spectrum of everything that is the XT60 Connector. Rather, I wanted to get the ball rolling and encourage some of the other fence-sitters on ASC (you know who you are!) to finally get off their butts and try this connector out, give it a proper shake, and leave their additions here. If any of you have also tried this connector, please leave some comments below to help others figure out whether XT60 is for them or not. (If you haven't tried the connector and only want to leave cynical flames, please don't crap on my thread. i.e. don't just leave a post like this: "just use Deans lol") On to the review.. Just before Christmas I received a huge box of goodies from Hobby King, so here I am on holidays trying some of these things out together. Since this was a group order for my airsoft crew, I ordered a ton of batteries, connectors, wiring, chargers, tools, and other assorted stuff. Among them were the XT60 connectors. Hobby King's prices are low enough on a lot of things that your thoughts of "I'm not sure I have the budget for that" quickly turn into "I should pick some up just to experiment with". XT60 connectors fall into this category. If you ever order anything from Hobby King -- which you will once you realize there's no point in buying expensive LiPos -- you will inevitably run into XT60 connectors. Upon Googling what the heck XT60 is, you'll discover that they're what years ago many in the RC world have moved onto after Deans connectors. Like Deans connectors and as the name implies, they're rated for around 60 Amps and have extremely low resistance. RC people love them for a number of reasons, and it doesn't take too much searching to find people in that world who already consider Deans "old and busted". Claims: 1) easier to solder than Deans, 2) tougher design, 3) open design and therefore free to produce by any company, 4) are easier to grip, disconnect, and reconnect, 5) HobbyKing/Turnigy, the company that makes them, is selling them for dirt cheap. I ordered a pack because they were next to nothing in cost and I wanted to verify a few of these claims myself. Quality/Toughness: Out of the package these connectors give an impression of quality and durability. Connecting and rapidly disconnecting a pair of connectors gives distinct metallic ringing sound from the contacts like a unsheathed sword. The insides of the contacts (not sure what metal they are) look to be machined/drilled (see one of the pictures below) and the contacts feel very strong when given the wiggle test. I have only begun to use these connectors so only abusive long-term usage will reveal any issues with durability, but so far, they feel at least on par with Deans, if not better. One area of durability where I feel XT60 has a big edge over Deans is in the quality of the solder connections you'll make, which leads me to the next part.. Soldering: I can wholeheartedly attest to the fact that these are a pleasure to solder, even for a complete idiot like myself. I cannot understate how much of a piece of cake soldering these connectors is compared to Deans. Tin your wire, stage it in the half-pipe, and pour on the solder. Again, a clumsy idiot like me can do it in seconds, so those of you who are experts will be able to quickly solder a batch of these in minutes. One small drawback of XT60 I noticed was the trickiness of getting your heat shrink to grip the circular edge of the contact against the Nylon connector body. This may eventually prove to be a major annoyance, though the risk of short with XT60 in practice (i.e. if the heat shrink slid off) seems much lower than with Deans and Tamiya. Also, it's possible that I suck at putting on heat shrink tubing . During soldering my gun made contact with the Nylon connector body and while the surface charred a little bit, it did not melt or deform, which is a big plus. I did not see any deformation, nevertheless, it's always wise to solder your connectors with a sacrificial connector connected, and if possible, a wire on the other connector end to serve as a heat sink. Testing/Ergonomics/Usability/Fit: I'm testing these connectors on my "project" AEG with a G&P gearbox, G&P M120 motor, AWS Raptor FET and a 1.3Ah, 11.1V Turnigy nano-tech series battery. As you can see, the gun I'm using has the super-long ACE stock and therefore has a TON of room for gigantic LiPo batteries, as well as room for bigger connectors. Both the Turnigy battery and the Raptor FET come with Tamiya connectors by default (!!), so naturally I wanted to swap these out, and I decided to try the XT60 connectors. During initial testing with Tamiya connectors, I observed a lot of heat at both the motor and at the Tamiya connection. The gun fired about 26 rps and about 380ft per second with Tamiya. With XT60, the heat at the connector was mostly gone, which is not a surprise given the low resistance of XT60. Subjectively, the rate of fire seems dramatically higher than with Tamiya, but I will have verify this at the chrono. The XT60 connectors maintain a very secure connection, so my concern was that they'd be hard to disconnect. On the other hand, they have a larger and more textured gripping surface than Deans, so I found that even with slippery gloves on I was able to disconnect them easier than Deans. Tamiya is much easier to connect and disconnect, but the drawbacks of Tamiya are not worth the ease of use compared to Deans or XT60. Finally, I found fit to be painless inside of my ACE stock, with plenty of room to spare. Obviously, this impression is heavily biased since the ACE stock has enough room for a king-size bed. In evalutating the XT60 connector for your own setup, staging it inside of your buffer tube or handguard to see if there is enough room for it will be a primary concern, because XT60 is bulkier than Deans. Conclusion: I'm loving these things so far, with some caveats. I'm hesitant to convert my entire collection to XT60, for reasons that will be obvious to any readers who play on a team and need to swap/borrow batteries or guns from time to time. In addition, the biggest concern to people considering XT60 will be whether it can co-exist in a buffer tube with a battery. Deans has a definite edge on compactness, however, it suffices to say that if XT60 were shrunk to match the size of Deans, it would be a winner, hands down. I'm going to be very tempted to try XT60 in a buffer tube. My buffer tube batteries are the 1000mAh G&P sticks, so it's quite likely they will fit. The G&P 1000mAh LiPos are exceptionally short, however. EDIT: After reading this review, a teammate convinced me to test to see if these fit in a G&P C8 buffer tube with my G&P 1000mAh LiPo battery. They fit, and I actually managed to fit a pair of XT60 connectors and a pair of Deans connectors with the battery at the same time, so 1100 - 1200 mAh may also be possible depending on precise dimensions. For the next few months, I'm going to continue testing XT60 on my project rifle with the two large batteries which are too big to fit in any of my other rifles or any of my teammates rifles, i.e. an isolated test platform. Hopefully I will get a more comprehensive picture of XT60's viability for airsoft. __________________ "Mah check" Now you know Last edited by MaciekA; January 1st, 2012 at 17:42..