This may be obvious to those who have experience with RC stuff, but I figured I would share my experience anyways because I think a couple of people on the forum face the same challenge. The problem with the most popular battery mentioned on the forum (Zippy Lightmax 4000mAh) is that it has bullet plugs for the discharge connectors. Not only that, but there’s one male and one female. Weird.
Google Maps found a hobby store about 35 minutes south of here, and I made the epic journey this afternoon. It’s called Hobby Shop World and the man who owns the place was very helpful. He even gave me 10% off some of the parts! Anyways, I picked up some Deans connectors and four 9 inch servo extension wires. The servo extensions will be used to connect the receiver (after I buy a new one) to the Arduino. Thanks to sumsumdum on the forum for this post.
The challenge was to change the bullet connectors on the lipo to Deans connectors. I started by clipping one of the terminals just below the bullet connector, stripping a few millimeters of wire, and tinning it. DO NOT clip both positive and negative terminals at the same time. Finish with one first, and then move on to the second. If the two terminals touch, the battery will probably explode. I’m not kidding. Check out this entire thread dedicated to Lipo fires.
The next step is to tin both connectors on a female Deans connector. Check out my cool ‘third hand’. I have to admit that it wasn’t an original idea though. Slip a heat shrink tube over the battery wire. Place the tinned battery wire on the proper polarity deans connector (it is labeled) and apply the soldering iron from the reverse side. If everything is properly tinned, the solder will flow together and create a strong connection. Slide up the heat shrink tube and use a lighter or heat gun to shrink it. Awesome.
Now that one terminal is properly heat-shrinked, repeat all of those steps with the other wire. When I was done, I tested the voltage and everything checked out. Careful though! If your probes touch when testing the voltage that is the same as an electrical short!
Not a bad day. I wired up the IDG300 and everything seems to be working. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to connect all of the ESCs and Seeedunio to a special Deans connecter configuration. I will post details if it is successful.
