Battery Bars

[King Nothing]

I'm going to need some battery bars for some racing cells I'm going to buy. Are most battery bars from different companies, pretty much the same? Which metal has the least resistance? (out of copper, silver, gold, platinum). I saw stormerhobbies had Deans pro bars in v2.0 and v3.0. what's the difference. and lastly, anyone try teamorion's battery "bones" that hold the cells in place? Their site is down so I can't take a look at them. Thanks.

[Grizzbob]

Well, you'll likely get different opinions on it, but I've used several of the various bars & I honestly can't tell much(if any) difference in how the packs perform. Now, as for conductivity, silver does have the lowest resistance, followed by copper & gold(not sure where platinum falls in, but I'm pretty sure silver has THE lowest resistance). However, keep in mind, that none of these bars are pure, they're just plated in silver, platinum or gold(they all have a core of copper), so the difference between them is likely pretty minute. But, there IS a difference in the shape & design of the different bars, while I like the Deans bars alright, I recently got to try the Trinity Watt bars(the gold ones) & I really like them, the tiny holes in them help solder to flow through them VERY well, & they seem plenty strong & the packs are performing well. Another nice thing about the gold ones is that they have by far the best protection against corrosion(MUCH better than silver or copper, but once again I'm not to sure about platinum), that's why the audio eqipment & avionics industries use gold plated electrical contacts a lot.....:)

[Jason C]

You're right, Grizz. Silver does have the lowest resistance.

Silver - 1.59 x 10^-8
Copper - 1.68 x 10^-8
Gold - 2.44 x 10^-8
Aluminum - 2.65 x 10^-8

(all values in Ohms per meter)

With the differences being this small, I think it would have more to do with the battery's internal resistance than resistance of the battery bar.

Now, if only they made battery bars of pure silver plated with gold...

[Nutter]

Jason: Are you sure those values are correct? I have an electronics book here that says the order is: gold, silver, copper. Sure the 2.44 for gold isn't a typo and should be 1.44?


-Nutter

[TEM]

What about platinum?

And no, I don't think you can tell the difference between the different battery bars(assuming they are all soldered correctly and tested with proper equipment). As for corosion protection; probably doesn't matter either. I mean your packs should conk out long before corosion kicks in.

But the bottomline is, Make sure your battery bars and all connections are soldered correctly!

[Crazy Canuck]

Ive used the "Bones" ones, and I found them very easy to use. All the connections were excellent.

The Deans 2.0 is for NiCds, and the 3.0 is for 3000s. Just a difference in length.

[Jason C]

Nutter,

I believe so - no typos. I got these values out of my physics textbook. What temperature are your values taken at? Temp does have an effect on a material's conductivity. Then again, my values are from a physics standpoint and theoretical values are almost never the same as actual values.

[King Nothing]

I took out my physics book, and got the same values as Jason. Also got the value of platinum, 11 x 10 ^-8. These values are taken at 20 degrees C.