EC5 Battery Connector Swap

Hardware Multirotors
1

I’m debating buying the CNHL G+Series 5000mah 6S lipo however the only one in stock, has an EC5 connector. I am also a first time builder and have only briefly soldered before. I was debating whether it would be worth it to get a friend to swap out the EC5 connector for an XT90 or if I should just wire it directly to the ESC with a EC5 pigtail?

I’ll be soldering the rest of the drone but obviously wanted to pick up a smoke/short stopper as a precaution, but I couldn’t find any in the EC5 connector hence why I was curious to know if it’s a good idea to swap over to XT90. Am I losing significant performance by doing so?

Or, should I just use 2 adaptors (pigtail and battery) on either side of a XT90 short stopper during first power on to make sure I don’t blow something up?

Appreciate any replies

1 Like
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Learn how to solder. You’ll need this skill if you’re going to work with this gear.

Learn how to use a multi meter. Smoke stopers aren’t needed. Multi meters are.
EC5 connectors will work, but you’ll be better off with the an XT60. XT90 is overkill. If you use XT90 you will also likely need an adaptor for your battery charger since most of them are XT60.

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It’s not that I don’t trust myself with soldering; I’ve done some small projects and obviously connections similar to the scale of the drone FC/ESC and motor connections. I just don’t want to get demolished by the battery because of me being careless. Maybe I just have to lock in. So XT60 should be good enough for this drone? I’m running 3110 900 kv on 10-inch props. Just don’t want to pull more current than specified because I’ve heard it can melt the plastic connector, which can cause some problems.

Regarding multimeters, is it just running a small voltage through one ESC pad (or XT conenctor) and the other probe on the other pad and checking the resistance in the circuit? Got one lying around from like 10 years ago, it should be good.

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I have several drones that size and they hover around 15-amps (give or take) on 4S. If you’re running 6S the current should be less. Depending on where you look an XT60 is rated for sustained 30 amps, and bursts to 60. You should be safe.

Multimeters are a whole topic on their own. The first thing you want to check is for continuity. Between the + and - there should be no continuity or very high resistance. If you have capacitors on your ESCs (and you should) you might get a quick blip of continuity or very low resistance when you connect the meter but then it will sort out. This is the capacitors charging up.

Multimeters can also be used to figure out what voltage is available at different busses, if there’s high resistance or a voltage drop across different connections, testing harnesses that you’ve just put together.

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Yea, nothing obvious about that. Many of those are useless. Build it right, use your multimeter. You will need a decent relatively high watt soldering iron to replace the battery lead connector. Not a big deal just use the right equipment.

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xt60 should definitely work on these. I have similar setup, but with smaller motors (2212) and 920kv motors with 10 inch props, it hovers at 13a on 3s, and current will reduce on 4s, and with the larger motors, efficiency will be slightly higher only so you should be good to go with xt60s.

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I’m a first time builder and a couple of the guide videos I watched mentioned them so I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be obvious? If I spend a decent amount of money, I’d rather be safe than sorry. That’s why I mentioned it. Thanks

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Bet, thank you for clearing that up. Makes life easier as well for charging up.

I’ll be sure to keep that in mind for the multimeter when I test it.

Thank you!

edit: Is the capacitor that comes with the Lucid H7 fine enough for this battery?

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Thanks for clearing that up asw!

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The capacitor is for the ESC, not the battery. If you’ve got a 4-in-1 then the cap should be right on the power leads soldered to the ESC. Most included caps are 470 uF (micro). Sometimes you’ll see recomendations for higher when you go to 6S. Check the docs for your hardware.

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Is this website a reliable source? Suggests a 35V Low-ESR 1000microF capacitor at minimum for 6S 7”+.

1 Like
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His stuff is pretty good. More focused on BF but the basics are the same.

Low ESR is important. If you’re buying capacitors just for your FPV hobby then get them from any of the stores we’ve talked about before. All they’ll sell is low ESR. If you’re getting them from an electronics place, yes they’ll be cheaper but you need to know what you’re looking for. And there’s hundreds of different capacitor ratings and styles. Suck up the extra $1 you’ll pay and just get the ones you know will work.

What kind of ESC are you using? What firmware is it on?

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Ah, I see. I’m using the TBS Lucid 8S 60A ESC, the one that comes with the TBS Lucid H7 stack. I believe the firmware is AM32

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the ESC probably came with a capacitor. what do its label say? each capacitor has some text on its side saying the voltage rating and capacity?

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560uF 8S Capacitor

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560uf is on the lower side. You should get a new capacitor.

Also, the capacitor’s voltage rating needs to be higher than the LiPo voltage. For example, you cannot use a 25v capacitor on 6s.

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Yeah, I was planning to for sure. Didn’t feel comfortable with that tiny thing.

Is it because a 6s battery has a fully charged voltage of above the 25V?

Also, how should I be determining what capacitance value is right for my build?

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Around 1000uf is fine.

Higher capacitance means it will be slightly higher esr.

Capacitors need to absorb voltage spikes etc so they should be rated a few volts higher, like 35v for 6s.

For example, my escs (individual escs) support 4s max so they are 25v rated

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Ah I see. Is something like this fine for 6s?

edit: I’ve also seen bigger quads run double capacitors. is this something that would benefit my build or would it be completely uneccessary.

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With double capacitors you can get lower esr.

Generally, lower capacitance means lower esr. So, if you use, for example, 500uf X2 (of good quality) you could get lower esr.

Capacitance is the amount of energy stored by a capacitor and esr basically controls how quickly it can give power when needed.

Those caps should be fine