Dud Deans?
 

Anyone experienced a dud/non-connecting/shorted Deans connector? And I'm talking about genuine Deans.

I had to replace a female Deans on a customer's battery I recently modified because both our chargers could not detect a battery. I replaced the Deans connector and it charged fine.

BUH?! I've NEVER seen a bad deans connector, but I guess it's possible? It's pretty simple, two blocks of metal in a plastic case.

It seems more likely the link (solder) was bad somehow.

Nope, tried to resolder it and no dice.

I've never seen that before. Could be due to the surface of the connector corroded with carbon or some other residue. Try going over the ends with a brass wire brush. But I guess you can't do that with the female end.

Use a wire brush as HKGhost said. Sometimes the Deans connector will have a patina, that may or may not affect the connection from one end to another. A light acid will also work, dip the connector ends in and take them out then neutralize with any base such as vinegar.

Vinegar = 5% acetic acid = not a base... baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is.

Current conducting surfaces on Deans connectors are gold plated. Vinegar won't do a damn thing against them. However, you could rust out the spring plate on the male connector with acid exposure, or most likely get a nice green patina on inside your copper wire strands soldered to the connector terminals.

In diagnosing connection problems, my first troubleshooting approach is to try to bypass the connection with an alligator clip that I've soldered together myself (some are crimped).

I doubt that your connector has failed. I would check for fatigue failure of conductors in your wires at your connector ends. As much as I like Deans connectors for their current capacity and compact form, they do little to strain relieve wires connected to them. You might have also lost the spring plate on your male connector end which would not provide reliable contact.

In response to your last paragraph, I de-soldered the connector and tried the battery wires directly into my smart charger jaws, and it worked. Soldered another deans on, and it worked fine.

Did you try putting that old (possibly defective) connector back on? Does it work?

I resoldered it once and it still didn't work, so I replaced it.

Well, I guess if it looks like sh*t and it smells like sh*t, it must be sh*t.

I've never seen a failed Deans connector before. I've seen some crummy copies with thermoplastic bodies that melted during soldering, or clones with spring plates that yielded, but never a failed Deans. I didn't think they ever died in airsoft with our low current draws.

In 20 years of using them I'm never seen one fail because of the conector it's self? But I have seen a cold solder joint have the same issue. But if you'v tryed re-solding it and it's still the same then yeh it sounds like a dud. It happens! As long as it's not one of thoes knock-off one s that G&P has,thoes are shit and I'v seen alot of issues with them.

Take that Dean's connector and heat one terminal for a good 10 seconds... the red plastic will turn brown, almost black.

Fake Dean's look a lot like the real ones, but the plastic will melt before darkening.

They're real, trust me.

I don't know if I can trust a Waaaaaaah wahhhhhhhh face.