Arcing on biggies

[dusty IV]

A big ESC uses a huge cap. When plugging the battery in this can make a huge arc that eats the gold plate off and pits the contacts.

The latest issue of Quiet Flyer (March) has a fix . The writer suggests using two parallel plugs going from the battery to the ESC. Plug #1 has a 10 ohm resistor in line to stop the in rush.

This works of course if #1 is plugged in first but seems a bit MM to me.

Anybody know how industry handles equipment with large caps or very low impedance ?

[jeffs555]

In most cases, the components are just sized to handle the inrush. Also, the large caps are usually on the output of a power supply, so they can use soft start techniques in the supply.

You could use a 3 pin power plug, with the main power pin shorter than the other two. That way, ground pin and 10 ohm resistor pin would connect first with the main power applied shortly after. Any active electronics would involve a series mosfet(most probably a P-channel) so it would add series resistance, waste power, and get hot.

[z-matrix]

In most cases, the components are just sized to handle the inrush. Also, the large caps are usually on the output of a power supply, so they can use soft start techniques in the supply.

You could use a 3 pin power plug, with the main power pin shorter than the other two. That way, ground pin and 10 ohm resistor pin would connect first with the main power applied shortly after. Any active electronics would involve a series mosfet(most probably a P-channel) so it would add series resistance, waste power, and get hot.

or just add a few $$$s

those capacitors anyway seems not enough to me in most cases, just imagine a 80A esc decoupled using a capacitor with 0.5mm diameter terminals,
most are only good for burning off gold from contacts, since battery pack internal resistance may only be 15milli ohms.
Additionally, without a soft start, the capacitors will act as a short circuit for the initial plug in time.