It’s a good idea to add extra capacitor to your mini quad’s power. But it’s not always possible with the limited space in some tight frames. I found a clean solution and thought some of you might find useful – Introducing the Lantian XT60 pigtail with a 1000uF capacitor that is already soldered to it.
There is no extra soldering, and it doesn’t take up any space inside the frame. It reminds me of the XT30 connector with current sensor built-in :)
Picture: DemonRC Fusion 4S 1500mah – with PVC corners for protection (tutorial)
Where To Buy?
Banggood: http://bit.ly/2PDUvJl (15% off coupon: 15LTXT60 )
The Lantian XT60 pigtail uses 14AWG, 15cm long silicone electrical wires. The holder that the XT60 connector and capacitor sit in appears to be 3D Printed in TPU (soft, flexible and tough material – commonly used for GoPro mounts).
A Closer Look at the Lantian XT60 Pigtail with Cap
By removing the 3D printed mount, reveals the solder joints between XT60 and the capacitor. The cap is soldered on a little piece of printed circuit board. The wires connecting the cap and XT60 are pretty thin, possibly 24AWG? It would have been better to use some bigger wires in my opinion.
The capacitor is a 35V 1000uF, branded under JCCON – an unfamiliar brand to me.
To be honest, I really like this design. If you aren’t a fan of the way they build this pigtail, or you don’t trust the components they use, you can easily make this by yourself.
The mount you can print if you have a 3D printer. I found a handful of good designs on Thingiverse. And if you need suggestions on tried-and-tested capacitors, check this page.
Anyway, if you don’t have the tools or time, the Lantian XT60 pigtail with cap is a good alternative.
Is It Going To Work?
After testing it for a few months, I don’t find it as effective as I wanted it to be. Maybe it’s the cheap capacitor it comes with. And having the cap soldered this far from the ESC’s doesn’t help either.
Sure, it’s going to be better than not having a capacitor at all.
For maximum effectiveness though, you should soldering the capacitor(s) as close to the source of noise as possible (in which case, the ESC and motors). So having the cap this far away from the ESC’s, it’s going to take some of the effectiveness away. When using this pigtail, try to keep the wires as short as possible, it will definitely help.
I am not familiar with the brand of the capacitor, and I don’t have the equipment to measure its ESR value right this moment. I will update here once I’ve done that. Or if anyone has access to that can let me know in the comment.
Not recommended.
4 comments
OK, but maybe it does help with sparks during plugging in the charged battery? Any test results on this field?
It has good feedback in Banggood. It’s a good solution? I hate soldering the big XT60 wires together with the capacitor, this can help me a lot.
Nope, after using it for a while, I didn’t find it as effective as I’d like it to be.
Mostly like to be the cheap capacitor it comes with. And having the cap soldered this far from the ESC doesn’t help either.
The most useless PCB ever in miniquad history :D Better than nothing, but this is the worst option where you can put a cap for filtering.