Ultra-Plugs and The hobby Shop Owner Syndrome

Anyone who has ever been into a hobby shop, or needed parts for their remote control car will be able to relate. While the hobby shop owners are in no ways impolite or unhelpful there is a certain quality that they all seem to have, also know as the "Simpsons Comic Book Shop Guy" syndrome it's perhaps the best tool in their sales arsenal.

In the world of RC Cars and Hobby shops, the RC hobby shop owner is king, take for example the point in my RC career where I realized I needed to replace the standard battery connectors with ultra-plugs, now no one told me when I first got my kit that the standard connectors would eventually melt and start to create an intermittent problem that took months to solve. It was only after they failed completely that I realized they were the problem.

So after that I went about getting myself a few sets of deans plugs, or Ultra-plugs. There can pass the current without getting so hot that they deform, now typically they come in two different colours, the black and red ultra-plugs. You can't tell the difference by looking at them, they look the same and have the same dimentions. They work perfectly well when you match red to red or black to black, but when you try match a red female to a black male they just don't quiet fit together as well as they should.

Now I'll bet that the owner of that hobby shop knew what he was doing when he sold me two different sets, the whole time thinking "You'll be back...", just the same as when I got my kit and while he was very helpful, only gave away a tiny amount of information about what I needed. It something I've notices at every hobby shop I've ever used, and spoken to other who have had the same experience.

Perhaps this trial by fire is the only way to really get into the sport, because everyone before you has had to struggle to understand things like rollout and gearing to front and center one-way diffs, the information is not so easy to come by and often you'll need to put time on the track to see how it works.

With regard to deans plugs, always replace the standard connections with deans, the standard ones will work for a long time, but they all eventually fail, and often a bad battery or motor connection can be very frustrating to troubleshoot. You will need to solder the deans onto the wires, and be very careful not to short the battery out while doing this, as it can completely destroy the battery, sometimes even reverse the polarity of one on the units in the battery pack.

Deans Soldering Tips

• When you solder the ultra-plugs make sure that you leave the male and female attacked, otherwise the plugs can deform from the heat and be very difficult to plug and unplug.


• Heat the connection and the attached wire before you start, this will ensure the solder attaches itself correctly.


• Make sure the surface is clean before you start a dirty surface won't last long and the solder will eventually break off.


• Remove any existing solder before you start, old solder won't bind correctly to the new solder


• If in doubt ask your local hobby shop guy to help out, while their advice ensure that you'll be back for more most of these guys can solder in their sleep, and they love to show off.


• Ensuring that the connection between your electronics is good will help improve the life of all out components


• Use the plastic sleeve that comes with the Ultra=Plug to seal off the solder, place this over the wire before you start, then slide it over the solder once your done and use the soldering iron to heat-shrink this over your work, this will prevent shorting.

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