New Sherman Max board battery connectors (XT60) don't match old battery connectors (XT90). Now what?

[BKW]

I recently bought a Sherman Max board off aliexpress because the original board has 13K+ miles on it and figured it'd be a good time to change them out.

After dissembling and reassembling the entire EUC to switch the boards I noticed the battery connectors from the new board to the old battery connectors do not match (see pictures). The old battery connectors have a larger XT90 connectors, while the new motherboard has smaller XT60 connectors (also see pictures).

There is ZERO chance I will attempt to fix this as I am especially terrified to do so due to my recent Commander Pro experience, but is this an "easy" fix? Will the connectors simply need to be replaced? Looking at the pictures you will see the male parts of the smaller XT60 are also smaller rods than the original...

The wires from the new board and the wires of the old battery are the same size wires at 14AWG 200C, so I am HOPING it's just that I need bigger XT90 connectors and male "rods" for the new board connectors..

(FYI: I do plan on taking it to a specialist to install if all I need to do is change the connectors)

THOUGHTS? Easy fix? Just change the connectors to match? Or do I have a more serious issue here, like incompatible new board, etc?

 

Old battery connectors (left), new board battery connector (right):

Male and female don't match sizes:

New board male battery connector (XT60):

;

Old battery female connector (XT90):

Edited April 9 by BKW

[BKW]

I'm seeing online they have XT90 to XT60 adapters. Do you think this will be OK to use?

Edited April 8 by BKW

[Paradox]

Is it possibly an OG Sherman board?  OG Sherman's use 18650 batteries and 21700 for the Max.  I don't know about connectors though.  

[BKW]

46 minutes ago, Paradox said:

Is it possibly an OG Sherman board?  OG Sherman's use 18650 batteries and 21700 for the Max.  I don't know about connectors though.  

It says Sherman Max board from where I bought it. Read here.

If you look online for sherman max controllers you will notice others also use XT60 connectors (e-rides, eevee's, aliexpress, etc.), but ewheels looks like one of the few that use the XT90.

Even Wrong Way's video of the Sherman Max shows XT60 connections (see video part here).

Also this is a picture I just took of the sticker on the controller:

Edited April 9 by BKW

[Planemo]

Weird, don't think I've even seen a Sherman board either OG or Max with an XT90! But yeah you could use an adaptor, I think theres plenty of space in the control board cavity. For me I would solder on some new connectors but only because I could and it would remove any (albeit unlikely) risks from potential poor soldering by whoever made the adaptor. If you do go the adaptor route you could at least remove the heatshrink just to see how good the soldering looks and afterwards either re-heatshrink it or in a pinch use black insulating tape although I would go over it with cable ties just to be happy that the tape couldn't unravel.

In any event I would be happy to use the board with only a solution for the power feed.

[fbhb]

5 hours ago, BKW said:

but ewheels looks like one of the few that use the XT90.

eWheels, have a special relationship with Leaperkim as regards requesting special upgrades/specs to their inventory, so they are the ONLY distributor that used XT90 on both the OG Sherman and the Sherman Max.

As @Planemo mentioned in his post above, carefully checked/re-heat shrunk adaptors should be OK (definitely enough room in there), if you do not trust yourself/do not have the skill to solder XT90 connectors as the preferred option!

Edited April 9 by fbhb

[Planemo]

25 minutes ago, fbhb said:

so they are the ONLY distributor that used XT90 on both the OG Sherman and the Sherman Max.

I don't doubt you, but I wonder why? Did ewheels know something about the current handling of the XT60 not being man enough? I must admit I've not heard of any issues re this. It seems a strange request for them to task LK with this.

25 minutes ago, fbhb said:

As @Planemo mentioned in his post above, carefully checked/re-heat shrunk adaptors should be OK (definitely enough room in there), if you do not trust yourself/do not have the skill to solder XT90 connectors as the preferred option!

I forgot to add, reliably soldering XT60's and especially XT90's is difficult in terms of needing a LOT of heat and therefore a very decent soldering iron. The OP made it clear he wasn't likely to do it himself but just thought I'd drop it in while we were talking about it.

[fbhb]

54 minutes ago, Planemo said:

I don't doubt you, but I wonder why? Did ewheels know something about the current handling of the XT60 not being man enough? I must admit I've not heard of any issues re this. It seems a strange request for them to task LK with this.

Jason had a lot of input from the inception of the OG Sherman, with which there were some very early issues with for instance the motor cables overheating/melting (later improved with separating/shielding the phase wires and Hall sensor wires from each other, so Jason was just being cautious with some safety additions specifically for his customers.

Marty had a control board issue (not 100% on the details) with the demo OG Jason supplied him for testing purposes, so suggestions/requests were made to Leaperkim that ONLY made it to eWheels batches.

Then you may remember All the dramas I posted on here about, with multiple chargers blowing the control boards on my personal OG Sherman, BMS dramas that many suffered from, knobby tyres falling off the OG 40mm rim etc. etc. these were All issues Jason had to warranty to a large customer base (with the Sherman being so popular from day one), so I can understand him being cautious with his demands on Leaperkim for additional safety measures!

Edited April 9 by fbhb

[Planemo]

I hear you on all that, cheers. But still I never heard of melted XT60's at the board end. I understand your comment re maybe this was just being cautious though! On that note, I did wonder why LK went to the extent of additional shielding on the motor wires yet the bottleneck remained the same - point of entry at the hub/through the axle. Sheathing the wires through the shell did seem to cure the issue although I always wondered how there weren't more problems around the hub if wire temps were the problem.

[fbhb]

2 hours ago, Planemo said:

But still I never heard of melted XT60's at the board end

The XT90's have an anti-spark feature during the connection/disconnection of batteries, which is why Jason went with that option rather than the risk of the lighter duty XT60's melting!

Edited April 9 by fbhb

[Planemo]

Well I'm pretty sure you couldn't melt an XT60 during connection (the only time anti-spark is beneficial) so seems a moot point but for sure, anti-spark and having a system capable of more than you can possibly throw at it is never a bad thing IMO

 

[BKW]

Thank you for the responses. This is the type of thing where I really need confirmation from others more competent than myself that what I'm about to do is safe. I will make sure to check the adapter's connection under the sheath to look for quality concerns and then replace with a new sheath, etc. Thanks for that pointer.

I was also able to confirm with both Jason and Bruce at ewheels that going from the XT60 board to the XT90S battery cable will be fine with the adapter. However, Bruce did say that this might create a "bottleneck" since the XT90 is capable of more current flow than the XT60.

Can someone please explain what this type of bottleneck might do given this situation? For example, a lack of performance? Possible safety concerns? Or will there be no noticeable or concerning effects?

 

Edited April 9 by BKW

[Planemo]

Given that every Sherman OG and Max out there except ewheels versions (of which there are gazillions) are running XT60's on the board output without problems I would suggest that the bottleneck they speak of is of no concern. Tbh I'm a bit miffed that they would suggest otherwise, given the reliability datasets of the XT60 connection that the Sherman OG and Max have presented now. Cautiousness on using an XT60 at this connection is no longer required and maintaining the concern of a bottleneck suggests a lack of understanding on how current works.

[BKW]

1 hour ago, Planemo said:

Given that every Sherman OG and Max out there except ewheels versions (of which there are gazillions) are running XT60's on the board output without problems I would suggest that the bottleneck they speak of is of no concern. Tbh I'm a bit miffed that they would suggest otherwise, given the reliability datasets of the XT60 connection that the Sherman OG and Max have presented now. Cautiousness on using an XT60 at this connection is no longer required and maintaining the concern of a bottleneck suggests a lack of understanding on how current works.

Yeah, I was kind of confused why there would be a bottleneck if the XT60 has posed no issues with other Shermans? I think they just wanted to be helpful and cover possible concerns with stating the potential of a bottleneck given the XT90 and XT60 connection.

On a side note, I did notice one of distributors on aliexpress is offering both the XT60 and the XT90 mainboards for the Sherman Max. Of course, I wasn't paying attention to the connectors when I purchased mine, which is a mistake I will try not to make in the future.