AD0505D0Z bare PCB — CAN connector compatibility question

Support Electric drives
1

Hello,

I am currently integrating four AD0505D0Z ESCs (bare PCB variant) into a quadrotor UAV propulsion system using DroneCAN over CAN1, connected to a CubePilot Cube Orange+ flight controller running ArduCopter.

I would like to add removable connectors to the CAN1 pads of the bare PCB, rather than permanently soldering bare wires. This would allow easier maintenance and the ability to upgrade to the aluminum enclosure variant (AD0505D2Z) in the future without re-wiring.

I have confirmed that the CAN1 pads (Power, CAN H, CAN L, GND) are through-holes with SMD lands around them.

My questions:

  1. Is it possible to solder a JST GH 4-pin header (e.g. BM04B-GHS-TBT or SM04B-GHS-TB) onto the CAN1 pad area of the AD0505D0Z bare PCB? If so, which specific part number is compatible with the PCB footprint?

  2. Is there an official recommended connector for the bare PCB CAN interface, or is direct wire soldering the only supported approach?

  3. Is the CAN1 pad footprint on the AD0505D0Z PCB designed to accept the same JST BM04B-GHS-TBT connector used on the Zubax CAN Bus Splitter (CANB-SPLT)?

Any guidance or documentation (e.g. KiCad footprint, mechanical drawing with pad dimensions) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

2

I’m afraid that no JST GH connector will be compatible with the solder pad layout of the AD0505C/D family.

The GH connector series has a pitch (spacing between pins) of 1.25 mm, while the ESC pads have a pitch of 1.0 mm – you’d have to shrink the GH connector down to fit. I think the C/D family has been designed with direct solder connections in mind, for GH compatibility you’d need the AD0505A/B variant.

My suggestion would be to solder wires to the board, and crimp a standard 4-pin GH connector to the other side.

3

The whole point of that series is that no connector is to be used at all. It is intended for tightly integrated systems with customized wiring harnesses. If you need connectors, consider AD0505A/B instead.