Racer ecks

Rants = on

I am a dad… I am a currently out of work dad… Being such, I have a limited budget for gizmos and gadgets. I also have a 13 year old boy with and unlimited desire for every new R/C vehicle ever made…

Of course, what with the latest and greatest R/C vehicle be without a lipo upgrade? When I was starting out, I rapidly became aware of the tendencies for lipo batteries to explode like miniature hand grenades (thank you youtube!) which is usually an undesired occurrence in the typical garage or workshop. I have also learned that every lipo batteries I purchase seems to have a different balancing connector.

After purchasing a state of the art battery charger and balancer, I have noticed that the balancer does not necessarily work with all the different connectors… buying additional balancers and/or adapters, which means spending additional money…

Let's revisit the "I am looking for job" dad part of this rant. It irritates me to no end to spend money so uselessly. It occurs to me that the industry should adopt a standard type of connector to balance all common lipo batteries.

While we're at it, how about the battery connectors themselves… Anybody that has used a decent R/C vehicle knows (in the case of cars and trucks) the standard connectors simply do not cut the mustard. Standard connectors have a nasty tendency to overheat and weld themselves together… Traxxas makes great connectors, but I somehow think their competitors may have an issue with adopting that standard. Which brings us to Deans; if you have soldered a Dean's connector and a Traxxas connector at the same time you may have noticed that the actual contacts are very similar. Therefore it would be exceedingly nice if the industry would adopt Deans connectors as the standard.

The same holds true for planes… Of course as weight is a huge concern perhaps the Mini Dean would be the better choice.

I am a network engineer by trade. The only way networks can work is if all of the different companies involved work together and adopt standards. Standard connectors, cables and other components ensure that it all works together. When you don't have the standards you end up with different systems that are incompatible and the whole thing gets messy very quickly…

Rants = off

Oh yeah; my name is Marc Everlove and this is my first post, I am a webmaster/network engineer/R/C enthusiast and I hope to contribute a lot to this forum.

See Ya Online!

Cpt.America

iTrader: (52)

Or you could of just made sure that your charger could balance your lipo balancer plug before you made your purchase. I actually made my OWN plug adapter for my balancer. I looked at a diagram of which wires went where for balancing, and made my own. How's that for engineering?

Welcome to the site, BTW.

JR007

THe problem is, everyone see's their type of connector as the superior one, or uses it as a point of difference. FOr a while now many have been using the Corally bullet type commectors, expecially for Lipo. I personally don't, as I KNOW i'll mix up polarity even if I colour code it, but some swear by them.
It would be nice if we didn't need all the periphery the sport demands, but I have taken the approach of backing a horse, and if it's leg doesn't break, I keep running it.
I still use NiMh for that very reason. LIpo is still in it's infancy, and technology is changing so fast that there will probably be 2nd or 3rd gen chargers coming out soon that acutally make charging Lipo's safe!

or8ital

iTrader: (38)

EFRA put rules in place for a standard connector. Unfortunately ROAR did not, probably wasn't thought about at the time. Kinda difficult to go back and change now unless you grandfather packs in.

stitchy

iTrader: (13)

Agree with you on the balancing connectors. As computers have gone to USB, ethernet plugs, etc., it would be nice if we could be so smart...

Not to create a Traxxas vs. Deans plug debate, but the Traxxas plug is very nice in the way that it is 1)easier to solder, 2) doesn't need shrink tubing and 3) is a lot easier to pull apart. That said, all of my stuff is Deans. Why? Because I started with them and it would be a pain to convert everything now. Plus, everyone else uses them so if I need to borrow a battery or a charger, I know I'm covered. Booo choices!

shinta

iTrader: (1)

hey i fill you one the hole not working thing. i main im working but im getting 1/3 less then what i was getting last year. i use r/c cars and a passed time or a back door as you can say to make life not a hard at times. but your right, its so hard to drop 400-600 on a car then haft to spend more for other items. as well. i main i like to build up cars so they hall butt but i all so have my a car that i race. even know money is tit im looking making a 4motor cyclone i got a rolling chassis i just haft to get the others parts then spend the money on esc's & motors and all that nice stuff when im dont im looking at a $800+ that will never see the race track over the to make ppl mad. its going to be a pain, but again i know how you fill on spending so much when you dont have much to spend in the first place.

Cpt.America

iTrader: (52)

Hey, lets keep it clean, this is a family oriented website! none of that "fill your hole" dirty talk in here!