Fasttrak

Derek,

Good to hear, I will keep my eyes out for the next issue and your article, I bet it will be good reading. I am curious what Hacker motor was used in the TC test, I have a definite love for Hacker motors. Hacker is by far the best of the three mfg I have tried (Astro Flite, Aveox and Hacker). They seem to eek more performance out of those motors then anyone else.

futureal

I might get my hands on some of these cells just to mess around with. They sound pretty interesting. Any idea if they are subject to the same problems as Novak had with their lithium ion packs for the Micro RS4? I admit I am not terribly familiar with the intricacies of the two technologies.

To those who are arguing against new battery technologies, this sounds just like the argument against brushless motors. I'm not afraid to admit that I like tuning motors and I hope brushed motors hang around for awhile, but the brushless motors are still plenty of fun and offer one more new opportunity for racing, which is what I got into this for. The new battery technologies fall into the same category.

Kyew

it would seem that lithium batteries are the future in rc cars, it is just a matter of time. however, i think one issue in using lithium cells is safety. currently they seem to me that they are more volatile compared to NiMh and NiCd when subject to shorts and crashes. can anyone shed more light on this?

Pirvan

I total agree with whatever DerekB has pointed out about Lipoly being the future of cells. The fact that they hold their voltage for almost the entire flight time for my e-heli is a very big plus, so charging an entire pack for all your heats and mains could soon be a thing of the future....now...coupled with B/L...and we prob have to find some entertainment during those breaks :P

On top of that, we have yet to find lipo batts developing a memory effect and you could charge the batts 3 weeks ago would only experience a 5% drop in capacity in the batt, can't tell about the voltage when flying the heli thou.

The reason why you need a specific charger for lipo is the fact that specific lipo chargers would constantly be reading the voltage of the batt pack and would slowly increase its charging amperage, it will then prob charge till 95% of the capacity of the cell, then charge at an extremely low ampere just to top it up without killing the cells.

Troy at BPP is a very good person to ask about specific applications, and probably has the best prices on some of the ETECH 1200mah cells.

Fasttrak

I gleaned most of the information I gathered in puting my packs together from this NG, been a while since I read or posted there so I would suggest parusing it and see what you come up with.

http://www.rcgroups.com

look in the E-Flight section, tons of info there.

=MisFitz= NuKe

Hi, I have been away from the computer lately and just saw this thread, anyways, a very good friend of mine, who used to be very involved in racing bought these for his minature electric helicopter, and they are very sweet. They are fexible, you can mash them, they look like C4 packed into an aluminum foil container, they are very very light. There was a company that did a test on them, and hooked them up to a standard 380 motor, started the motor, and took a magnum and shot a hole right into the center of the battery.....IT KEPT GOING, this new technology for this type of cell, is amazing, if anyone would like me to ask him where he bought them and how much he payed for them, let me know

Pirvan

Here's a little info i could gather up during the researching for my decisions to get lipo cells for my E-Heli. Hope someone can correct me if i am wrong (and info could be outdated for all i know)

Voltages for packs depend on how you configure your packs. Eg, my eflight pack is configured in the 2s4p configuration(2 series of 4 parallel) with etec 1200 cells. Each cells has a niminal voltage of 3.6volts. This would give me a 7.2v 4800mah pack. You can almost certainly configure them to any voltage or mah number you need for different application. Charge rate would depend on the MAH (for lack of better word) that the pack is rated at. Eg, 4800mah could be charged at 1C i.e 4.8amp. At the moment, Charlie from Thunderpacks have developed cells that are of higher capacity and can handle higher discharge rates, so i guess that would be the direction of lipo packs should r/c cars go there.

Enough of my rumbling, i dun know if i can post links to other forums here, but drop me a PM and i will gladly point you in the right direction to find heaps of information in regards to lipo being used in R/C applications.

Hope this helps.
Jeff

speedxl

for magazine purposes i go buy the name speedxl listen guys change and adaption is a norm of life. i remember when astroids was a wounder now its an antique at the video arcade, guys i work as an automotive technician and have worked on cars since i was a kid when carburators where the latest and greatest thing , when fuel injection came out all the old techs and the narrow minded idiots took offense and said it was the end of the auto industry once you gatherd information on how the system worked it became the most simple part of the car to fix via computors now pulling the seat is hard . guys things change for the better and once you find the way to tune and tweak the batteries there will be something else to bitch about. and i know what it is, everybody will be bitchin in line tring to practice while a snauty kid on the drivers stand has been upthere for 20 minutes and only 5 minutes of practice lift , guys will always find something to bitch about, adapt and move on. i am sure it'll be good for the sport.

Besercoe

iTrader: (9)

I too loved reading the Extreme articles, and eventually put in my subscription, but have never received a copy, i sent emails to ask why, tried to get the credit card reversed, but the Bank were not helpful there.

Derek B who could i get an answer from to get my subscription going?

Besercoe

iTrader: (9)

I Love the idea of these new batteries, and i am already currently running a hacker brushless system in my touring car, it is equivalent in speed and accelaration to a good 8 turn. I dont miss having to cut comms every race day, and i use the extra time an money im saving by running a second class every week.

Point me in the right direction and my credit card is ready and waiting

DerekB

You should be able to call our subscription number 800.406.4288. Or you can email Mike ([email protected]) with your charge on your bank account and we'll reverse it for you. It should be an easy thing to get in your mailbox.

futureal

Yes folks, the lithium poly battery revolution started right here, on R/C Tech!

DerekB

Hey

Oh that's right I'm just filling pages with crap.

Accord

Well, it actually started in RCX magazine. We're just discussing it here .

futureal

We have an advantage over printed matter, though: we can see the revolution in action.

RCX magazine? Don't you mean XRC? haha

OK I need to stop browsing this site and get back to work before they decide to block this on our firewall...