Craps

A tip for some of you considering li-po batteries!

We have found with brand new 8000 mah li-pos they are real punchy the first couple of 15 minute runs and require a break in period of around 3 15 minute runs for the battery to smooth out over the entire runtime of the battery that will feel almost the same throughout the entire run. The first 2 or 3 15 minute runs the battery will feel punchy at first part of the battery with the feel of dropping off quickly. This will smooth out after this break in period!

I highly recommend balancing the cells often even though I did not do it for 3 years at all. We still have some li-pos around that are over 2 years old still racing! Balancing them will make them last longer and stay in top condition longer.

Li-pos are great, just charge them up and store them away till needed and they are ready to go! No Discharging!

havy

Craps,

Good to see that your here and posting. For those who don't know, Craps is one of the pioneers experimenting and successfully using lipo batts w/ brushless motors in off road mainly 1/8th scale buggies (right?). He was out there racing his buggy w/ the nitro guys way before people had considered 20 min mains and electric. Alot of his experimenting as well as other knowledgeable people on the subject have injected the masses on the new era of electric racing by reporting in dedicated Brushless forums.

Craps, you may not know me, but I have been following you stuff as well as Glassdoctor and others recommendations since close to day one. Kudos...

I just thought it was worth mentioning that you haven't gotten into this yesterday and its good to see that you have posted your thoughts on the subject here too. Where most only know of the mainstream bl scene.

Best of luck to you in the masters class.

havy

Craps

Thank You!

Actually the 1/8th scale was short term project that I have not owned in about 3 years now. The Pro Truck Class has always been my baby and I love the class with the long runtimes. Without this class, I would have quit the hobby during my first year in it almost 4 years ago! I wanted long runtimes....I didn't want to tune nitro, I didn't want to cut comms, I didn't want to mess with brushes.....I wanted to tune my chassis/tire setup and get lots and lots and lots of track time!!!!!

The track time/runtime is the one biggest issue in our hobby and now electric can offer it without a pit man or a mess or tuning headaches!!!

havy

Cheers bro

And thanks for sharing your experiences...

havy

squarehead

iTrader: (75)

The masses who want longer races? You mean nitro guys.


Thanks, but no thanks. Electric guys, for the most part, do NOT want enduro races to be the norm. Maybe a few random events here and there, but more than a 10 minute main is NOT something electric guys want globally.

Wild Cherry

TOTALLY AGREE.....

Maybe a minute or two , but please, longer than that it becomes class in it self ...

Just put it to vote , racer`s will vote for extra qualifiers over longer main`s everytime...

Craps

I wanted longer races and alot more track time and I am not a nitro guy. I race nitro because it is huge around here and crammed down your throat to race it, but I perfer Electric and don't like the nickel battery game and diffinately don't like the brushed motor cutting com changing brushes crap. I want to race and practice with as much track time as I can get and not working on a brushed motor nor cycling batteries all the time....thanks, but no thanks.....FACE IT Electric is dyeing and something has to be done!!! ROAR has made a good move in that direction.

I have spent the last 3 1/2 years watching guys buy a RTR electric and get tired of it because the brushed motor crapped out and they got tired of dragging chargers and nickel batteries around to only get 5 to 8 minutes of track time at time and then have to go wait for things to cool off and the next battery pack if it is ready to go hit the track for 5 to 8 more minutes. This is very frustrating and they get rid of the electric to go to Nitro to only get frustrated with the tuning, mess and starter box shuffles to just get more track time that by this time they give up and quit the hobby!!!! Some even get the nitro fiqured out and stay because they do like the run times with the ole fuel bottle for the quick pit stop every 6 to 10 minutes.

There is alot of RC racers I believe would come back in the hobby or maybe quit nitro to just have the ease and cleaniness of electric and still have that huge amount of hassle free track time!!!!!

Li-pos and brushless are for longer races and I am sure there will always be a 5 minute race for those that want it so don't bash those of us that do want longer races!!!!

havy

he he,

No the masses that want to run trouble free BL and lipo combinations.

I've been running my BL lipo combo with the rest of the crew here in PR for the last couple years. And been hanging w the 7t mods on our road courses w/o having to worry about the stuff Craps mentioned. Thanks to the feedback on the performance of these combos (motor selection/gearing choice and knowing what mAh batteries to use w/ the combo) I have run lipos trouble free since approx 2-3 yrs also. Unfortunately, electric has died over here, I recently bought a new T2 007 in the hopes of reviving, but either way I just rather run my electric over Nitro for the cleanliness factor.

So the long mains has been a plus effect of the new technology, and eventually you will have to keep consistent for longer than your used to... but I guess thats what people fear??? Over here we run Nitro 40 min mains and it's all about consistency... not the fastest spinter. hands tire, your mind goes off, S@#t happens.... but if your consistent enough, you get the podium. So yeah that is a plus too.

But the truth is the new BL technology is being hand fed, tested and bullet proofed. On the other hand... people like Craps and others have spent time and money perfecting it to work for them, Not some major manufacturer who says this and if it's not this then you get your money back. And thanks to them sharing their info, there are lots of people enjoying (the masses) trouble free BL combos that aren't the mainstream.

Go to your hobby shop and keep buying off the shelf because it's ROAR approved... shiesh... this isn't for you.

havy

Craps

I can only speak for the off road side of this and don't know the on-road/oval side!!!

You don't want to put that to a vote here in the Carolinas with off road racers! If you asked the off road racers if they wanted 3 qualifiers and a 10 minute main or 2 qualifiers and a 20 minute main, the 2 Qs and 20 minute main will win by huge margin everytime.

I am sure a vote in this forum with hardcore electric racers that are used to and have a biased towards only 5 minute races you will get the vote the other way, but 20 minute races is not meant to appeal to the hardcore electric guys as much as it is to get new people into, racers that had quit back and some of the nitro racers that perfer electric back into ELECTRIC racing!!!!

This off road class with 20 minute mains will grow and be huge given a chance!!!!

On road/Oval racing maybe needed to be looked at differently and that I don't know anything about!

tarheelquality

What charger are most people using for Lipo? I am thinking of selling my GFX and buying a 3200 or 4800 lipo and a charger.I want something light weight with reasonable price that will do both lipo and NIMH.

havy

I can tell you that the Duratrax Ice has been a good reliable Lipo chrger for me. I use it in combination w/ the LCB-5C balancer (this is for hyperion, Polquest type balancer connectors) for my Maxamps batteries. The ICE should be fine for all other Lipo batts as well, just make sure you get the correct balancer for the cells if you use batteries other than Orion/Peak. These batteries you can charge each cell individually to assure a balanced pack w/o out the need for a Balacer thanks to the third tap on the bottom of the case if they still make then that way.

Havy

Craps

Just got a Thunder Power T1010C charger that I use with the TP balancer, but I have been using the Astro Flight 109s with good results for 3 years and I own a ICE that I charge my nickel batteries with because it is too slow on the li-pos.

tarheelquality

Craps,
Where did you find the T1010c? or the Astro flights for that matter?

Ralf 13

Did you all see that ROAR has added a brushless/Lipo class to the Off-Road Nationals this year? Also Arcor is starting a LIPO brushless class to Oval racing in November. Things are moving along with the new technology. Novak is developing a new brushless motor that will mate up with the Orion Carbon 3400 battery to give stock motor like speeds. HOOORAY As far as the longer heats and Maing, why do you have to run longer heats AND mains? Just run the 4-5 minute heats and then run longer mains? Maybe up only the A-main to 10-15 minutes and keep the heats short. My .02 Ralf

MrJames

iTrader: (2)

then they should allow built-in fans to be legal too.