MrUnlimited

The reason why they reduced the number of cells is they wanted to reduce the speed because the capicity of nimh cells has increased over the last years. The organizations had to make a decision: longer heats or slower speeds. With the coming of new cells motorbuilder are coming with faster fewer turns motors which increases speed. With 5 cells in Europe the speed decreased a little, with 7.4V lipo's the speed increases again which makes our car, for the majority for us and especially newcomers, uncontroleble which will result that a lot of people will our hobby quickly because they lost the funfact of the hobby

Jan Larsen

iTrader: (2)

Actually, it's not that bad. A 5 cell pack peaks a around 7,8-7,9 volts when freshly charged. A lipo peaks at 8,4. Not that big a difference.

PizzaDude

How about average voltage and power?!
That's where the big difference is.

ta_man

iTrader: (168)

Why do people keep thinking peak volts is relevant? I've got a 6-cell spec pack that peaks at 11 volts. Is that supposed to make it better or more powerful?

SlowerOne

Yeah, I've got one of those too, but I'm a bit mystified...

It has funny little black labels on it that say RC1700, and NiCad. But since I read that peak voltage is relevant, I'm going to use it at the next meeting and blow the doors off everyone else!! Will that work?

I'm tired of this always turning into a LiPo NiMh argument, and I am sick of people telling me LiPo is the future when only two of our five electric classes can run LiPo. It is an alternative to NiMh, but it cannot replace any class using four or five cells - so stop telling me it's the future!!!

Can someone say what is different/better about the latest batch of IBs?

Danny/SMC

iTrader: (2)

What is different with the newer IB cells is that they hopefully will be more reliable and less prone to selfshorting which is the biggest issue with IB cells. Based from what we have seen this past weekend at Cleveland these changes seem very promising. We hope that racers will be able to benefit from the high performance of the IB cells and get a pack that will be more reliable.

MattW

The problem i have is that i keep hearing that "the latest batch of IB's have improved reliabliity". It just doesn't seem to happen though.

We can live in hope though i guess - if it matters to us in Europe anyway.

Jack Rimer

IB 4200's TQ'd 4 classes and won 4 classes (out of eight) at Cleveland. IB 4200's won the most "capacity dependent" class at the race- 1/12 mod. By the way, there were no issues of venting or exploding cells reported from the newest batch we sent to the race.

Jack Rimer

Tell me about it! We have been hearing this for months. Finally, we gathered all the cells we had in house and from distributors (over 14k pieces) and shipped them back to IB and said "call us when you have a decent product". We have refused to stock these cells until they actually ARE IMPROVED. Based on the latest batch (production run, not "sample" run that is picked through) we have reason to be encouraged. The newest cells are, from what we can tell, a completely new chemistry, with the emphasis on reliability. Time will tell if they are as good as they seem, but for now, our testing has yielded positive results.

Rick Hohwart

Danny and Jack are right. It seems that the problems experienced lately with IB cells have been fixed.

Jack Rimer

This is a day that will live in infamy....We are actually in agreement with Rick!

Bigger Brother

Jack : Is there any way of telling which these latest cells are (eg date code, new style shrink or anything?)..... basically any way to guarentee the cells we are buying are in fact this latest latest version?

Thanks
Oli

Danny/SMC

iTrader: (2)

We will put a sticker on the outside of our matching boxes to indicate these are the improved cells.

old-man

iTrader: (11)

The way I interpret all the discussions/posts and observance about IB's reliability issue boils down to posotive identification of the older chemistry cells and the newer improved chemistry cells of the 4200's.

Correct me if I am wrong. To date there isn't any positive method to identify old/new type cells. IB only announced that these and that batch has improved chemistry etc, but how are we going to identify them? As a result whenever a cell fail either shorting out or blowing up, a blanket assumtion that there isnt any improvements as promised regarless of the cell being new chemistry or old. For all we know all the cell that failed recently are the old chemistry ones.

If IB is serious about improving thier cells they not only should improve thier product exponetially but also announce how the cells can be identified to prevent "blanket" assumptions and support thier promise.

OM

Danny/SMC

iTrader: (2)

I really don't see how they can identify this as the change is done inside the cells can.

I know SMC will put a sticker on the outside of our matching box but I really can't tell for what others will do.