Trips

iTrader: (16)

Okay, I wish I would have looked at Horizon's website carefully before I started soldering onto the TINY end of the little E-Flite battery... seems they have a connector with pigtail That plugs right on to the battery and eliminates the need for the close in soldering on that tiny connector. Just splice a servo pigtail to this connector, plug it to the battery, and the rest of the job is CAKE.

But when I can get hold of a booster, I'm still going to go that route, if for no other reason than I won't have to worry about forgetting to charge the extra cell between heats...

bs6ef

NiMo

you'll be very very slow with that setup to run GT1, i'm testing this weekend my /gt1 with 4cell 5.5t and 4.5t. You might even find it better suited for GT2 racing. Do you allow additive at aldershot?

Scottrik

iTrader: (261)

I don't have an RS (nor will I)--merely reporting what others were doing at this event. They were doing pretty much exactly what CeeDee proposed above (in fact CeeDee was one of 'em). As far as the LRP/Nosram all three drivers that ran them had the same problem--that it seemed the car was dumping at 2-3 minutes in. I took one of their batteries and discharged/charged it on one of my GFX's and it wasn't the battery. Was acting like a low volt cutoff was shunting power away from the motor but they ALL had the (from memory) first mode set to number 2 (nimh no cutoff) setting.

I WILL NOT run a "booster battery" or a receiver pack. To me (an certainly imho) adding another cell to maintain takes ALL convenience advantage of running lipo away and makes things a bigger pita than NiMH ever was. Won't do it. Period. Would give up 1/12 first.

Trips

iTrader: (16)

Okay, now I think I understand... I thought you were saying that the booster wouldn't work without the extra switch, but now I'm thinking you were saying that the Tekins wouldn't work without the booster... they'd go flat early in the run... Sorry for the confusion... no sleep last night.

I think what is happening there is that the RS sees the lower voltage of the 3.7 battery and mistakes it for a dumping 4 cell pack... then it limits power to the motor to keep the receiver working... at least that's my take on it.

NiMo

Yes we allow Additive, and I use it only on the rears
Aldershot only has GT1 and GT3, although if we get more GT10 spec cars then GT1 and GT2 can run separate from GT3.
(hopefully is happens as my 2nd Gen-X10 arrived today)

Tekin Prez

Hmmmm did we make you mad at some point, or you are just loyal to another color?

We can match the performance of any speedo with no booster or receiver pack. The unit is currently set for 4cell nimh where 4.0V would mean it was already dead. It is simple software changes to adjust it to the new voltages of a 1S lipo. However we do not think that is really the right answer. You will never get full power all the time on 1S without a booster or receiver battery unless it is a mild motor. With 17.5 it is close if you are using less than half the battery. As you push harder with lower turn motors there is drop off in throttle.

This throttle reduction is not because of a voltage cutoff, but is due to the low voltage limits of the circuit itself. Typically the receiver shuts off first if we let the voltage get too low. It is a hardware limit of the system and the choice is to let the receiver shut off or reduce throttle. Not a hard decision since rec blips put you into the wall… hard

Adding a booster or receiver pack keeps the receiver and our speedo brains fully powered regardless of the lipo voltage and allows us to give full power to the end of the battery.

In general we are not in favor of 1S lipo. However it is not up to us and it is here and working. We are just telling you what needs to be done to make it work the best. A booster is not really very large or expensive and is a reasonable trade off to get the advantages of 1S lipo.

Tekin Prez

Grenade10

iTrader: (40)

I was the lucky enough to TQ and win the "Demo" Race for the CORRC club this weekend.

First Danny - SMC - Thanks!!! for the great support ... along with the converstation that we had at Snowbirds for this race. As CDee and Scottrick said the power was very good. I was putting 1600ma to 2000ma back after each run. I did charge at 6amp, as I was using the same charger for another class as well, but changing back to 1 cell. Time was less than Scottrick, using a Pro-Trak that had been updated for Lipo.

ESC - Tekin RS, which I have in all cars and that takes a few as I run oval as well as onroad and not just one class. I did not use a swith with mine. I put a plug soldered to the deans plug form the ESC (so it would stay in the car) and then pluged the mentioned booster into it and then into the battery box.
I did not turn on the ESC and it worked without any issues for every run.

I was running the similar tires on my SpeedMerchant Rev5 for 1 cell, so I tried something for the mains. I had put my other car into the 1/12 stock main, but felt this car was faster, so I ran the same settings on the Tekin for 17.5 DUO with 4 cells and then 10.5 DUO for the one cell class (more boost was in for 17.5). Just had to turn on the receiver. My lap times were a little faster, but with the same basic run. Tires were black / yellow for 1 cell and black / Graylow for stock. I did adjust the pod drop for the weight difference, but every thing else was the same.

And just to prove me right on the chassis, I pulled 2 more laps with this car in A2 for 1/12 stock than I did for my best qualifier with the other chassis. So the Tekin and DUO stay, but need to probably swith chassis.

The comment from Scottrick on the diffence being "Stock is a Dump Truck" to the 1 cell as a "Sport Car" is just about dead on.

So count me in for this class!!!

Scottrik

iTrader: (261)

Not impressed with QC (thus far) on other Tekin products. Two of my four Battery Doctors have (apparently) poorly soldered LED's...can only get them to light if you wiggle them. One of my three Battery Nurses has a port that does not function. All of these flaws occured from new and represent a failure rate of .438 (measuring items I have purchased)...pretty darn good if you're calculating batting averages but an unacceptably high (by about 4-5 times) failure rate for electronics. Or maybe I'm expecting too much--you tell me. I ignored the Battery Doctors (still work, just no LED unless I wiggle) but the Nurse I tried to address and was basically told "so sad, too bad". I tried to be a loyal customer but feel I've been rebuffed.

Agreed. I experienced success with the inexpensive and acceptably small voltage booster from King Hobbies. At about $6 each landed when I purchased 5 of 'em they're dirt cheap...especially as compared to the price the orange guys are indicating for THEIR booster (I believe $30-ish is the number I've seen) As indicated, the King RC unit was truly a plug-n-play proposition with my GTB and reasonably easily incorporated with the Tekin using a fairly simple workaround. I'm sure your users will be even more delighted when the new updates allow plug-n-play with your esc's which sounds like it's in the offing.

I had (by feel and lap times) full power to the end of 8 minutes. I WILL try the single cell back-to-back with and without the booster to see if it was really needed. I understand the GTB WILL work without but that the servo gets sluggish--and as cheap and easy as the booster was I'd certainly not accept that as a reasonable trade-off.

PutAwayWet

iTrader: (1)

I feel like sticking up for the much-maligned rx pack. I've run lipo in my 12R5 since the fall, with a receiver pack, and have had absolutely no issues at all. I just ordered up a little 5 cell 160 mah pack from cheapbatterypacks, it cost something like $7, and I use a 6V wall trickle charger that has 150mah output (the cheap kind like you might use for a monster truck rx pack.) That cost all of $8. I've actually glued the rx pack in place. I just pump a few mah's into the rx pack while the sauce soaks in and the main pack charges. I figure I'll replace the rx pack and the lipo pack tape once per year, whether they need it or not.

I can't figure out the animus directed at this system. The pack itself actually helps balance the side opposite the ESC, it delivers the perfect six volts to the system, and it just works. No fuss, no drama, and no dumping feeling. With my electronics: LRP Sphere Comp, Spektrum DSM2 receiver, amb ptx, and 9650 servo, I get about 20 minutes of run time out of the receiver pack (I ran it down once, just to see.) The car just stops when the rx pack dies. I recharged it and that was that.

I even went so far as to clip the ESC power switch and use a JR micro switch for the on/off. Unnecessary, really, I'm just a neatfreak. Maybe there's some issue that will reveal itself over time, but honestly, it's the simplest thing.

Tekin Prez

That is certainly too high of a number. In our defense all the batt docs are fully tested before they ship. The leds are pretty exposed and can get banged. Sounds like cracked solder joints or components and easy to fix. If a nurse had a bad port we would fix it or replace it... and still will. I am not sure where you would get a so sad too bad from us unless you did not provide proof of purchase. They are moving slow with the lipo revolution and we still have plenty. Happy to make it right. We have seen very few problems with the Nurse overall. She is cute and burly…

It is not much of a work around to use a booster with the RS and is basically the same simple setup as any other. install the booster from the battery post to the receiver and leave our switch off.

The new software does not improve performance much without a booster. It just allows you to leave the switch on so the voltage cutoff works properly. We are really not trying to make it work better without a booster. We are so confident that the best way to be absolutely sure we have full power with 1S is with a booster or rec pack and that is where we are focused.

Grenade10

iTrader: (40)

Here is how I had my Tekin wired in the SpeedMerchant

Skiddins

Have any of these been shipped to the UK distributors recently?

Thanks
Skiddins

Danny/SMC

iTrader: (2)

No as CML hasn't ordered any plus we keep selling out when the packs come in as they have become real popular.

Danny/SMC

iTrader: (2)

We looked into making a single cell saddle pack but due to the size limits it will not be possible to make such a pack as the capacity would be to low. They would also be more expensive as to make small cells using the stacking method would be very time consuming. To keep the cost down the cells would have to be done using the winding method but this would increase the IR.

Trips

iTrader: (16)

Danny,

Haven't seen you posting in a while... I just wanted to let you know that all the debating I did with you early in this thread wouldn't have happened if I had actually driven the 3.7/13.5 setup before I started arguing...

I cannot believe how much I'm liking this... I wouldn't have believed it possible, but the proof of the pudding IS in the eating.

IT feels like i'm driving a mod car from the old 1700Nicad days... light, edgy quick, and FUN to drive.

Sorry I was so vocal in my opposition... should have just shut up and tried it first. I've been wrong before, but this time I was WAY wrong. Thanks for taking the leap and introducing the 3.7 pack... you were right all along.