R/C Tech Forums - Battery Technology and Capacity

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Battery Technology and Capacity

When I decided to get back into the hobby after almost 20 years out (late 2019 - what a great time to get back into the hobby, I know :rolleyes:), I bought a couple of 2S packs for my touring car, which were new to the market as far as capacity was concerned (7K MAh)… Not long afterward, 7500 and 8K packs started appearing. Just the other day, I see that one company is starting to introduce 9 and 9.5K long packs.

Two of the great things I’ve seen since coming back are 2.4GHz technology (I came from the time of radio crystals) and of course battery technology - but wow! Almost 20% capacity increase in less than 2 years?! I’m amazed. In my previous RC life, I only saw battery capacity go from 1200 to 1700 MAh, which was quite a bit, but it just allowed us to gear up and go faster; running more than 4 minutes was still not a priority. It seemed that punch (low resistance) was the only priority back then.

Anyone see heats going up from the standard 5 minutes anytime soon for 1/10th classes? I know that some special events already sometimes go 7 to 10 minutes for mains.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurnNBurn (Post 15836646)

I don't race onroad so they may have a different approach. At our local indoor carpet offroad it is common for us to have 6 or 7 minute mains. Very few issues of batteries not making it. Even the 3500mah my son runs. I'm sure it starts to fade at the end, but that's not inhibiting where he ends up. Most run 4100-6100mah packs in 17.5.

I race one clay track that does 7 minutes. The other stay at 5 minutes. There both on and off road

A couple points to note:

If those new packs are LiHV and your current issue are LiPo they might not actually have more capacity. The rated capacity of a LiHV only applies when charging to LiHV voltages.
Battery ratings are often big fat lies. I've never had a pack reach the rated capacity. At best I get about 80% when measuring between full charge and full discharge. These new packs might be stretching the truth even more. And don't get me started on C ratings, I've got a 10000 mAh pack rated at 130C (1300A) and it struggles when I pull 150A.