So I'm looking at going over to LiPo's pretty soon and I know nothing about them. I was hoping that everyone could post as much info on them as possible and maybe turn this thread into a very helpful sticky later on.

Here is what I'm looking to do:

#1: I need a LiPo for racing my TC3 in the touring class. What LiPo would be good for that.

#2: I would like to run 2 of them in my brushless Emaxx, what would work well in that application?

#3: What sort of equipment will I need in order to charge and maintain LiPo packs?

I know that when it comes to battery packs, you get what you pay for. So what are some of the best packs out there?

Thanks in advance!

1. Can't help here....
2. Need to know what BL setup you're running, some limit voltage more than others.
3. You need a lipo capable charger and a lipo balancer, prefereably a charger with a already balancer builtin. Charger selection is impacted by how big your lipos will be and how many cells.

Quality lipo - anything made with Enerland or Kokam lipo cells, some include PolyQuest, Flightpower, Trakpower, Orion, NeuEnergy, Hyperion. I am also a believer in you get what you pay for with batts - I have some NeuEnergy and getting ready to buy a pr of PolyQuest. They're expensive, but they deliver! Check out -

http://www.rclipos.com/

This lipo section will give you a little background, was posted by another, but worth a read -

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm

I see a lot of the Orion packs at the track so I assumed they were decent packs. For my Emaxx I'm running the Novak HV brushless which does not have a LiPo cut off, so will I still be able to run LiPo with it?

I was looking at the Team Checkpoint 2C 4900mah LiPo's on Tower Hobbies. Are these decent packs?

hello sorry dont mean to hijack the thread but i have a MuchMore 2500mah 11.1v transmitter pack for my EX-10 KO but the battier i got only has the one plug with 2 wires coming out of it. It doesnt have the balancing cable. I have a lipo charger with built in balancer. Everytime i plug the battier in it shows error no battier plugged in. anyone can help thx just need to know how to charge this battier when it only has a 2pin plug with no balancing cable on it. Thx

Nevermind the stupid plug wasnt going in all the way so i had to change out the plug.

So I went down to the LHS to see what they had. I ended up bringing home a Common Sense RC charger with built in balancer and two Duratrax 3700 2C 25C LiPo packs. The lady at the LHS, who's advice I trust, told me that the Duratrax packs are decent packs. However we forgot about the charging leads so I have to wait till Tuesday to do anything with these packs. I talked to someone else and he told me I need to make sure that the maximum burst discharge is high enough for my Emaxx. However I don't know how to find this out. I looked on the Duratrax website but didn't see it. How can I find this out?

A long, but partial list of lipos and their specs. You can add your own to the list.

http://xb36.rcgearing.com

http://progressiverc.com/Research.html

Wow that's a great page! Very nice to have all that info in one place. I didn't see any Duratrax batteries on it though. I may just have to email them to find out.

The burst rating is absent everywhere I've looked - Tower's tech description, and DTs product page. I wonder why its not shown on the batt label, where everyone else puts theirs??

Which Novak HV are you running? That will determine if these batts are enough. Your batts are rated for 92.5amps continuous. Looking at the rated watts from 4.5 to 7.5, it looks like your batts should not have probs, but you need overhead for spikes, I think thats what that guy was saying.

Your other issue is a low voltage cutoff. Running without one can easily lead to damaging your new lipos. You can time your first run and say after 6 or 8 minutes go charge the lipos and see how much they took then you have a rough mah/min to work with. The figure how much time 80% of 3700mah would take to run out. Then back off a few minutes to provide a safety margin. 80% discharge is hwats recommended for best lipo life.

Or use some kind of wired into your system low voltage cutoff. Looks like a smart stop should be compatible.

I'm running the first gen Novak HV, I don't know what turn motor it came with. I will be picking up two cut-offs when I go pick up my charge leads on Tuesday. There is no way I want to chance ruining these things, lol. I sent an email to Duratrax so hopefully they will be able to tell me. Thanks for the help. Also can you charge LiPo's more than once per day? I used to run and charge my NiMh packs at least 3 times a day, will I be able to do the same with LiPo's?

Lipos are not for number of charges per day - the only factor to avoid is heat, make sure temp stays below 140F at all times. You will not overheat one in charging if charge by the 1C guideline. Your batt label is very plain about your max charge rate, 3.7amps.

What you worry about in sizing batts for a setup is the setup pulling enough amps to tax the batts capability to produce amps. If your HV setup pulls 95-99% of the batts capacity it will cause the lipo to get hot and you'll not get good life from it under those circumstances. You generally get a bigger capacity batt to overcome this or if size is a prob, you buy a higher C rated batt. These are std size "car" type so you could do either if you have to.

Ideally what you'd like is that after a run, the lipos are warm, but not hot. If there is any question about the batts ability to run your setup, get that answered now so you could go back to the lhs and trade up. I would also email Novak to see if they could give you an idea or what turn this is and what you need batt wise.

Ya I'm trying to get this all sorted out now that way I don't ruin anything. I'll look around for my HV box and see if it says what turn motor it is. How many amps my setup draws is going to be a big factor. My truck weighs about 12 pounds so I know it will take quite a bit of juice. Either way I will still be able to run these LiPo's in my T3 and TC3 if they aren't good enough my my Emaxx.

Cool, forgot you wanted lipos for your tc3 and t3. What you've bought will def work in either.

Pesonally, I'd be more comfortable running 25C with 5000mah capacity (125amps) for an Emaxx that heavy. You're right, thats going to take some current.

Does the capacity directly effect the amount of amps that can be drawn?

Yes - directly.

Your 3700mah 25C continuous will put out 3700/1000 x 25 = 92.5amps.

a 5400mah 25C lipo will do 5400/1000 x 25 = 135amps.

Its the C rating and capacity that determine amp output (both continuous and burst).