OverclockedLST

Hello RCtech community! My name is Jared and I'm a new member of this site. I'm from Ohio and I've had a life long passion for all things Radio Control. I decided to attend and finish college and open a business, so naturally due to finances and being short on time, my beloved R/C's had to take a back seat to the rest of my life for some time, but I'm back now and don't ever want to leave the hobby again. I'm back in full force building a Losi E-XXL, a truck I've been trying to finish for three years. My question is that I plan to run an external BEC to take the load off my ESC and get better steering response. I've been looking into Lipo cells for a while, and even though I'm a very responsible person, the potential fire hazards really put me off. I know Lipos should never be left in a vehicle, so I'm wondering why people use them as Rx packs. I'm leaning now more towards a LiFe pack for safety. Are they actually safer than Lipos? I'll take a performance deduction to know my beloved truck wont melt to pieces. I'm currently going to run the stock XXL-2 servos but I may upgrade in the future. Will a LiFe pack be sufficient? Also, is a NiMh still the safest?Sorry for the long post, I look forward to contributing to this community as much as I can. Thanks!

Johnnysplits

iTrader: (1)

Lipo's are safe. As long as you don't puncture, smash on the ground, over-charge, over-discharge, over-load, or store them in high ambient temps, no risk of fire at all. I store 9 lipo's in my house, inside fireproof bags. One thing though...a crap charger can and will make a lipo unsafe. Get a quality charger and you will have no worries. You can use a Life battery if you wish, you'll just be down a little voltage. Nimh is like breaking out a record player...old school junk.

OverclockedLST

Thanks for the reply. Everything you mentioned is pretty much what I thought, but another opinion helps when you've been out of the hobby for a couple years. The research I've done suggests that LiPos are safer than when they first arrived on scene, but I may stick with a LiFe pack for the Rx. Still makes me feel a bit easier. The lower voltage shouldn't be a big deal, especially since I traditionally ran 6 volts back in the day, 6.6 volts should at least be on par.

Yosh70

iTrader: (17)

Why do you need a receiver pack at all?

OverclockedLST

Just from reading on forums, using a BEC takes a load off your speed control and allows it run cooler, making it more reliable. People have also stated in video builds that they highly recommend using an Rx pack. I understand its not necessary, but it seems to be the thing people are doing.

Yosh70

iTrader: (17)

I know about external BEC's, I have one in my buggy.
What it actually does is it eliminates the internal BEC in your ESC and provides a higher and more stable voltage
that a HV or power-hungry servo needs to operate properly. I run my BEC at 7.4V as my servo is a HV unit.

Some newer ESC's allow you to select what voltage you want to output in their software programming so really no external BEC is needed.
Castle and Tekin are ones that come to mind and altho the ESC I have in my buggy is a Castle MMM, it is a Gen 1 ESC, no BEC voltage changes are offered in the software.

This is how I have mine set up....no receiver pack necessary.

OverclockedLST

I see how yours is setup. Very useful to know. Thank you!

ThePanda

iTrader: (68)

That is one of the proper ways to wire it. Just make sure that if you do it this way you have a receiver that is capable of high voltage currents, as some aren't. Or just limit the voltage coming out of the bec to what the receiver is capable of.