Originally Posted by
Duster_360
Think part of the confusion is over voltage - 4s lipo 'nominal' voltage is 14.8v, but charged, 4S is 16.8v (4.2v/cell is max voltage) and the esc rating is based on the charged voltage, not the 'nominal' voltage.
NiMh may be 1.2v nominal, but a decent cell fresh off charger is closer to 1.5v. But NiMh voltage falls so fast that an esc can get away with running something thats apparently higher voltage than what is allowed for lipo. Lipo voltage stays higher much longer than NiMh and thats part of the rating diff.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But do you think that running 2 6-cell NiCds in series would be totally ok? They cold add up to as much as 18V together, which is obviously above the 15V rating. Then again, maybe I could run them individually down to 7.5V apiece, then hook 'em up and run them in series... I really don't want to blow anything.