Lipo Battery Question

[mikedealer]

im in the market finally for a speed controller and Lipo Battery to complete one of my cars.. i settled for a tekin fx-pro, and now am trying to find a lipo battery

i would like to have something more than 3000mah capacity, and would like to to fit in the "gold pan" "stock" battery setup/slot.

i found a bunch of sites that sell lipos, some dirt cheap, some outrageously expensive.

The FXPro Can take 2-3S lipo's, anyone have any suggestions as to a place for me to order?

[JK Racing]

i've been eyeballing the Orion Carbon lately...3200 mah, I think RC Mushroom sells 2 with an Orion charger for 239. Havent checked shipping to the US though...

[mikedealer]

i was looking at the orion ones but the prices seemed very high to me. i was hoping to spend something like $60-100 max on one. i guess if i want more power i gotta pay the piper.

[Eau Rouge]

i was looking at the orion ones but the prices seemed very high to me. i was hoping to spend something like $60-100 max on one. i guess if i want more power i gotta pay the piper.

I run Orion LiPos in all of my electric race cars. You can buy one Carbon 3200 pack for about $75, so that would appear to be right in your price range. Be prepared to buy a LiPo-specific charger, though, too. Using a non-LiPo charger is what causes the fire show that most people know of LiPos. The Duratrax Ice is a fantastic charger for the price, and will do NiMh, NiCd and LiPo. I use the big brother Checkpoint 1030 and I love it. I sold my Competition Electronics Turbo 35s for one Checkpoint (and a couple of new packs), and I wouldn't go back.

Also, if I may plead with you, DO NOT BUY CHEAP LIPO PACKS. Please don't skimp on buying quality packs, and you won't become one of the YouTube stories that everyone uses to protest LiPos at race tracks. Cheap packs use more volatile chemistry, are not safety tested to and are generally not accepted to be safe. The fires that you have seen of planes and helicopters burning like the Hindenburg are almost always cheep Chinese packs.

Buy a good quality hard-case pack like Orion, Trackpower or any of the newer hard case packs coming onto the market, and you absolutely will not regret it.

I have TWO Orion Platinum (4800) packs, and each pack never comes out of it's respective car. They can sit for months, and still be at the same voltage I left them, and not need to be trayed, discharged or "woken up."

I love maintenance-free batteries.




doug

[mikedealer]

alright good to know, im "new" to lipos so that info helps, i own a lipo charger already, just gotta buy a pack now
thanks

[Daddeo]

All good points by Eau Rouge!

Just to add to the mix, this site here: http://www.maxamps.com has some really good deals and their packs are very good. I have a couple of the 6000 mah and 8000 mah packs I run off road and never had a problem with them. The newer packs from them also have been certified to be charged at 2C.

Link to a battery in your price range: http://www.maxamps.com/proddetail.php?prod=Lipo-4000-74-Pack&cat=13 OR http://www.maxamps.com/proddetail.php?prod=Lipo-5000-74-Pack&cat=13

Both of those will fit the tub chassis.

[junkman]

I have been running the hecell, ones off the bay, 4000mah 11.1v in my stampede vxl, and brushless emaxx, and been very pleased. I don't have any runner rc10's at the moment. I have read that they are the cells that maxamps uses, but I don't know. The 4000mah 11.1 runs about $75. I think the most important thing is that the discharge rating meets or excedes what you are going to be doing with them. I also have to give a big thumbs up to the duratrax ice, it is a great charger for the money.

[Eau Rouge]

Be careful with voltage ratings. 3-cell Lipos are 11.1 volts and will blow up most modern ESCs not intended for high-voltage applications. You'll probably want to seek out 2-cell packs to rate 7.4v which is a normal 6-cell NiMh pack rating.

[aconsola]

When I was getting into(and quickly out of) RC helicopters last year I noticed that the air folks would go to great lengths to balance packs, some even hooked up individual chargers to each cell in large capacity packs to balance them.

What are the car guys doing about cell balancing on the lipos? does the ice/checkpoint do this?
Do the orion packs have a balancing tap?

[Brandon G]

Give Apogee cells a look as well. They use LiMn instead of Lipo, and it is a safer alternative.

We have started racing the Lipo cells at the track I run at, and so far I have learned the following:

Balance the packs at least once a race day. A $40 balancer is cheap insurance.

Always run some kind of failsafe set at 6.0 VDC.

Orion has great warranty coverage for their new cells. They say you don't need to balance the cells as long as you dont go below 6.0 VDC, but a pack was damaged even with a failsafe. The pack was replaced free of charge with 5 day turnaround. One cell read above 6.0, the other was below 6.0. The average of the two is what the failsafe sees, and it didn't save it.

Hyperion is coming out with a new charger that plugs into 120V outlet, has the capability to charge any type cell you may run into, and has the balancer built in. I think they will go for about $150.

Charge at 1C. Example: 4800 maH = 4.8 amps 3000maH = 3.0 amps No need to buy a charger capable of 7 amps unless you are running crazy big capacity cells.

Be ready to change car setup due to the drastic weight savings. That or tape lead to it....

[MOmo]

i've been eyeballing the Orion Carbon lately...3200 mah, I think RC Mushroom sells 2 with an Orion charger for 239. Havent checked shipping to the US though...

I was looking at the same deal, only i was thinking one Carbon, one Platnum.

I too like the looks of the Orion and I think thats what I'll get when i switch to LIPO for racing my B4 and eventually 4wd.

Anyone have issues w/ the Aluminum chassis? I wonder what the excessive "shock" might do?


MOmo

[Eau Rouge]

Be ready to change car setup due to the drastic weight savings. That or tape lead to it....

Not always, though. The weight of a brushless setup generally will balance out the gain of a good hard-cased LiPo pack. The lightest setup is a heatshrunk LiPo with a brushed motor and a small speedo. My EDM dirt oval car is .6 oz over the 52 oz. weight limits with an Orion Platinum and a Novak GTB setup.

What are the car guys doing about cell balancing on the lipos? does the ice/checkpoint do this?

Most Orion owners are not balancing the packs, as testing and history has shown that they don't need it. Even guys that are doing it, aren't doing it very often. 0Remember, these are not NiMh packs. Don't let people fool you into believing that they need the type of maintenance that you are used to with normal batteries. No, they don't balance from those chargers, either. Orion recommends this balancer for their packs, if you are dead-set on balancing them.

Do the orion packs have a balancing tap?

Yes, 3mm bullet plug input in the bottom of the case. But Orion techs will tell you that they don't feel a need to balance their cells very often, if at all. Kokam stands behind that statement, too.

Anyone have issues w/ the Aluminum chassis? I wonder what the excessive "shock" might do?

Should not be an issue at all, if the battery is securely fastened to the chassis. Shock doesn't do much to a good LiPo pack.

[Brandon G]

I highly advise balancing once a night while racing. These things are too expensive not to.

Only reason, I saw a $130 pack about 2 weeks old swell and crap out because of lack of balancing. Not an abused pack either. It was in the care of one of our most meticulous drivers. After he talked to Orion about it, they fessed up about balancing.

No, they definetely dont require as much maintenance as NiMH, but a simple balancer inline with the charger is too easy, and good insurance.