new nimh !!!!!!

[Charlie don't surf]

ive tried more than a few times to kill junk 2nd hand packs and cant do it. shoot um with bb's, stab them. .

What, no cats left around your parents house to torture? Why in the hell would you purposly stab a volatile battery?

[SRTracer121]

...why not


apparently there some stupid laws that say you cant shoot cats. damn govt. getting involved with our lives as usual. first they tell us what we can and cant shoot and next they'll tell us what we can eat or tell us we need to buy health coverage.......................

[longboardnj]

all you'll get is a bunch of smoke

1 this is something im worried about my apartment is very small if im asleep and something like this happens i will just be inhaling all that bad smoke..
2 i leave my bats in my truck for about a full day .i dont feel safe doing this with lipo.
3 i like to have at least 8 bats i dont feel safe having 8 lipos in my house or truck .
4 id have to buy more stuff like a charger for lipo and lipo cut offs for all old escs ..
5 youtube lipo battery fire then nimh battery fire i know alot of them are extreme but the point is it can happen
[youtube]lf735aeHsv4[/youtube]

[SRTracer121]

my packs are sittin in my room (yes, my dads house ) not but 2 feet away from me, in front of my door, on a bar stool/charging stand, leaning against drywall. i have not a single moment of reservation about them being there or handling them in general.

ive had nimh cells pop on me too. it scares the bejesus out of me each time (how could it not).

tom at spc explains it best and ill paraphrase it for you.

"do you keep gasoline in your garage? well that is just as dangerous as keeping your lipo there too."


as far as costs involved. at the risk of nightmarish flashbacks, think about all the crap you had to lug around and buy to get the best out of your race packs? your charger/p.s./discharge rack, and that was an average club racer. if you wanted to keep your packs matched you had to get a cell matcher, a CBA, and if you were real serious you got a zapper. now days you can be just as well off with a 45 dollar all-in-one charger and some 20 dollar zippy batteries.

[EvolutionRevolution]

all you'll get is a bunch of smoke

1 this is something im worried about my apartment is very small if im asleep and something like this happens i will just be inhaling all that bad smoke..

Buy a smoke detector. A cheap one should cost no more than 15-20 bucks, and if it detects anything weird it will beep very loudly. Mine doesn't like certain paint fumes

2 i leave my bats in my truck for about a full day .i dont feel safe doing this with lipo.

I've got a lipo hardcase that has been sitting in a car since a few months. No accidental fires until now.

[Lonestar]

Lipos dont kill people... People do.

[Coelacanth]

I was slow to switch over to LiPo too, so I can understand the hesitation. And guys, it's not quite accurate to simply suggest "buy a few LiPos at $20 a crack". No, it ain't that simple.

-You need to also buy a charger capable of balancing LiPo batteries;

-You need to possibly buy an ESC (or multiple ESC's if you have several cars) that is LiPo-compatible (i.e. have the voltage cut-off function) or purchase an extra part that does the same thing for non-compatible ESC's;

-A LiPo charging diaper might be a good idea too, to protect from oopsies as indicated above;

-You may need to re-solder updated connectors on your cars, if you were running Tamiya-style connectors.

I'm glad I eventually made the move to LiPo, but it *isn't* a simple, cheap matter of just buying cheap LiPo batteries. Just my 2¢ having gone through that process already.

[SRTracer121]

connectors? yes, but any old deans plug will work. dont need some super duper ec5.514 blah blah blah.i use traxxas plugs strictly out of preference.

esc update? nope. i run them in my old brushed escs, everything from my novak atom and cyclone, to my duster2 and tekin g11, msc's too once in a blue moon. dont even run a cut-off on them (not recommended though) and all you need is a $5 voltage alarm and some velcro to jump from car to car easily.

most chargers these days come equipped to balance, charge, discharge, as well as cycle them too in some cases, plus most are ac/dc anymore. and if you are in a boat like i am where your charger does not discharge or balance (onyx 230), your car works as a great discharger but you can always throw together a 30a dc bulb rack (i still have my 2 racks).

as long as you let the pack cool down between uses you can charge and discharge them as much as you want in a day. i bring 3 packs with me to the track and 2 normally covers me for most of it. in total i have 6 "standard" size 2s packs
3 hardcase spc 5200 40c 2s2p packs
2 softcase spc 5000 20c 2s1p packs
plus a no-name stickpack shaped hardcase 3300 15c pack.

i also have 2 28c 9000mAh smc softcase packs for my e-truggy.

those 8 packs cover all my cars and will pretty much handle anything i put them in

[Coelacanth]

connectors? yes, but any old deans plug will work. dont need some super duper ec5.514 blah blah blah.i use traxxas plugs strictly out of preference.

esc update? nope. i run them in my old brushed escs, everything from my novak atom and cyclone, to my duster2 and tekin g11, msc's too once in a blue moon. dont even run a cut-off on them (not recommended though) and all you need is a $5 voltage alarm and some velcro to jump from car to car easily.

most chargers these days come equipped to balance, charge, discharge, as well as cycle them too in some cases, plus most are ac/dc anymore. and if you are in a boat like i am where your charger does not discharge or balance (onyx 230), your car works as a great discharger but you can always throw together a 30a dc bulb rack (i still have my 2 racks).

You need to pay attention to what longboardnj posted a few posts earlier. You're assuming his car(s) already have decent connectors, that he has a LiPo-compatible charger already, and that he wishes to run his car(s) with non-LiPo-compatible ESC's, what he seems to have currently installed. None of those assumptions are correct, from what I understand from longboard's previous post.

To clarify: Would it be a good idea to switch to LiPo batteries? CERTAINLY. Is it simply a matter of buying a bunch of $20 LiPo batteries? Nope. I know, because I've been there, done that--recently. And when I asked that very question a year or so ago, I got the same kind of "buy some cheap LiPo batteries" answer, which wasn't entirely true.

[Charlie don't surf]

[quote=]"CoelacanthYou need to pay attention to what longboardnj posted a few posts earlier..[/quote]


Like where he said that he has no interest in liPo's? So all this chatter means what to him?

[Lonestar]

Connectors dont kill people, people do

[Coelacanth]

Hey, I'm with you guys, I'm trying to convince him that LiPo technology is worthwhile as well, but it's not just a matter of buying batteries.

In response to his first post, I have a Duratrax DTXC4600 NiMH battery which is pretty good, but the problem with NiMHs is they slowly lose their full capacity over time, though they have the advantage over NiCads of not needing to be fully discharged before recharging, as that screws with the NiCad internal memory. Furthermore, NiMHs will lose their charge if not maintained or charge-cycled. A fully-charged NiMH will eventually discharge itself if just left sitting around.

[SRTracer121]

clearly you aint reading what im saying either but i guess thats outta my hands.

[LTO_Dave]

I bought a cheap Dahaan (I think was the brand) 4500 nimh pack from ebay a few years ago for my crawler. It's black with a red label. It worked great and would usually last a few hours with my 35T. It would slowly lose charge if left sitting, so I would just charge it the day I used it.

And I know you don't plan to switch to LiPo's anytime soon, but at least consider the transition. I was the same way and said it would be a long time before I switched. But after all my friends switched and the prices of everything became reasonable, I made the switch and will never look back.

[klavy69]

Lipos dont kill people... People do.

Connectors dont kill people, people do

I'm thinkin Paul has a point here

Yep, gotta agree though. Some people don't want to the hassle of changing over battery systems. If they want to spend more money for less thats their business. There are tons of positives out there for lipos but the thats not what he's after so no need for squabbling about it.

I'm sorry but I have no cheap Nimh battery information to add here.

Todd