8400 Zippy Lipo's

[Bartman]

Has anyone tried these batteries?

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...mAh_4S2P_30C_LiFePo4_Pack_USA_Warehouse_.html

THey don't pack quite as much mah/g as the nano tech's but they're available from the US warehouse and the big mah rating is attractive

Anyone?

 

[seattle_helo]

Bart, did you notice those are not LiPo's? They are A123 or LiFe with a different, lower nominal voltage.

 

[Bartman]

good catch! i overlooked that little detail in my search for the other, slightly less important, "In Stock" feature.....

Hobypartz customer service said Gens Ace packs will be back in stock in 2 to 3 weeks and Hobbyking isn't saying when the Nano-techs will be back. I ordered 4 nano-tech packs from the HK warehouse, we'll see how long they take to arrive.

Bart

 

[PaNt]

Go for 4s 8000 zippy.. Great lipos..

 

[Bartman]

looking at the 5800 mah Zippy's you get 5800 mah at a weight of 629 g for a mah/g rating of 9.22

the 6000 mah turnigy nano-tech's weigh in at 723 for a mah/g rating of 8.3 mah/g

the 8000 Zippy's weigh in at 1014g so their mah/g number is 7.89 mah/g

the wires and plug should become a smaller percentage of total weight as the mah gets higher so mah/g should creep upwards as mah gets larger. why such a large discrepancy though between the 5800 and 8000 mah Zippy packs?

 

[Simon Templar]

I ordered 4 nano-tech packs from the HK warehouse, we'll see how long they take to arrive.

Don't hold your breath, Bart. I ordered three from the HK a bit more than two weeks ago.


Still waiting.




...sT

 

[graham_newton]

Very interesting point, the power to weight should increase for the bigger packs... Wonder if anyone has some more in depth knowlegde?

 

[Bartman]

Here's a closer comparison,

Turnigy Nano-Tech 6000mah (4S, 25-50C) weighs in at 723g, or 8.3 mah/g

Zippy 5800mah (4S, 30C) weighs 629g, or 9.22 mah/g

How can that be? Does anyone have a Zippy 5800 that they can weigh? 100g is a big difference especially if you're running four packs. both product listings claim the weight includes wires, plug, and case.

 

[DennyR]

Here's a closer comparison,

Turnigy Nano-Tech 6000mah (4S, 25-50C) weighs in at 723g, or 8.3 mah/g

Zippy 5800mah (4S, 30C) weighs 629g, or 9.22 mah/g

How can that be? Does anyone have a Zippy 5800 that they can weigh? 100g is a big difference especially if you're running four packs. both product listings claim the weight includes wires, plug, and case.

Bart, I use Zippy 5800mah 30C, just weighed one and its (580 grams.) with 3" cable and T70 connector. I found the performance little better than my usual 5000 mah Zippy's 20C. (518 grams.) One of my best batteries is an old lightmax Zippy 5000/20C that weighs 498grams.

 

[Mactadpole]

I just weighed two Zippy 4s 5800mah 30C's and two Turnigy Nano-Tech 4s 6000mah 25-50C's, all with ~3" leads and Deans connectors.

Zippy #1 = 579 g
Zippy #2 = 575 g
Turnigy #1 = 612 g
Turnigy #2 = 601 g (a bit puffy)

2 out of 4 of my Turnigy's have now become puffy enough that I am a bit worried to use them. I have never abused them (excessively run below acceptable voltage or more than 80% taken out) and always balance charge them. I fly all these batteries in parallel, even the puffy turnigy's still charge fine and get about the same flight time so not sure what to think. I haven't been able to fly much lately (defending dissertation in July) so haven't been thinking about it much.

Shawn

 

[Bartman]

Shawn,

I read an article online somewhere recently that said the puffing is the production of hydrogen within the cells (it might have been methane, either way it's a combustible gas) and that they continue to function normally with the gas in there. Whether or not you're comfortable with it is a personal decision. I've got two TP 5000 mah packs that I may take out of retirement nor that I have a better understanding of what the puffing is all about. I took away from the article that the puffing doesn't necessarily change the battery's chemistry and it's ability to produce electricity.

Thanks for the info on the batteries. Same to you Denny. I'm going to buy a few Zippy's and see how it goes. The added bonus is that they're in stock at the US warehouse (don't tell anyone )

Bart

 

[Bartman]

I just weighed two Zippy 4s 5800mah 30C's and two Turnigy Nano-Tech 4s 6000mah 25-50C's, all with ~3" leads and Deans connectors.

Zippy #1 = 579 g
Zippy #2 = 575 g
Turnigy #1 = 612 g
Turnigy #2 = 601 g (a bit puffy)

2 out of 4 of my Turnigy's have now become puffy enough that I am a bit worried to use them. I have never abused them (excessively run below acceptable voltage or more than 80% taken out) and always balance charge them. I fly all these batteries in parallel, even the puffy turnigy's still charge fine and get about the same flight time so not sure what to think. I haven't been able to fly much lately (defending dissertation in July) so haven't been thinking about it much.

Shawn

it's surprising that they both come in under their advertised weight.

 

[Bartman]

Zippy update

Bought six of the 5800 mah 4S 30C packs and the C rating appears to be grossly overstated. They're rated at 30C but I'd guess they performed yesterday more like a 15C compared to my other packs. Flying yesterday in 90 degree F heat and 90%+ humidity I figured I'd have reduced flying times but the Zippy packs were causing the FC to brown-out halfway into the flights. WIth the MK system when amps begin to run low you get uncommanded yawing and it appears the flight control is flying-while-intoxicated. My old Turnigy 20C packs, GensAce 25C packs, and Turnigy Nano 25-50C packs all hung in there but the Zippy's were causing problems with 40% charge remaining. Out of 6 packs (3 sets for flying), all caused the same problems. If I landed and gave the packs a chance to recover for a minute I could keep flying but the problems would come back in another minute or so.

Has anyone else had this same experience?

Thanks,
Bart

 

[KopterX]

Zippy are weird, some of them performs very well, some have really ****ty performance. Top of weirdness was when one of the Zippys puffed while was stored in perfect conditions, at storage voltage and low temperature. Another Zippy which puffed during a normal flight, recovered after a few weeks in storage, performs really well and has the lowest internal resistance of our entire LIPO fleet: 1.2.1.1.1

 

[RTRyder]

Zippy update

Bought six of the 5800 mah 4S 30C packs and the C rating appears to be grossly overstated. They're rated at 30C but I'd guess they performed yesterday more like a 15C compared to my other packs. Flying yesterday in 90 degree F heat and 90%+ humidity I figured I'd have reduced flying times but the Zippy packs were causing the FC to brown-out halfway into the flights. WIth the MK system when amps begin to run low you get uncommanded yawing and it appears the flight control is flying-while-intoxicated. My old Turnigy 20C packs, GensAce 25C packs, and Turnigy Nano 25-50C packs all hung in there but the Zippy's were causing problems with 40% charge remaining. Out of 6 packs (3 sets for flying), all caused the same problems. If I landed and gave the packs a chance to recover for a minute I could keep flying but the problems would come back in another minute or so.

Has anyone else had this same experience?

Thanks,
Bart

I have noticed the Zippys perform poorly as the temperature increases. I have 4 of the 4S 8000 packs that I've been using on the CS6 and more recently on my QAV500 FPV quad. In the hot and humid air yesterday the Naza went into low voltage landing mode at just a tick over 10 minutes which meant it was seeing voltage under 14 volts as I have it setup in the software. When I came back in the house and put the pack on the charger to read the discharge it said it was 41% charged which doesn't match up with what the Naza is set to for voltage monitoring. In flight the LED was blinking second stage discharge warning but on landing it wasn't blinking at all so the only conclusion I can come to is that the pack just could not deliver enough power even though it was only 60% discharged. I've calibrated the voltage monitoring on this controller and with other packs it's fairly close to the actual state of charge/discharge, not so with the Zippys.


The packs weren't all that expensive given the size and rating but the performance is now below what I would expect from them given their age and usage. In cooler temps I was getting 10 minute flight times on the heavier Cinestar hex and still had plenty of performance left by then, never saw it go into second stage voltage warning. Now that the ambient temp outside is a good 30 to 40 degrees warmer the performance of the batteries has dropped off significantly and they don't have an extreme amount of cycles on them nor have they been abused to a degree that would justify the decrease.

Ken

 

[Bartman]

same here Ken, mine are brand new with probably 8 to 10 cycles each.

my 18+ months Turnigy 20C packs took the heat in stride and flew almost to their normal limit. They were hot but they hung in there and didn't puff.

I guess my Zippy experiment is over. I also didn't particulary love the 8AWG wires but figured I could live with that. Judging from the performance of the packs, 10 or 12AWG would have been more than enough!