rc tx battery options

[kloner]

recently screwed up and left my rechargeable nimh in a phantom i flew and started looking at options..... there really far and few between. Can't stand nimh and nicd for the whole having to discharge them to recharge,,,, they generally made me nervous cause they'd dip and come back that .1-.2v as they were going away and they were always almost discharged by the end of the day so they were obviously too small. Well was cruising around ebay and came across some flashlight Li Ion's that are 3.7v, 6000mah and they appeared to fit so hit "BUY"... had to do a couple different form factors to fit 8j and 8fg, but hell yea they fit and there a lot like a lipo as in at the end of the day just charge em, no discharging needed. the literature said 1000 cycles.... little heat shrink & scrap servo wire and away we go. was gonna get a lipo that fit it but they were a lot smaller and don't do well in heat like a radio endures... sitting in the sun, sitting in cars, etc.

 

[Gary Seven]

recently screwed up and left my rechargeable nimh in a phantom i flew and started looking at options..... there really far and few between. Can't stand nimh and nicd for the whole having to discharge them to recharge,,,, they generally made me nervous cause they'd dip and come back that .1-.2v as they were going away and they were always almost discharged by the end of the day so they were obviously too small. Well was cruising around ebay and came across some flashlight Li Ion's that are 3.7v, 6000mah and they appeared to fit so hit "BUY"... had to do a couple different form factors to fit 8j and 8fg, but hell yea they fit and there a lot like a lipo as in at the end of the day just charge em, no discharging needed. the literature said 1000 cycles.... little heat shrink & scrap servo wire and away we go. was gonna get a lipo that fit it but they were a lot smaller and don't do well in heat like a radio endures... sitting in the sun, sitting in cars, etc.

Hey Kloner. Interesting. Would you state the dimensions of this battery? What did you do, hook two (or three) up in series? What connector do you use to connect to charger? Thanks for the post.

 

[fltundra]

Lithium-Iron-Phosphate
http://www.lifesourcebatteries.com/reasons.html

 

[Gary Seven]

Lithium-Iron-Phosphate
http://www.lifesourcebatteries.com/reasons.html

I find this interesting as well. I know some people on this and other forums are using LiFePo4 batteries in their Taranis Tx (most seem to buy from HK). I don't understand how to do this because the connector plug built in to the Taranis appears to be an JST balance type. I have looked high and low for a conversion lead that would plug into this connector and give me something more "compatible" on the discharge/charger side. :-(

 

[kloner]

My jr radio i left after single rotors was a life pack,, it worked alright but the capacity was still 2200 or something in that range.

the cells are 2.5" long

I took and used old servo leads i had snipped off esc's before redoing the servo ends on builds.... i just cut the little black connector down to 2 place instead of the standard 3 place.... scissors, do it before you install it.... i just aim for the middle of the one o want to cut off, get the main piece out of the way then trim it down to size after that... it lets you set up scissors to do a clean final cut....I'm not sure on taranis, you might have to get some of those plugs to do much

on my 8j it had a 4 place AA battery tray, i used the format above and it slid right in, with my 8fg i had to make it one cell footprint with them stacked on each other to make a longer narrower pack....

6000 mah is days of power

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/291148480283?lpid=82

 

[gtranquilla]

Looks like a great idea. How do you ensure 100% reliable lead contacts to the battery terminals? i.e.,
1) wires soldered to battery terminals
2) wires or tabs spot welded to battery terminals
3) spring contacts inside heat shrink.

recently screwed up and left my rechargeable nimh in a phantom i flew and started looking at options..... there really far and few between. Can't stand nimh and nicd for the whole having to discharge them to recharge,,,, they generally made me nervous cause they'd dip and come back that .1-.2v as they were going away and they were always almost discharged by the end of the day so they were obviously too small. Well was cruising around ebay and came across some flashlight Li Ion's that are 3.7v, 6000mah and they appeared to fit so hit "BUY"... had to do a couple different form factors to fit 8j and 8fg, but hell yea they fit and there a lot like a lipo as in at the end of the day just charge em, no discharging needed. the literature said 1000 cycles.... little heat shrink & scrap servo wire and away we go. was gonna get a lipo that fit it but they were a lot smaller and don't do well in heat like a radio endures... sitting in the sun, sitting in cars, etc.

 

[kloner]

all the wires are soldered directly to the battery ends.... the crossover is just a piece of servo wire from + to -

 

[Quinton]

recently screwed up and left my rechargeable nimh in a phantom i flew and started looking at options..... there really far and few between. Can't stand nimh and nicd for the whole having to discharge them to recharge,,,, they generally made me nervous cause they'd dip and come back that .1-.2v as they were going away and they were always almost discharged by the end of the day so they were obviously too small. Well was cruising around ebay and came across some flashlight Li Ion's that are 3.7v, 6000mah and they appeared to fit so hit "BUY"... had to do a couple different form factors to fit 8j and 8fg, but hell yea they fit and there a lot like a lipo as in at the end of the day just charge em, no discharging needed. the literature said 1000 cycles.... little heat shrink & scrap servo wire and away we go. was gonna get a lipo that fit it but they were a lot smaller and don't do well in heat like a radio endures... sitting in the sun, sitting in cars, etc.

6000 mAh would keep you going for quite a while!
The Futaba ones are only 1800.