I am more than happy to lend Callum cells for the Juniors, after all you do enough for me!

I understand your point though mate .... it does need clarification as to if the cells for the EOY finals and Juniors need to be to national spec .... I'd not considered that!

I'm with Doughty, if one of mine is going up I'd rather replace the car than my eye or fingers!!

I know this is slightly off topic, but am interested in some people being able to get through these meetings on 2 sets of cells. Am I missing something, I am happy to use multiple times in one day, but by the time I have marshalled, then discharged the remaining 1500mah out of the battery, then equalised it, then waited an hour and a quater for it to charge (which I have to do before putting the next battery on to discharge), I need at least 3 to always have a charged set available. Am I just equalising too often, or do other people use 2 chargers/discharegrs/equalisers each?

I just recharge mine during race meetings. I equalise once every few weeks, but thats mainly because im lazy :D

I have been told to just let them cool and then recharge from part charged state. Only Equilising every couple of weeks as I have been told that it can put excessive strain on the cells and is worse for them in the long run if done too often.

Helps I am only charging at less than 1C and still have 2000+ left at the end of the run as cool down time is less many.

this ruling has just been poorly handled. I will reiterate the fact that my cells, that I bought in Sept last year, were homologated for the list in 2007 an are now not legal. When the rule change was done, it should of been implemented at that time and given a grace period for the over size cells to filter out. Now there will be a rush for the new cells, and call me a cynic, but I can't see any of the big firms offering 'budget' cells until after the initial rush.

I still reckon we will have the same issue with the new cells to, and out of that list there will be one top performer too.

And Dom has made a valid point, the Juniors, F2's and F3/4/5's are classed as a national event, so the cell listing will be in place, the only one that misses out this year is the Indoor Finals. So, if my kids wanted and were good enough to attend the Juniors, we would need new cells.

Anyone else heard this too?? I have been equalising after each run, and discharging after each run too, am I better only doing this infrequently?

i do similar to southwell, i will reuse a pack i used in pratice and just recharge with what was left in them after the practice ,
have been since sept 06 and the packs are all still going (smc IB 4200)
will have to get new ones now though but only because i wont be able to use them at nationals .

i usually discharge/equalise after each meeting, having used the cells at least twice that day topping up between races. cells are fine after 6 months

If you need cells #LOOK#
 

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Orion 'SHO' 4200MAH

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All deals and prices will be on the web site soon!!!

We can have your Ener-G cells pre built for you in any config.

Ref equalising (all personal opinion);

My current cells go out of balance over 1 week through self discharge, this is notable after discharging to 6.0V and then equalising on a Smart Tray. So each WEEK my cells get equalised on the day before charge. However if they were to be used again on the same day they surely can't go out of balance that quick so I would just top up.

So if I was using packs more than once a day they would come back from race (marshal) and get put in front of a small fan I have which though won't cool the cores quickly is bound to help. Then if topping up they're never likely to need more than 40-45mins charge. So between 2 rounds at nationals there is like 3 hours so you could do it on 2 packs, 3 easily.

Personally I have seperate discharger, equaliser and charger. It does make things Much easier.

Hi All

I new if I did enough rummaging i'd find this sort of post..
Cells under 3.7ah don't come under homologation at all anymore - you can use those at all events.
(See BRCA > Electric Board > Homologation > Batteries, rule 2.6)
Oddly I have a few packs of GP37's lying around somewhere - might have to dust them down.. :D

Does this mean you can use anything including 37's and below?

Yes.

Rule from EB
 

2.6 In addition to batteries included on the homologation list, sports/starter level packs of cells that do not have OEM heatshrink, will be allowed at BRCA sanctioned events. These packs must have the original suppliers label intact, stating that they are NiCd or NiMH and the pack capacity. Maximum capacity is 3700mah. These batteries will be allowed at sanctioned events from 1st. Jan. 2008.

You can run any cell from 3.7AH down at ANY sanctioned events, Nationals, regionals etc etc etc

now that opens up a lot more possibilities....

Thats a relief :D:woot: this should bring a fair few racers out from the underworld :lol:

Read the rules...
 

Hi All

Quite surprised that this has caught some of you out, there has been plenty of discussion about this around.

I think everybody is aware of the problems 'growing' 4.2's have had on everybody concerned, the decision at the end of 2006 was well documented then and has been kicked to death on various forums since..

So yes if you bought new cells at the very end of the 2007 season that was probably a bit of a mistake..
But
Suggest you put a 'for sale' note in the 1/12 community as their Euro's (end of their season) in the spring is too 2007 cell lists and they'll be struggling to find any that arn't dead by then..

Dunno about you lot but I didn't get any cells to last more than 6 months from the last lot anyway..

Hopefully the new spec the manufacturers have had to do will rectify that too.

Thanks Jim Spencer, and welcome to the forum, our 3300's & 3700's live for at least another season. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I've got a few 3.3's and a few 3.7's that ive had for atleast 2 years! and they are still going strong one of them still perfect with plenty of punch and capacity :) Thanks for the cell update jim, will save alot of people a fair amount of dosh:thumbsup:

my original IB42's (from the original batch at the start of the 4200mAh range) lasted me till then and was showing signs of failure. And was happy to buy more, as I have said before, those cells that were on the list carried over each year. I guess now we will see a 'silly season' for cell buying.

Anyone want 5 packs of hardly used 6 cell IB42's lol

Now that is the news I wanted to hear:D

Just a thought, but do you guys that are complaining alot actualy read the rules before complaining???
As it has just been said by Jim that 3700's are ok to use, now I didn't know this, I don't read the rules, but i try not to complain, well too much, lol.
So this should help out a fair few of ya!!!!!!! If you have 3700's that is, and if you do have 3700's and complained....well..... shame on you!!!:lol:

2.6 In addition to batteries included on the homologation list, sports/starter level packs of cells that do not have OEM heatshrink, will be allowed at BRCA sanctioned events. These packs must have the original suppliers label intact, stating that they are NiCd or NiMH and the pack capacity. Maximum capacity is 3700mah. These batteries will be allowed at sanctioned events from 1st. Jan. 2008.


So are taking it that the above means black and white that GP3700's are legal ?


As the way i read it yesterday our cells do have the OEM heatshrink so are not legal. And i would class the original suppliers label being some one like Losi / Fastrac etc not the oem ie GP.


It would be nice if PW would confirm if GP3700 are legal to be use at Nationals or not :thumbsup:

David, some of us do read the rules, but they are not always clear lol.

jim are you sure this doesnt mean the like's of stick packs etc as it states sports/starter level packs. i doubt matched gp3700's would be deemed sports pack's?

Nope, to my understanding the full stop in the middle of the rule differentiates it to mean..
You can have branded cells (joe bloggs racing etc etc) up to 3.7's and OEM marked ones too..
Perhaps not the clearest wording in the world though - will ask for it to be edited.

Though please bear in mind this has only come out today we're bound to find the odd typo..

Lets just have it done with and use duracells :P

True Johnathon, got me there, but I would just say cut the plastic heatshrink off????

up to 3700s are ok .... DAMN!!!!

I was hoping the cell rules would mean less people would apply for nationals so I'd have a better chance of getting in!!!!! :)

sorry to sound thick:woot:but never heared the term (oem heat shrink)is this the heatshrink on an individual cell,or the heatshrink which covers the whole pack,which is on preasembled stick packs:confused:would just like to know as im considering sanyo's 3600 competion spec loose cells:woot:reason being,i think the high capacity's 4200 etc... are part of the problem with cell failures.to much for the cells to acomodate:confused:

this is the macufacturer heatshrink already on the cells i believe:confused: correct me if im wrong

OEM = original equipment manufacturer

Do you think running these cells without the heatshrink helps them run cooler? Is this why they say without heatshrink????
But all is making much more sense now, haha:)

why wait till 2010? TC have em now!
good on you ash


ask Chris Doughty, Neil Cragg, Tom Cockerill. Chris long all ran em at worksop and made the A, Neil won too and added no weight to the car!!

See above in bold

that's jim's interpretation of the rule. not the actual wording! i don't think it means that, i would say gp3700's etc matched are not legal just sports/clubman packs ie stick packs however i would wait for confirmation from the BRCA

OMG I just had to get a pack back out of the fire, they made good firecrackers!

LOL

Removed as I was wrong (put it in your diarries).

not if his interpretation is wrong!

But how can it be wrong, if he wrote the rules? Surely he isn't just the typist, so he likely thought about them too.

I thought Paul Worsley was the BRCA Electric Board Homologation Officer, i would guess he wrote the rules but i could be wrong :)