Upgrade to lipos
 

At the risk of asking a stupid question..

I have an old Schumacher CAT 2000 EC that's been on the shelf for over 10 years. I've read quite a bit about new Lipo batteries and I was wondering if I could use them.

The car currently has an LRP ICS speed controller and a Reedy Modified Ultra Sonic S brushed Motor (12 double I think) - see picture.

The only cells I have for it are really old (10+ years) Sanyo N-SCRC 1.2v 1700mAh NiCads - arranged as a 7.2v saddle pack to fit the chassis. The charger I have is a Schumacher PC3 peak charger, again quite old. I haven't even tried charging them up to be honest as I've stripped the car to bits and I'm going to restore it.

I know I would have to buy a Lipo compatible charger and I may have to modify my chassis to make them fit, but would >these< batteries be suitable with my motor and speed controller or would I have to upgrade to a brushless motor and different ESC to go with the new Lipo batteries? :confused:

Cheers,
Andy

That esc isn't lipo friendly, but you can buy an external safety cut-off. The rest is fine, I think its cool to run old school electronics!

Thanks. For now, I might just buy some balanced cells and make up some NiMH saddle packs to get back up and running.

If I did upgrade to Lipo's and changed the ESC, would I be able to upgrade later to a brushless motor?

You can buy Brushless ESC's that will also run brushed motors.
Go straight for a sensored ESC and motor as funds allow, so much better than unsensored.

have a look on the vapex site for your cells at a good price, if you are serious enough to want matched cells then buy lipo's. have a look on giantcod for the gens ace packs, they are good if you can catch them in stock, you really dont need to spend a fortune on them. they also have chargers and brushless kit at good prices. i just run the ezrun sensorles speedo's, they work well, 60A one is fine in 2wd but i suspect you will need more in 4wd. also fusion exceed combo's are good value. you are far better off now going brushless/lipo, packs cost less, you need less of them, not as fragile as modern nimh either, just balance charge every time and dont over discharge them. using lipo i found the comms on brushed motors seem to wear very quickly in comparison so a comm lathe and regular rebuilds are forced on you! another little thing, same car, same motor 3700 nimh 8 mins, 3600 lipo 9 mins to voltage cut off, brushless motor versus brushed, 2wd buggy using under 2ah in a 5 minute race at much higher speeds with brushless, over 3ah with an 11 double (in a b4)

Cheers for the info :)

As Buggy#0 said a lipo cutoff is recommended, this will cut the power off if the voltage in the lipo falls to low, a lipo charger will not charge batteries that it deems to be overdischarged and damaged. Alternatively you can limit how long you run the car for, if you run 5mins (race) then recharge you will soon learn what your batteries will stand, later you can upgrade to a brushless esc & motor combo - its fit & forget compared to brushed. You can pick good batteries up in the sale section, charger need not cost too much, you may only need one set of batteries, they can just be topped up all day. There are a few don't with lipos, don't overdischarge, don't store connected.....