Cheap Lipos from Hong Kong - False Economy?
 

Hi,

My son, Max, and I went racing 1/10 electric offroad at Hinckley on Saturday - 1st time racing; Other than our lack of driving ability!, our only major problem was with batteries - between us we have 5 nimhs (2 x 2200, 1 x 3600, 1 x 4600, 1 x 5100) and 1 battery charger.... It was really confusing timing which to use, which to charge etc. Decided we want to go Lipo - we are equipped for it, both running Exceed 70A speedos and 10.5 motors, charger can charge Lipos also.

Problem is I am on a very tight budget; Been looking at Lipos from Hong Kong on Ebay Example:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2x-2800mAh-30C...item27adc75c25

To equip ourselves with 4 batteries would come in at under £50 - Is this a false economy? Bearing in mind our driving abilities, is 30C too powerfull? Any advice on buying from the East or recommendations please.

Cheers,

Jez

you'd only need 1 set of cells each, as they can be charged between rounds easily. If you want to do regionals then you'll need brca approved cells, but if not then the only restrictions are what the club imposes.
Personally I'd get 1 lipo per vehicle and 1 charger per vehicle. The simple solution is usually the best!

30c will be nice and fast with decent capacity (4000ish), but you can usually tame them on the speedo settings or on the transmitter.

Usually nothing wrong with cells from HK. Alot are the same as over here, but sold under a difeent name.

I'd try and get more capacity than the one's you've listed. A 4000ish pack will do 2 5min races easily with your 10.5 motors, easing the charging burden even more.

that ad doesnt say anything about being hard cased, and they dont look hard cased either, so i'd stay WELL away from those. 1st for H&S and 2nd because i'd expect the majority of clubs to tell you can use them.

Never had a problem with any of the Demon batteries. Quick delivery, no chance of getting stung with import charges and hard cased! http://demonpowerproducts.co.uk/prod...oducts_id=4259

lipos
 

just be carefull mate check the dimensions of the battery before you buy my mate bought the ones youve mentioned and they are very small in size i think they are meant for a plane or something

i would go for a turnigy lipo from hobbyking, they are fairly cheap and a good quality infact almost all the 1/10th racers at my club have moved onto them.

i got a 5000mah 20c 2s delivered to my door for £20 as for hard case i dont bother and the rest of the club to my knowlage dont bother as long as your carefull they are safe enough if your that worried about it then make a hard case.

People sell pairs of lipo's on here all the time, If there a decent price snap them up, I only race at a local club and only have 1 trakpower 4900. My charger allows a fast charge, So I fast charge at the track, Then discharge and balance charge when I get home. Job done, til next week. hope this helps

why are you discharging them just ballance charge when you race you are making morre work for your self.

if you go racing at a club under the BRCA rules all lipos MUST be of a HARD case construction if the club allows NON HARD CASE lipos they could be jeapodising there insurance with the BRCA just bear that in mind

Thanx everybody for your advise; I will be ordering a couple of these tomorrow night:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/7-4V-4200mAh-3...item27afa827f5

Fits most of the criteria - only down side 2-3week delivery - but cheap.

This place is going to be a little easier to deal with than eBay, and I can personally guarantee the quality:

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_index.asp

Great place, just go ahead and buy direct from China. 2 of the 3 plants worldwide that make LiPo batteries are located in Korea, just north of China.

One of those plants sells direct to hobbyking (Zippy LiPoly).


I have 3 of these, all work flawlessly:
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...25C_Car_Lipoly

There's a Warehouse in Germany for the HobbyKing place, you should definitely save tons on shipping then. There are TONS of batts on that site, it'll take hours to look through all of them. Just do a search for hard case in the search box, that'll give you all the packs your looking for.



I am not affiliated with hobbyking, just a faithful customer. I like that you can buy the same products that major RC companies resell at the same price the major companies buy for.
Jon

If you just going lipo, I would buy some second hand tracpower gold, from in the uk, you will be fine with them. or a few new ones 10.5 T 3200 mah will be ok.

Had a Turnigy 'hardcase' 5200/30c lipo delivered to my door for £22, took 8 days. getting rave reviews on the US forums....no brainer really.

Is that from Hobbyking? If so they've been showing no stock for days now.... Certainly a good deal, but we can't wait now.

i just got a 5000 20c from hobbyking,got an email from them to say they were out of stock and did i still want to purchace them well for that price and in no rush i orderd, 8 days after order they arrived and only £20 :thumbsup:

I've got 6 packs of these Turnigys from HobbyKing:
http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store..._Car_Lipo_Pack

They're great, but you do have to watch the size of them for fitting in your car and the wires are very thick. Maybe the lower C versions are more suitable, think they're thinner and have smaller gauge wire.

The thing with HobbyKing is they seem to wait until there's a large back order (i.e. stock = -200 ) before stocking up, dunno whether it's so they can bulk purchase cheaper or something, but it means it can be a week or so before the ones you want are in stock. Also they go out of stock very quick cos everyone likes a bargin:lol:

If you're after a cheap BRCA legal pack dead fast I'd get this though:
http://www.jespares.com/electric-mod...roduct_id=7594

Are these RC Lab cells OK?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2x-RC-Lab-hard...item3a675887c9

They're hard cased so can I race them at club level?

They not only need to be hard cased, but thy also NEED to be on the BRCA homologation list. This and also charging them in a LiPo sack is an absolute must.

Thanks for your reply.

So is RC Lab a bit iffy?

I take it all "Intellect" hard case Lipos are on the list.

Do you have the link for the 2011 list?