Lipo Batteries (yes or no)

[codieskid]

Just been reading about Lipo batteries here: http://www.teamorion.com/Products/Batteries/Lipo

Has anyone ever used any of these, if so are they any good and what are the advantages/disadvantges. They sound pretty good but will they fit in a zx-5 and what modifications would need to be made to get them to fit?

so are they lipo, go go or a lipo, no no? (sorry that was terrible)

Cheers

Trev

[Rob Fitzgerald]

This weekend I am going to be racing my Losi 2WD XXXCR with a Mamba Max brushless system in it powered by a TrakPower 4900 mah LiPo

I just tried it out in the street - VERY VERY silly and more than a little addictive.

The plan is to use just the one LiPo pack and just keep topping it up for each race. That's how I see LiPo could be a great thing for RC racing. Just to make it worse this is a Heads Up meeting (sort of Reedy style) so I will have to do 2runs on one charge at some point - 6 races in total !

Can you imagine a harder real world race test than that ?

[codieskid]

Keep us posted on how you get on, be interested to see how it copes.

[Rob Fitzgerald]

The test is almost unfair - but if it survives this it will survive anything.

Imagine if it works out though - no motor maintenance and just topping up the same battery all day.

Thats a lot of free time to watch the racing, eating chips and talking crap with your mates

Sounds good to me

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Rob Fitzgerald

Thats a lot of free time to watch the racing, eating chips and talking crap with your mates

Sounds good to me

all good except the crap talking bit

[jimmy]

Should fit alright, you might have to shave a couple of "nodules" ( I like that word) off the battery bar though on the zx5.

The orion pack is just a nicely packaged pair of 3.6v cells. You can get the actual cells naked which is what I have driven before. They are a lot lighter than a normal battery pack (the orion pack is heavier of course) seemed ok to me from a performance standpoint.

[jimmy]

Rob, do they need a cool down period ? or in fact do they get hot ? Just wondering is they are supposed to be 1 run a day packs or if they can really be abused - which would be great.

[Rob Fitzgerald]

They are quite happy for to try and break them - that's more or less why I have it - race it and hard.

I just tore it up and down the street for a few minutes (wheelies were good fun) and the motor was warmish bot no noticeable heat in the cells.

I will take it down the field later if I get time and see how it copes with the draggy grass.

No mention of a cool down period - I told their tech guys what I had planned and they said fine, go for it.

Obviously no one yet knows if I will be able to do 2 runs on one pack but the match races are 4 minutes so I am guessing I can.

This pack is rated for a 10 amp charge rate - yes TEN.

For arguments sake it will take 30 minutes to charge up to 80 ish % and then another 20 ish to top up - BUT - the voltage out is the same at 80% charge as a 100% charge so you don't need it 'peaked' as such.

[Chrislong]

Wow, impressed with the info so far Rob, sounds like the way forward. Although safety will be the deciding factor I am sure.

*Bang*

[DCM]

is it the gold ones Rob, as I understand, the harder you charge/use them, it realy drops the useable cycles on the cell. All great charging at 10A but it kills the cells.

Jim, I do beleive they do get warm, and need a little rest before charge, as like any cell, it is a chemical reactio producing the stored energy.

LiPo, if it is in a case, that surrounds and contains the cell and the undervoltage protector, plus maybe the balancer to, then great, if they are the ones the Heli guys use, then no. I think people misunderstan that a lot of LiPo cells are not rated for our power useage.

Rob, hope you are ballasting up the car though, as I STILL haven't seen a race test with a back to back, cell and LiPo but with the LiPo the same weight as the NiMH setup.