A123 Battery Technology

[schmleff]

For those of you that have not seen these, they look promising.

Li Ion energy with very high power (100C pulse discharge)
5 minute re-charge with high energy
Inherently safe and green chemistry
Extremely long life at low and high rates
Widest temperature range (-30C to 70C)
Mechanically robust laser welded design
Lowest impedance growth and excellent calendar life

http://www.a123systems.com/html/home.html

[TimG13096]

So has anyone bought a developer kit and tried them? If they can be charged on a standard LiPo charger I would think about giving it a go.

Tim

[tjmitchem]

So far, there are a few issues with them for heli use:

- 70g per cell (a little heavy)
- Only 2200MAH
- They need to be charged to 3.6V rather than 4.2V.
- Their nominal voltage is lower than LiPo or the eMoli cells

On the other hand:

- 15 minute charge!
- 50C burst discharge (supposedly)

Steve Neu has done some testing on them, as well as a few other people. Results should be on RCG soon.

Terry

[schmleff]

The guys that are testing them on RC universe bought Dewalt 36 volt batteries and harvested the cells. I wish I could be an early adopter, but i is too stoopid abut batarys rite now.

I will let others burn of their birds first :glasses2:

[BoneDoc]

These aren't nearly as good as the emolis (Milwaukee V28's) in terms of holding their voltage at high amp draws.