Unlimited flight time, just about A123

[Cryofix]

Got my first test flights off today with my new A123 4S pack, CC35 Medusa Bec, 430L, 11 tooth pinion, got 12 minutes of hover time with alot of pitch pumps still very strong at 9 and 10 minutes.

The power was perfect nice snappy climb rate, no bog on pumps at all but Governor is enabled, I will disable this soon, and re adjust my throttle curves.

Who this is for? well about 3/4 of us here at the freak, these batteries pack a solid punch up to 5 minutes in for hard 3d and then slightly taper off from there, however if you are a sport flyer, beginner, FF, these are perfect, you can get 10 minutes of excellent quality flight time on 1 charge.

I had 2 packs made out of 1 Dewalt 36 V battery, charged both of them up, and flew the bird, 11:58 on the first pack, brought the pack into my garage and put it on my charger, went out and flew my next pack, 12:08, came back in to see how my charging battery was doing, and it was complete, so I dropped the other battery on the charger and then went to fly the newly charged pack, 11:49, came back to the garage and guess what my battery was charged.

Flight time right about 12 minutes, 80% throttle/w govenor
Charge time 14 minutes from empty to full.
2 batteries = no downtime.

I am using an Iota 55, which is a 55 amp power supply, and a new E-station 902, the E-station allows you to charge all the way up to 9.9 amps with no problems, so I get a full 2200+ mAh charge in just 14 minutes!

I will post pics, charger stat pics from the chargers software and some head speeds possibly later today.

The future is here right now!

PS. forgot to mention these batteries are super safe, even in crashes, very durable with a solid carboard outter shell covering an aluminum can, and not mention they are rated for 1000+ cycles at 10C charges!

[rcboosted]

What would the total investment cost be?

1 dewalt pack
1 Iota 55
1 Estation 902

How did you make the pack? Solder the cells yourself?
How do you field charge? Pics?

[Speed_Freak_039A]

You have any pics of the cells and the dewalt pack they came from? Part numbers/prices on the packs. I am definetly interested. Let us know. Please

[spork]

Thanks very much for posting your results. I've been wanting to try a pack. Does that leave you with 2 cells you're looking to sell?

[Speed_Freak_039A]

Whats the weight on the packs you made? I would be interested in making a 3S pack or as many as I could out of those dewalt packs.

[Cryofix]

1 dewalt pack price will vary, I got mine for $75 + 10 shipping I have 4 total
1 Iota 55 price will vary on fleabay, i got this for $100 shipped
1 Estation 902 http://www.rcaccessory.com has em for $269

269 + 100 + 85 = 454 and this gives you 2 packs, with 2 spare cells
269 + 100 + 170 = $539 this gives you 5 4s packs.

Pack weight is almost double a 3S lipo 312 grams opposed to 162 g for a 3s, however you are using a 13.2 volt setup not an 11.1 so your in the center of 3s and 4s as far as power and weight. A 4S is 210 G. but it CG's alsmost perfect and i needed only slight mods to get the battery and canopy to fit easily. weight for a standard flyer is negligible as you are already getting 4 minutes more than most lipos.

Spork i will keep my 2 loose cells and join them again when I get my next pack.

Pack dis-assembly is simple, it comes already in a 10S brick config, all I did was cut 2 jumper leads and that separated the cells into 4 and 4 with 2 loose.

I then soldered on a pigtail with deans, got a few tp taps from Joe at Tech-mp.com and soldered on my taps, then wrapped the pack in fiber reinforced packing tape and wala.

as far as dewalt part numbers etc... there are only A123 cells in all of the 36 volt dewalt packs, so just look for the 36 volt.

[spork]

Spork i will keep my 2 loose cells and join them again when I get my next pack.

Makes sense. Thanks for all the info.

[Cryofix]

to add to the pics posted my only mod was to grind down the points on the frame where the battery tray came down, then i removed the back screw from the tray and it allowed the tray to fall forward and add another place to get velcro on the battery.

[Speed_Freak_039A]

Wow those are huge. Do they make smaller cells? Probably sooner or later. Have you checked out the a123 racing cells ?

[Cryofix]

In a way it dont matter what size they are as long as they fit under the hood 12 minutes of flight time negates the fact they are heavy and if your not into 3d hard core then you wont notice the difference I dont have any 3d skills yet but so far so good with these cells

[ShuNut]

Anymore info in the A123's ?

I really want to try some of these soon as lipos are just too expencive and life cycle is not good at all.
I have 5 TP eXtreme 2070 packs and had 90 flights on each, they are still flying great but i think they will soon be on their way out.

I'm more interested on info with the A123's & Stock T-Rex. I'm trying to save up for a 50 e-heli now so new motor\ esc would damge me badly.

spork have u tryed yours out yet ? What did u pay for yours ?

Months ago the going price was around $100 for a 10s 36v brick but it seem many ppl are now paying $135 ect.

Thx for any info.

Peace

[Efliernz]

There is a great thread on 123s in the aerial photography forum "Bye bye lipos"

http://www.helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?t=25703

Much info from Spork and Kgfly.

[spork]

Just got mine flying two days ago. I paid $135 for 10-cells (including shipping), but I've seen deals for as low as $100 on occassion since then. I don't have much experience with them yet, but I like what I see so far. Unfortunately, I'm having issues with my MMM-32 ESC low-voltage-cutoff. I thought I had a fix for it, but it gave me trouble again today. So it's either a new ESC or back to the drawing board.

Here are some pics that I posted in another thread.

It's a good bit heavier, but has plenty of punch. I haven't tried to auto it yet, but will let you know how that goes. :shock:

[ShuNut]

Thx for that info Efliernz & spork.

WoW, how many A123 threads are there ? didn't know where to post so i chose this one.
Spork, i thought ur T-Rex was all stock from what u typed in the other thread in december.

Anyway its good to hear u have them on ur Rex and tested them out.

A Few Q's
Do u know how long u flew for or is the esc prob stopping u from doing a full pack ?
What HS are u running and what kind of flying have u done with these packs ?
And how come u chose to put the packs in 2 sets of 2 ? .....if the answers are in another thread just post the link.

Anyone tryed A123's yet with a Stock Rex yet ? Darn it why cant i get some of these cells over this side of the pond for a good price ? I'd have tryed some by now is i could.

I'd love to see some vids too, maybe someone should start a new A123 Cell thread thats just for 450-T-Rexs so we can gather all the needed info.

Peace

[spork]

Spork, i thought ur T-Rex was all stock from what u typed in the other thread in december.

Hmmm... I didn't mean to mislead. It's basically a stock 450XL with most of the metal head bling and such. Then I did the eCCPM mod. Is that what you're refering to?


Do u know how long u flew for or is the esc prob stopping u from doing a full pack

I haven't flown a full pack yet. I had the ESC working perfectly yesterday, but just put in a 5-minute test flight. I'll have to poke at this ESC problem with a pointy stick and see what I find.


What HS are u running and what kind of flying have u done with these packs?

Dunno the headspeed. It's a 430L with 11T pinion for what that's worth. It gave me 2480 HS on the LiPo 3S.

And how come u chose to put the packs in 2 sets of 2?

Mine came out noticably nose heavy with 4 cells up front. This is not pretty, but it balances perfectly.

[ShuNut]

Thx agian for that info Spork :wink: .

...... Unfortunately, I'm having issues with my MMM-32 ESC low-voltage-cutoff. I thought I had a fix for it, but it gave me trouble again today.....
This is what i ment by i thought ur Trex was stock, i'm assuming MMM-32 ESC means not stock Align.

I wondered why from looking at the pix from other guys using these cell on Rex why they wasn't having CG probs, but i hope when i get to test some i can have packs whole and up front.

Plz keep us posted with any new info, flight times\style ect.

Thx

Peace

[spork]

This is what i ment by i thought ur Trex was stock, i'm assuming MMM-32 ESC means not stock Align.

Ahhhh. The ESC is made by Motor-Max and sold by JustGoFly.com. But I don't consider the electronics to qualify the bird as stock or not. Very few people run Align servo, gyros, or RX I suspect.

I wondered why from looking at the pix from other guys using these cell on Rex why they wasn't having CG probs, but i hope when i get to test some i can have packs whole and up front.

I had hoped to as well. Let us know how yours goes.


Plz keep us posted with any new info, flight times\style ect.

Will do.

[ShuNut]

When asking ppl who've tryed the A123's in stock form main thing i ment by stock was ESC & Motor seeing as they're the things the new A123s will interact with, and reason was is that many ppl say the Align ESC is a peice of crap and cant handle anything, so i'm wondering if the Align Stock ESC will handle the extra volts. i should have made this more clear.

I deffinatly let y'all know when i get some but as im in the UK i 1st need to source some A123 for decent price, so it may be a while.

Peace

[spork]

When asking ppl who've tryed the A123's in stock form main thing i ment by stock was ESC & Motor seeing as they're the things the new A123s will interact with...

Gotcha. At the moment, the ESC (non-Align) is the only thing giving me trouble. Incidentally, I'm not running a separate BEC, and the ESC is not getting hot. I may swap it out for my Align 25 amp ESC if I can't sort out the LVC problem.

[Raydee]

I have been watching the A123 cells since they first came out and was planning on running them in my boats. The problem is the cells are large and the voltage is slightly lower than the normal Lipo cell. The good part is you can charge them at a high rate and they like to be run a little on the hot side as opposed to Lipo cells. I decided to hold out for a smaller version with a higher MAH rating.

[Rick Rotorhead]

Yeah I like the idea of these, but agree with Raydee. For us it looks pretty much like still emerging technology - which is good, cos it means that in the medium term (1-2yrs prolly) its all gonna get smaller, lighter, and higher capacity :D Especially when they start being produced specifically for hobby use rather than light industrial. I wonder if Lipo producers will rise to the challenge and bring out some competative super lipo packs? (40C 5s 2500, 200g - yeah!).
Its gonna be a great heli filled future :D

[rcboosted]

So hard to decide if I should go A123. I weighed my lipos packs and found that 2 of my lightest pack is about the same weight as a 4s configuration A123. So I strapped a 2nd pack of lipo underneath my 450 and tried test flying it. I can definitely feel the weight and the climb out of course is not at all impressive. But I was only powered by 3S lipo so I won't know if 4S A123 with its higher voltage will do.

Switching to A123 will require me to send my Cellpro back to FMA for a firmware flash. That means down time! With the HXT lipos being so cheap and so far reliable at a mere $30 a pop, I'm tempted to just load up on HXT lipos and just treat them as disposables. Heck, maybe I can get 4s lipos on 1700mah, that will give me similar weigh as 3s 2200mah pack but higher voltage than 4s A123. That'll get me the "pop" for sure.

[tele]

1700 4s is a good way to go .. I had them for ages. my 4 s setup is only drawing max 18 amps

[Efliernz]

With the HXT lipos being so cheap and so far reliable at a mere $30 a pop, I'm tempted to just load up on HXT lipos and just treat them as disposables.


I'm with you at the moment - I'm even making a 6S2P pack from HXT cells as a trial. Minimum money for a basic trtrial... I'm still watching the progress tho... the charging speed has definite advantages for those of us whom want to fly bigger models with cameras...

[rcboosted]

Efliernz, how many flights have you had on your HXT now? How are they holding up? How's the "pop" using the HXT packs?