new Lipo tech available. Sounds incredible!

[Air_Alpheus]

Full detailed lab report at Trex Tuning...

http://www.trextuning.com/lipos.php

[Wazzer]

Cool Thanks

[kgfly]

Conclusions from the test (highlighting is mine):
The temperature of the pack reached ~140F with a 20C discharge (44A) – this is the limit of the ‘comfort zone’ that I usually apply when looking for long cyclic life. This pack (and cell) remained remarkably cool with extensive discharge.

The cells appeared to be quite closely matched, and tracked within 10’s of mV right up to the ‘knee’ in the discharge curve. The measured difference in individual cell capacities was less than 50 mAh for these 3S 2200 mAh packs.

Normally I would not discharge below 3.0V per cell, however as this was one of the manufacturers claims I tested this with the cyclic tests. Indeed even with cutting off at 2.5 V and hard discharging the pack lost only a small capacity

The pack gave good results with the repeated burst cycling: the variation in pack performance was within the measurement errors and I would expect this pack to survive several hundred cycles.

The silicone power leads are thicker than some competitors (13 AWG as opposed to 14AWG) which is suitable for high current loads.

These cells have been through some extensive testing.

[Wazzer]

Sounds like i have found my new Battery Supplier!!

Just need them to be made half the size and cost then they will be perfect!! LOL

But for now there still pretty damn good and represent very good value for money!

They may not be the absolute best performers for out right power but they sure win hands down on ease of use and practicality by a long long way!

I do believe that you get what you pay for to a certain degree BUT

Just because Flight Power et al have the "cool Image" and are used by all the hot shots doesn't mean they are the be all and end all of Li-Po's as some people would have us all believe.

I personally will be buying AirThunder Cells in the Near Future

Many thanks for bringing this new innovative supplier to our attention

Ben

[barryhu]

Hi Folks,

Thanks kgfly for quoting the conclusion here. Much of the review is just data and charts. If you are not into technical details, the conclusion should be good enough. If you are interested in the study but are overwhelmed by the amount of data and technicality, I have put together some analysis here.

I'm an engineer by trade and had spent a good amount of my life in academic research. Being the nerd that I am, I can't help but chew on the data and charts whenever I see them. My apology if it induces drowsiness...

Thanks.

Barry H.
AirThunder

[Racer38]

Anyone know when the 6S packs will be released?? I have been patiently waiting over here in Iraq. I would love to fly them in the 120+ degree daytime heat to see how they hold up. Sounds like they do better in the heat.

I have been flying my Trex 600 outside the wire with my helmet camera attached at the Police Stations. Its kind of cool to get video of the Force Protection stuff from a different angle..

Thanks

Craig

[Racer38]

Another week passes with no word on the 6S packs ? So what gives are they going to make them or not. I need another battery and wanted to try one but I need one now.

[barryhu]

Hi Craig/Racer38,

I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I did not want to make an estimate without more firm data. Right now it it looks like our shipment will start to trickle in within a week or so. However, we probably won't have enough quantity in hand to actually start selling it until late July. Again this is still tentative.

We've got so many requests on these packs that we know we cannot put it up for sale until we have enough inventory. To all our friends who's been waiting, please don't write to us to reserve or pre-order; there's no good way for us to play favorite. When we put it up for sale, we should be able to fulfill the demand. I suppose this is a good problem for us to have, but there's no good way to handle it.

I can assure you that these packs will be worth the wait. Data from our lab looks awesome.

Thank you for your patient.

Sincerely,
Barry H.
AirThunder

[mrivers]

I have two of the 2200mah/11.1v/25c/3s1p packs. With one of the packs, 24hrs after charge, 1 cell has lost nearly .2 volts. Right now, my Cellpro displays 4.19, 4.17 & 4.01. I've hit the voltage cutoff on few times on the last few flights, but only noted yesterday that this pack is the pack I'm hitting the cutoff on. (6 min flights in stock Trex 450 SE V2 with lame attempts at 3d). I noticed that the voltage after my last flight was reading less than 3 volts on the 3rd cell while the other two were reading 3.2 or 3.6 (I'm not a stickler for details, I'll write it down after the next flight).

mah put back into the pack: (recent to earliest)
1692, 1676, -, 1812, 1697, -, 1783, 1762, 1380, 1358, 1646, 1544, -, 1700, 1518, 1564, 1242, 2019,-

I know a few of those are above the 80% rule, but in none of the flights did I fly until it wouldn't fly anymore.

So, simple question, is this pack working up to par?

[MrMel]

1 cell has lost nearly .2 volts. Right now, my Cellpro displays 4.19, 4.17 & 4.01.


arent you balancing them??

[mrivers]

1 cell has lost nearly .2 volts. Right now, my Cellpro displays 4.19, 4.17 & 4.01.


arent you balancing them??

Yes. Those values were after the battery had been fully charged, removed from the charger and then left unused for 24hrs.

[Racer38]

Well you still didnt say if you were balance charging them. If you are it appears that possibly your balancer isnt working.

Do you have the correct adapters to plug into the balance taps ..

I would be concerned about a company that shows this in their advertisment.

Quote from FMA web site

"With the Cellpro 4s balancing charger, you simply Plug-and-Play and Walk Away!"

Thats a little scarey, come back and your house has burned down, can you say Law Suit !

[kgfly]

Unless you manually terminate the charge early, every charge on the CellPro is a balance charge. I would say there is something wrong, possibly with the battery, the cables/adapters or the charger. If the cable/adapters and charger are working fine with some other packs then I suspect a problem with that pack.

IMO the CellPro is one of the safest integrated balance chargers out there. Like some others, it continuously monitors the voltage of every cell and terminates the charge if any one cell crosses the threshold (4.21V I think). This is much safer than just monitoring the total pack voltage. It is a US company, no doubt well versed in the local litigation culture and yet still willing to make such claims. Says something for their confidence in the product.

I think I would be talking to AirThunder about a warranty replacement for that pack.

[fire_paramedic]

I have had and experience like that. in the end i amd still using the battery and its working fine not puffing, charges and balances with my cell pro. I have chrged other batteries and it works fine with them. (thought it was charger at first). but as you can see below the battery technology they are using is newer and cell balancing can be more off than what is the standard. If it is extreme they will replce the battery. ahve not had to do that but they said they would. i still run mine down and put 2000 to 2200 mah back in everytime.

Hope this helps but still watch them and emmail airthunder and see what they say. They are ery helpful. btw i ordered 2 more batteries.
Heres what i emailed to airthunder and there response.
> Technical: Battery voltages after flying
>
> After flying and putting my battery back on charger i noticed its
> starting voltages were 3.0, 3.68, 3.66. it charged in lipo low cut
> off mode. but charged up fine and balanced in the end. i am using a
> cellpro 4s. is this something i just need to watch or what should i
> do. its only my 2nd flight on this battery. thanks Gene

Dear Gene,

Your battery is perfectly fine. We have engineered our battery to
deliver constant voltage output. 80% to 90% of our capacity is above
3.3V per cell and all our customers appreciate the robustness of such
discharge profile. The flip side is that when the voltage start to
drop, it drops fast. As a result, slightest imbalance can lead to
significant voltage difference between cells at the end of the
discharge cycle. This is a trade-off that's inevitable.

LiPo users have been conditioned by the old LiPo technology to believe
cell balance is everything as over-discharge of a signal cell usually
proves detrimental to the entire pack. Our cells tolerate low voltage
so well that this is really not an issue anymore. Even if one of the
cells gets below 3V, it will charge back just fine.

Please do make sure that you always balance-charge our pack. This will
ensure the peak performance every time.

Hope this answered your question. Please let us know if you have
further concern.

Thanks.

Regards,
Barry H.

[mrivers]

Well you still didnt say if you were balance charging them. If you are it appears that possibly your balancer isnt working.

I do balance charge them using the proper adapter, it is the only way I can charge them. All of my batts (AT, Align, EFlight) have the same balance plug and pin-outs, so I'm not having to swap adapters between batteries, there's no chance for a mix up.

I'll go ahead and send AT a message.


And to clarify for fire_paramedic, I'm referring to the loss of voltage while the battery is not in use.

[barryhu]

With one of the packs, 24hrs after charge, 1 cell has lost nearly .2 volts.

Hi mrivers,

This is actually not normal. It is normal that the cell voltages are rather different after a deep discharge with our pack, but it should not lost 0.2 volt just sitting there. Please do contact us so we can further troubleshoot this issue.

Thanks.

Regards,
Barry
info@airthunder.com

[Martianpc]

Just an update, Im still going strong with mine, its working great despite all the hell I put it though! :-D :hug: :hug: :hug:

[Skiddz]

So far, so good with my pair of 3S packs. I fly until the heli gets "soggy" then charge. Still going strong..

Barry, do you have dimensions/weights for the 6S packs available? I'm gonna hit the website and poke around, but thought it'd be good info to have posted for those of us waiting for these packs.

[edit]

Just a quick comparison:

FlightPower EVO25 6S 5000mah "brick":
54MM/44MM/166MM WEIGHT: 799G

AirThunder 6S1PW 5000mah:
60MM/44MM/160MM WEIGHT: Appx 790g

Pretty much the same size.. Should fit between the frame rails of the 600 as well as the FPs do.

[Defuser]

Barryhu,

Not that you'll be playing favorites!!! But please send RACER38 a battery to Iraq. It'll probably take long enough to get there on it's own regardless of the company waiting for inventory buildup. I'm glad to hear he is able to fly in his situation and location AND it's something to keep his mind off the great distance and time he is enduring in the 120 degree heat.

Barryhu, help keep this soldiers Heli in the air....send him a battery...Please!!

Defuser

[barryhu]

Barryhu, help keep this soldiers Heli in the air....send him a battery...Please!!

Defuser

Will do :)

Barry H.
AirThunder

[Racer38]

Barryhu,

Not that you'll be playing favorites!!! But please send RACER38 a battery to Iraq. It'll probably take long enough to get there on it's own regardless of the company waiting for inventory buildup. I'm glad to hear he is able to fly in his situation and location AND it's something to keep his mind off the great distance and time he is enduring in the 120 degree heat.

Barryhu, help keep this soldiers Heli in the air....send him a battery...Please!!

Defuser

Thanks for the support, Unfortunately I have been grounded by a couple of Cav Majors who think its too Dangerous for me to be flying :arggg: I guess going out the wire everyday isnt that Dangerous after all.

I go on R&R leave starting Monday, I hope to be in the states by Wednesday. I shipped my Heli a couple of weeks ago so it will be there when I get home. I plan to fly everyday weather permitting. Dont know if I will ship it back to Iraq as I will only have 54 days remaining in country when I return.

I need to do some serious work on the Heli as the nasty dust over here has really played havoc on things, bearing and motor especially.

Mandy from Air Thunder has been in contact with me so I'm sure I'll get a battery. I have 1 4900 FP and a 5000 TP so I will be able to do some comparison Graphs with my Eagletree. I'll post em up when I get them.

Thanks for all the support !!

Craig

[Air_Alpheus]

just wanted to let you guys know that I have started a test and review of the 6s1p 5000mah pack...

http://www.helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?t=44042&highlight=

[kgfly]

Thanks for the link :thumbup:

What's the latest report on the 3s 2100 packs. How many cycles are you up to and how are they holding up ?

[mrivers]

I figured I should update my situation with the pack loosing voltage on cell 3. Over the last few cycles, the battery seems to have improved to the point where it only looses around .04 to .06 volts after 24hrs. And, as far as a noob can tell, the pack is flying fine.

Also I should mention that Barry at AirThunder was quick to respond to emails and did offer to replace it. At this point though, I'll probably keep it as putting back .0x volts isn't a big deal.

[Air_Alpheus]

103 cycles and still has the same power and duration as the 1st run. I will be posting some Eagle Tree and west mountain battery data very soon...