1700 Nicad or 3300 Nimh?.

[blakka_1]

In my R50 i'm currently running a 1700mah nicad Rx battery. I want longer run times from my battery but cant afford to go Duralite at the moment :(. I was thinking of moving to a 3300mah GP Nimh pack.

So what do you guys think?.

Good choice or is it a no go?.

Thanks :)

[ChrisLaFollette]

If it doesnt affect the balance too much stick it in! Should give you a ton of flights if running an average setup. I am useing a 2800mah NIMH in my Evo 50 with a 9252 on collective, 3010's on cyclic, 401, 9254, hitec 525 and a TJ Pro and I get a bunch of hard 3d flights.

[blakka_1]

Thanks chris :). Yeah I was worrying that the 3300 GP's might be a bit too heavy and upset the balance :(, but anyway I will give it a go. At the moment im running 3 Hitec 635 servos in my R50, they control the swashplate, I have a 3001 on throttle and a 401/9253 for the tail, also running a TJ Pro. :)

[WillJames]

Just be careful if you run a bunch of digital servos and extra electronics. You can actually cause the battery voltage to drop enough to reset your gyro. I have no idea what the GP packs are but my old 3000 mah double A based Ni-Mh packs dropped pretty low under a great load of my fully decked out R90's.

[ChrisLaFollette]

I think I had my gyro reset on me once! I was flying around tail held fine in a hover, flew off beat it for a few minutes, came back and it was drifting in a hover........ . I check to see if the servo slid on the boom and it didnt. I shut it off turned it back on and flew the rest of the fuel out. I only had a little left in the header so I climbed till it died and autoed. I keep my batteries fully charged now because I like the response of fast servos flight after flight. :mrgreen:

[claysmith]

The NiMH batteries suck for copters especially if you have digital servos, I would rather charge a 1700 nicad every other flight than risk a crash due to voltage drop with the NiMH batts. I crashed 4 copters before I figured out what the problem was and then switched to duralite. You would be better of to keep the nicad until you can afford a duralite setup.

[blakka_1]

Thanks for all the help. :)

[Busta Rapta]

Claysmith and the other NIHM naysayers are dead on.

Stick with your 1700 or upgrade to lithium ions (like Duralite or better yet Fromeco).

If you must go NIMH, stick with the GP3300's (and other NEW MAJOR BRAND sub-C). Do NOT use AA nimhs. Those are downright dangerous, even in an analog heli, and will cause a crash.

:shock:

[ChrisLaFollette]

I am only running two digi servos on mine (9252 on collective and 9254 on the tail). I wouldnt think it would be a problem if your not running full digitals like Clay was. My 2800 mah pack gives me a lot of flight time like I said before.

[sdixon747]

upgrade to lithium ions (like Duralite or better yet Fromeco).

I use Duralites. I have never heard of Fromeco. Are they better than Duralites? If so, how, why?

Steve

[Busta Rapta]

Duralites are great, don't get me wrong. However, the Fromeco's have a better regulator and I was able to equip TWO helis for what ONE would have cost had I gone with Duralite's.

Fromeco has been around for a while but they've been serving plankers. They recently came out with some products that work great on helis (namely their newest regulator can be set to the correct voltage).

Their site is www.fromeco.org

:cool:

[sdixon747]

Thanks, I'll check that out.

[Laurens]

Save up for duralites. In the meantime hold your 1700's.

[jerzee4]

I've found NiMH's to not live up to their mah rating for very long. It's difficult to get that capacity out of them initially and harder to maintain it. I have several 1700 mah packs (7 of them) that, even the best of them, only cycle at 1000 to 1200 mah after 1 1/2 to 2 years....not very good perfomance! I've tried everything; maintenance trickle charge, fully charging after flying, not charging after flying....nothing really worked. I was able to maintain near the rated capacity (~1400 mah) for a while by cycling them every week or so but now I can't even get that capacity....very disappointing. I'll take NiCd's over NiMH's any day.

Z

[blakka_1]

Thanks for your input jerzee4. :)

[Data]

I use only nicads, here is a good way to get them and the price is right.

go here (http://www.unipros.com/cbpsite/customizer.asp?session_id=286259)
build a pack using Sanyo CP2400SCR.
sanyo are the best batteries out there and this is a 2400 nicad.

[CitationX]

Great thread here guys! I have just about had enough with NiMH batteries. I run 2100mAh packs in both my Fury Expert (1 digital servo) and Fury Extreme (4 digital servos + GV1). I am quite surprised I haven't dropped below the voltage limit on them. I can just barely get 2 flights out of a pack, especially in the Extreme.

OK, now I am on to Duralites. I have zero experience with them but they seem to be the best. I have heard that running a 6-volt pack is preferred which requires a voltage regulator. What would be a good Duralite setup for both of my machines? I have a charger that will do Li-Ion, Poly, NiMH, and NiCd of all sizes.

Thanks

[jerzee4]

In my R50 i'm currently running a 1700mah nicad Rx battery. I want longer run times from my battery but cant afford to go Duralite at the moment :(. I was thinking of moving to a 3300mah GP Nimh pack.
So what do you guys think?.
Thanks :)

Why not just get a good fast charger w/peak detection? While you're fueling, talking or waiting for the next guy to finish flying, you can top off your pack. I get 3-4 flights on my 1700 NiCds and know I have battery capacity to spare. If I plan to fly more than that, I put the pack on charge between flights just to be on the safe side.

Z

[RSL_Mongoose]

I've been using NIHMs in my stuff for over 4 years and have never had a problem of any kind.

[darkfa8]

I'm on the fence with this decision. I currently have a 4/3 A 4amp 4.8vdc Rx pack in my Tiger 50 with Futaba s3151 digitals & 9254 on the tail, 401 gyro with Arizona reg set at 5.0/5.0 output.

I also use a 2300mAH AA pack in my 9CH.

I use a Sirius Pro Plus charger at the 2000mAH setting to charge both packs before going out to fly.

About half-way into my 2nd flight the tail starts twitching and at one point, the whole system must have glitched and the throttle shut and cut out power. Fortunately I was about a foot off the ground.

I put the Rx pack on charge and it took a bit over 30 minutes to charge back up. I had only been doing low level hovering and some mild FF.

I had this pack in my Hawk Sport with the same electronics and would get 5 solid flights without charging. I never went beyond that since I was tired for the day.

I'm figuring that since all 3 servos are constantly working in unison, it's drawing more power. As result, it's probably dipping below 5.0vdc and causing the regulator to drop out.

So that aside... what to do?

I want at least 4-5 flights out of the pack before I have to stick 30min+ charge back into it. Something that is durable. The Tiger needs nose weight since it's very tail heavy. I know I need at least a 6.0vdc pack or more to keep the reg. providing solid output.

I like the Sirius because it's simple, small, nothing to program, plug-in, quick charge, conditions, flashes when done.

If I sell my Sirius Pro for ~$70, Ebay the 4/3 A pack for ~$20, that's $90 to put towards the ~$200 that it'll cost me to get a Hobbico Elite (I want to be able to charge two batteries at once like my Sirius does) and the Fromeco 4800mAH Li-Ion pack.

So, it's gonna cost me a bit over $100 to goto Li-Ion technology and I'll have to program the Elite. What do I get for this extra $100 that I won't get with a 6.0vdc NiCD pack?

For the sake of sanity, I charge my stuff every time before I go out to fly. So, that thing about charging your battery one weekend and then letting it sit for a week and going flying the next weekend isn't a huge deal to me. I like my charger to tell me I have a fully charged battery every time before I put it up in the air.

Then there is the potential "extra" field equipment like Fromeco's 8-Ball load tester ($50), Hobbico Battery Temp probe ($9), etc...

I wish someone would write a article or program, with maybe a flow-chart lol that will help someone decide what battery system is best for their given application.

[WillJames]

I feel your pain Dan. I was there a few years ago. Honestly, to me it sounds like you should just go with a sub-C NiCd pack.

The transition was easy for me when I went to Li-Ion technology. I had the $$ sitting there and 2 helis. I bought Duralite setups for both helis and a pack for my TX all at once. I think I spent about 1K with all the extras I threw in.

Reason I did this is because:
1. with my work, I like to charge when I get home from the field and have my helis ready whenever I can get back to fly. It varies with some of my helis, and they have been known to go for months without being flown and then go fly on a whim and with the Duralites I can easily do this and still get 4-5 flights safely in evern after they sit for months.
2. I wanted the failsafe switch.
3. I had a gyro reset with the 3000 AA NiMh packs I was running that resulted in a crash and I did not want that to happen again.
4. I wanted a regulated power supply as I run all 9252's besides rudder servos in all my big machines and I wanted them to be performing at top performance level.
5. I wanted not to have to charge at the field to fly whenever I get a few minutes to run to the field or post office to bust off a flight on the spur of the moment.
6. I liked the way that with the Duralite setup and charger, it was simple and a no-brainer for me to just plug them in and charge, check them before flying and get the maximum time to fly and not have to mess with programming a charger, etc. I have a routine now and I can fly on a moments notice and never worry about having to charge my packs first.
7. I had seen a lot of my friends running Duralites and I knew they were good batts, great customer service and I could accomplish 1-6 above.

In your situation, I don't see the same kind of need. The duralite setups come with the load tester if you get the package deal. I ahve never used a temp probe, the only time the packs get hot are when my heli sits in the sun. ;) I hope this helps a little to make your decision easier.

[DavidH]

Need to invest in a Expanded Scale Voltmeter that will put a load on the batteries to check them. Only way to know what is happening with the batteries is to check them each time before you fly. Volt meters are inexpensive and good insurance.
The onboard volt meters like the Voltwatch and others are just bling in my book. Checking the batteries with a volt meter that will apply a load is the way to go.

David

[darkfa8]

I can build a ESV for my Digital VOM. Will prolly cost me less then $10. I see that between the Fromeco 8-Ball and the Duralite tester they have a peak load test of 1.5amps.

Is this sufficient to duplicate the kind of load imposed by a all-digital CCPM machine and how long should the load be applied to the battery?

BTW: BatteriesAmerica.com is out of stock on their high current Sanyos. For the time being I'm gonna stick my current pack on Ebay and after I work next week I'll make my decision whether or not I'm gonna switch over.

[DavidH]

All digital servo machine will hardly see a 1.5 amp continous load. Unless the servos are all bound up and jammed at the same time. Under normal conditions the current draw is 1 amp or less. There may be times is the current is spiked close to 2 amps or more. But it would only be for a second or two.

I have always checked the condition of receiver batteries with a 1 amp load applied.The load of 1 amp only needs to be applied for about 5 seconds to check the battery condition.
David

[X]

How about JR nimh 4500 mah (A size)? I am running all digital servos, 601, gv1. Is this any good?