Ok what will it take to fly as regularily as the nitro guys with strictly Lipos's?

[Entityofme1]

I really enjoy both my 450 and 500 t-rex's but I tell you I'm a bit envious of the nitro guys just being able to re-fuel and get right back up there. I don't think I'm ready to go Nitro yet as I don't really want anything bigger than my 500 right now and if I were to go nitro it would definately be something bigger like the 600. My question is what do you think it would take to be able to fly as consistently or more comparable in the frequency of flights vs. wait time with the nitro guys with lipo's only? I currently own 7 3s lipo's and one charger. The wait time for each pack to charge is about 1 hour and it's just getting a bit impractical for me trying to gain more air time with more lipo's and only one charger. I wait about 8 hours to charge all my batteries and get about 30-35 minutes flight time depending on how I distribute the batteries between the two birds. Is there a charger out there right now that can charge multiple lipo's safely with a balanced feature? I need more air time and I'm not opposed to spending considerable money to be able to hang with the nitro guys in the field.

[Hummer6]

I fly my T-rex 450 SE with 4 flightpower batteries. I can charge them at 2C (4 amps), which takes about 30 minutes each.

[Entityofme1]

Thats not bad but I need a charger that will do that with about 4-6 batteries at a time and do it safely and balanced. Any recommendations?

[TheBum]

Thats not bad but I need a charger that will do that with about 4-6 batteries at a time and do it safely and balanced. Any recommendations?

Just about any balancing charger capable of charging 6 cells will be able to do two 3S packs at a time. The Maxpro X6/Kong Power (same charger) and Thunder Power 610c chargers are two options. However, it might actually be more efficient to have multiple chargers because you can stagger the starts of the charging cycles.

[ginnz]

ive got 17 lipos, 10- 2100 mah, 1- 2200 mah, 3- 1800 mah 3s packs, and 3 2200 mah 4s packs...... i can fly all day ;-)

[RCXpress]

First you need to figure out how many batteries you'll need. You must take into account things like cooling time, charging time, flight time, and so on.

Say for example you fly for 5 minutes (some fly longer, I know, this is just a nice round number for the estimate pattern).

Between flights let's say you want to cool the motor/ESC (and sit down) for 5 minutes. Thus you'll need a fresh pack every ten minutes, ready to go right back out to the flight line.

Since you want the used battery to rest for (let's say) 25 minutes before slinging it back on the charger, you'll be just about to start your 4th pack of the session when you want to start charging the first pack, at 30 minutes since the start of your first flight.

That first pack, if charged at 2C, will require approximately 30 minutes to recharge, and when it comes off the charger it'll be a full hour since you started flying; that'll be essentially the start of your 7th flight, done with the 2nd charge on your 1st pack of the day. Assuming of course that everything runs smoothly; you're diligent about timing your charge starts and so on, and each charge finishes out on time, you don't crash your heli, and so on.

Anyway, with pack 1 going on charge at 30 into your session, and another going on every ten minutes thereafter, you'll need a minimum of three chargers (pack 1 comes off charger 1 and pack 4 goes onto charger 1 right after it), probably four just to be thorough, and at least 6 battery packs to keep the cycle going.

Assuming all of the above to be correct, well-timed and without any sort of equipment failure, you could then start a five minute flight every ten minutes, perpetually. Adjust time frames to your preference. Longer flight times move things up, as does charging at 1C; adding chargers won't help at 2C but might be required at 1C. Adding batteries to the cycle will cut down the number of chargers a bit, and/or add cooling time for the packs.

One option might be the Polycharge 4, which can charge independently 4 li-po batteries. It requires separate balancers though; something like the Blinky from Astroflight seems to work well.

YMMV.

All best.

[cbdane]

3 batteries (at least) and 2 field chargers and you can fly every 20 minutes all day; long after the nitro guys have run out of fuel. ;)

More details: I find that my batteries charge in ~40 minutes after 80% discharge (4900mAh, 6s1p packs). That means that with two chargers, a fresh battery rolls off the charging line about every 20 minutes. 3 batteries keeps at least two charging at all time. I don't wait for them to cool before recharging since they come off the heli only slightly warm and are fully cooled by the time they reach full charge.

[concept1]

A123 cells charge in 10-20 minutes depending on charger, 2 packs you go all day with just short breaks, or 4 packs you go nonstop no problems the more you fly the stronger the packs get, they like to get warm!