Duralite plus Li-Po pack on nitro Heli???

[mplourde]

Hi all,

I wanna know if some people use the Li-Po pack from Duralite on his nitro helico to drive electronics component!

What is the advantage to use Duralite Plus Li-Po pack vs the Duralite Plus Li-Ion pack ( not just de capacity of pack )???

Thanks!!!! :wink:

[WayneBrown]

Redundancy.
The Li-Ion is two pair of 3.6V cells wired in parrallel, with each pair of cells in series. This inherently increases the safety margin by offering two sets of batteries in one assembly. Hopefully a failure will be noticed before you crash.
It is possible to use the Li Poly packs, however you will not have the security of a second pack in the event of a cell failure.

[mplourde]

What do you recommend to use??? LI-Ion of Li-Po??? I understand your point of redundancy if a failure comes. But, why Duralite have some product in Li-Po??? Is the redundancy is the only advantage to use Ion pack?

The physical configuration of 5000Mah Li-Po from Duralite plus pack is 2S2P!! So you have the redundancy in this case? No?

[WillJames]

Li-Po's are lighter, would be an advantage. As Wayne said, the redundancy built into the Li-Ion DL packs is a big plus for safety adn piece of mind. There are a lot of people I see at the fields that are running a LiPo pack to drive their RX gear on a heli.

I run Duralite Li-Ions on everything but my Ion-X and on it I run a lipo to keep it as light as possible.

[DavidH]

Yes the 5000 mah LiPo pack has built in redundancy.

The 5000 mah LiPo pack weighs nearly a 1/2 oz more than the 4000 mah Li-Ion pack.

The Li-Ion pack is going to be more durable. The cells in the Li-Ion pack are metal cannisters. The cells in the Li-Po pack are made of aluminum foil like material.

Also the final decision maker for most is the price. The 5000 mah Li-Po pack is over $60 more than the 4000 mah Li-Ion pack.

I have used the 4000 mah Li-Ion packs for a few years now. They have been bullet proof. Personally for me I would not switch to the 5000 mah Li-Po packs to gain a 1/2 oz in weight and 1000 mah more capacity. I can not run the 4000 mah pack down in a day of flying now. So more capacity means nothing to me.

David

[mplourde]

Ok thanks a lot for your post!!!

[Havoc]

How long do you guys get to use your batteries before they go south? I seem to be replacing them every year and a friend of mine who flies a lot less just had to replace his after a year. This gets old when paying full price.

I have a replacement pack that I got for 1/2 price that read 7.6 under load as new. After a few weeks it has 7.5 max. This and one of my older packs was charged last weekend before I realized the weather would be too nasty to fly. I checked it just now and the new pack is 7.4 and the old pack is 7.2. Since I am not a competition pilot I'm thinking of chucking my whole duralite setup and going back to old reliable nicads or another lith battery that has more diagnostic and maintenance options that don't void the warranty.

[DavidH]

I have packs that I have had for couple of years. They read 8.2- 8.3 when fully charged with no load. With a 1 amp load they will read 7.5 -7.6.

Since I am not a competition pilot I'm thinking of chucking my whole duralite setup and going back to old reliable nicads or another lith battery that has more diagnostic and maintenance options that don't void the warranty.

Only thing that voids the warranty on Duralite Li-Ion packs is not using the Duralite charger to charge them. The Duralite charger is simple to use and does not have to be setup to charge the batteries. It is basically plug the batteries into the charger. Charge them till light goes out. Then go fly. About as simple as it gets.


Are you using the regulator that has the safety switch ?
If your not using the regulator with the safety switch. Then where is your regulator installed in the system?

David

[Clintstone]

there is also a 3200 li-po that is about 2 1/2 oz lighter than the 4000 li-ion. The only reason I am checking out the new li-poly is because we don't know what the power demand will be in the future with new servos everyday and the li-pos will deliever more at one time. My 4000 li-ions have been bullet proof for me. I have hear of packs going down on the bench but I have not heard of the pack taking a heli out in the air. As with any man made or Mechanical there is always a potencial for failure. The Duralite system is the easiest and most effective way for me to enjoy my flying and is the safest way to protect my heli. I remember an instance of checking a pack for another pilot at an event and one side of the pack had failed but the model had no damage. The pilot had been responsible and checked voltage between flight and when he load tested the problem showed up as the system is designed to do. The point I am making is that he had a problem but in my eyes it saved the Heli rather than taking it out. In this case the pack was replaced and I think after think of the alternative, the pilot was more than happy to send the pack back to Duralite. If it had been a nicad or a NMH the Heli would have crashed Hard I am sure as they don't fly far with no power to the RX. I have seen Nicads and NMH go out this year and without the redundant system there is nothing to get you back down safely.

[Havoc]

I only use the duralite charger and I have the safety switch on one and a normal HD on the other with the safety switch ready to go in. I held off replacing that one when I heard a story of wires pulling out but I think mine are the newer style. I've talked to duralite and have gone over my setup with them. I think his name was Jack. But he also told me that some people use them so much they replace them regularly. But while my brain tells me it should be related to usage, my experience seems to say one year no matter what you do. It is true I've never lost a heli due to a duralite so maybe buying batteries every year is cheap insurance. I've got lucky once or twice with Nicd.

[DavidH]

Havoc,
The reason I was asking which regulators your using.
The Regulator with the safety switch will draw some current from the battery even when the switch is off. That is just the nature of it. So if you have the Safety switch regulator and your going to store the heli for long periods without charging. You need to unhook the battery from the regulator or it will eventually drain the battery.
My safety switch regulator, if that heli sits for more than a week without being flown. I go out and hook the charger to the battery and let it charge for couple of hours. The light will always come on when I do this. So I keep the battery topped off.

Now for the unswitched regulator. If this regulator is installed between the Battery and the on/off switch. The same results will happen as the safety switch regulator.
So the unswitched regulator should be installed only between the on/off switch and the receiver.

Just some information I thought you might not be aware of.

http://www.duralitebatteries.com/tech-acc.html#ANSWERS


David

[Havoc]

I think I have jumped the gun on this pack. The switch is between the battery and regulator on this older setup. But when I measure the load from the battery it reads a much better 7.38. After the switch it is now hitting 6.9. So obviously the switch is the real problem. I have a safety switch/5.3 reg combo waiting to be installed on this heli so I will go ahead and do that. My other heli runs this combo. Sorry for the false alarm.