"Buy Pulse batteries" they said.

[JonJet]

So if your batteries are unusable at this point...

Does being "cheap" as you describe seem the logical way to continue?

I'll pick quality over "cheap" every time

[Indokast]

All my pulse packs are great from 130x on up. Fwiw.

[helitack32f1]

Originally Posted by JonJet

So if your batteries are unusable at this point...

Does being "cheap" as you describe seem the logical way to continue?

I'll pick quality over "cheap" every time

Most are still usable, and yes, cheap is still the way to go considering these cheap batteries have lasted two or three years, while being abused the entire time, like leaving them fully charged for many months at a time, sometimes being flown into LVC as well as apparently pulling on the wires in an improper manner. If someone can prove the $15 smaller, less powerful and slower charging eflite battery can stand up to the same abuse, I might consider them as a possibility. However, the eflite batteries would have to stand up to that abuse three times longer to make up for the fact they cost three times as much.

[Alexatu]

I have a 3s 2200 pulse lipo, bought it 3 years ago, it must be having at least 300 cycles and the thing still gives juice like it's brand new and has no puffing at all. I did noticed a bit puff on 5000mah Pulse packs some of my friends fly but I sincerely do believe that Pulse, Gensace and Demon packs are some of the top lipos outhere. Maybe the little ones have had some quality issues, but larger Pulse packs are a blast.

[CrashyCrashy]

I owned 20+ Pulse BL packs, and never had an issue. For 3D I prefered the Eflite 200mAh packs. Best 3D set up was-

Rakan rear AR Swash
Lynx 3D Replicas
Lynx extended tail
KBDD tail blade
Eflite 200mAh 30c pack

Bigger batteries increased and slowed roll/flip. More weight caused bog, heat and, increased collective throw. I suppose the average flyer wouldn't notice.

CrashyCrashy

[helitack32f1]

So, it is update time. Since my last post in this thread, None of my Nano-Tech batteries will fully balance and neither will the Pulse battery that I started this thread about in the first place. However, I can still fly the NT's but the Pulse loses power almost immediately, even though it appears nearly charged. But at least it is nicely protected against crash damage due to its extra puffiness.

Money is a bit tight but I got a $100 gift card recently and decided to use it to buy heli parts and batteries. Due to the fact that the Nano-Techs no longer seem to be available I made the decision to buy three more Pulse batteries. After all, what are the chances of me getting another bad one?

Tonight I decided to finally try my new Pulse batteries. I checked voltage on all three and voltage between cells was no more than .02. They were all around 3.84 volts.

Not sure how long it took to balance charge the first battery but i know it was under 20 minutes. Second battery was balance charged in 16 minutes, both being charged at 2C. Awesome!

And now, as I sit here, battery number three is on 100 minutes of balance charging and still going strong! Now, I don't know what a charger uses to determine when a battery is balance charged, the volts all seem to be very close and it shows that it is charging at 0.0 amps but this appears to be another failed Pulse battery. in other words, 0 percent of the Nano-Techs I have owned failed initially and 50% of Pulse batteries have failed. I am extremely unamused and irritated.

The other two flew well, probably the best this heli has run in a long time. They fit better than the first Pulse ever did and they have no puffing.

[helirifick]

I still use the Pulse 300 mAh 2S 30C packs I bought from Helidirect in 2015 specifically for my mcpx bl's..

I had nanotechs too, but the leads broke/came loose a couple months after purchasing -- otherwise, I couldn't tell the difference in performance between the Nanotechs and the Pulses.

No puffing on the Pulse batteries and still going strong. I charge them at 1C, but I could charge them at a higher rate, I am sure. Using an iCharger 306b.

I have my flight timer set at 3:30 in the DX8, so that's how long I fly -- big air, inverted flying, no smack 3D.

[helitack32f1]

OK, time to update what has occurred here. I recently bought three more Pulse batts as mentioned. Soon, two of the three would not balance within 2 hours. It finally occurred to me that I only had problems with these little batteries balancing but had no issues with larger batteries. The only difference in charging between the little ones and the big ones was the fact that I was using a para board to charge the 300mah batts. I conjured up my own adapter to charge the batteries without the para board and all three now balance fine, in a normal amount of time. The issue was the para board, not the batteries.

[learnedthehardway]

Small lipos definitely don't last as long as bigger ones most of the time but lipos for me in general have been a per lipo gamble regardless of size or brand.

Some last for years being treated like crap and others fail rather quickly despite being babied.

I've had pretty good luck with 2s and up lipos though, well except for Eflite. Every Eflite I've owned from 2s 200mah to 3s 2200mah has reached the point where it will balance fine but instantly make the esc hit lvc shutdown as soon as you do a hard maneuver.

Pretty sad since they're one of the most expensive lipos only the absolute worst quality out of all the brands I've used. Including no name Chinese 1s lipos for my V977.

A decent charger, don't leave them charged for more than a week and preferably a couple days at a time and don't run them to lvc more than a couple/few times in their life and they'll last just as long as they would babying them.

The rest is a roll of the dice.

Must sat Pulse 6s, 1350mah 35c lipos have withstood torture and time extremely well. Only lipos of any size that have stood out from the rest.

Gens Ace, Glacier, Turnigy blue, Nanotech, Thunder Power, Venom, Zippy and Align have all been hit or miss when it comes to being used and abused alot.

Treat mine like hell, only good thing I do is balance charge every time and the few things I mentioned above are the only things I've seen have any noticeable effect.

[helirifick]

I use this board to parallel-charge my mcpx BL packs (now just the 300 mAh Pulse packs):

http://www.progressiverc.com/safe-pa...-umx-130x.html

The pulse 300's take a while to charge & balance on my iCharger 306B using the board above. I would say they take about 45 minutes from storage charge/end-flying (at 3:30 minutes) to full charge. I charge 6 of them at once at 1.8 A (usually) i.e. at 1C. They seem to take slightly shorter on my hyperion charger.

I bought these batteries new from helidirect in 2013/2014/2015. I have 10 of them, and all but 1 have been fine with countless flights. I also do not abuse my batteries - e.g I do not fly to LVC, do not leave them fully charged for more than 12-24 hrs. In the case of the pulse 300 mAh for the mcpx BL, since they are all the same and I fly them for 3 minutes 30 seconds in about the same flying style, I usually just leave them as is (i.e. I don't storage charge them).

Originally Posted by helitack32f1

OK, time to update what has occurred here. I recently bought three more Pulse batts as mentioned. Soon, two of the three would not balance within 2 hours. It finally occurred to me that I only had problems with these little batteries balancing but had no issues with larger batteries. The only difference in charging between the little ones and the big ones was the fact that I was using a para board to charge the 300mah batts. I conjured up my own adapter to charge the batteries without the para board and all three now balance fine, in a normal amount of time. The issue was the para board, not the batteries.

[helitack32f1]

Originally Posted by helirifick

I use this board to parallel-charge my mcpx BL packs (now just the 300 mAh Pulse packs):

http://www.progressiverc.com/safe-pa...-umx-130x.html

The pulse 300's take a while to charge & balance on my iCharger 306B using the board above. I would say they take about 45 minutes from storage charge/end-flying (at 3:30 minutes) to full charge. I charge 6 of them at once at 1.8 A (usually) i.e. at 1C. They seem to take slightly shorter on my hyperion charger.

I bought these batteries new from helidirect in 2013/2014/2015. I have 10 of them, and all but 1 have been fine with countless flights. I also do not abuse my batteries - e.g I do not fly to LVC, do not leave them fully charged for more than 12-24 hrs. In the case of the pulse 300 mAh for the mcpx BL, since they are all the same and I fly them for 3 minutes 30 seconds in about the same flying style, I usually just leave them as is (i.e. I don't storage charge them).

That is the same board I have. Charging my new Pulse batts with that, they did not balance by the 120 minute cutoff when charging at 2C with my Hitec X1. I do 4:20 minutes of sport flying on each battery, which brings them down at around 3.75 volts. Now, charging them with the single battery pigtail I created, they all balance charge between 19 and 21 minutes per battery when charging at 2C. Not sure what would cause such an issue with the para board.