ORIGINAL: jayjayneri
ORIGINAL: gaRCfield
I think Zippy batteries are crap. I can't believe so many people say they're not bad; they're cheap, that's it. My 30C packs lost their muscle after a couple dozen flights. My 20C packs have maybe 50 flights on them at most and are now dropping down to 3.2-3.3V under load. They are clearly the weak link in my system.
I totally agree. I lost a plane recently because of a Zippy rx pack that read ok on the Futaba BR3000 battery checker but failed under a 1 amp load using the older Futaba BR2000 battery checker. The Turnigy and Rhino packs seem to be holding up well though. Never again will I use Zippy batts and I now use both Futaba battery checkers for checking my rx batts. A very expensive lesson learned. Just my 2 cents worth.
You MUST use a battery checker that tests voltage under load! I have the one from NoBS batteries that has an option for .5-amp or 1-amp load. It has saved 2 or 3 planes that I can recall. [link=http://www.hangtimes.com/chargers.html]NoBS battery page[/link] here and scroll down to LoadMaster battery checker.
When recharging your main batteries, always check the IR numbers at then end of the charge cycle to detect a Lipo that is going bad. The CellPro chargers have this capability which is IMHO indispensable. If you see IRs of 1.7, 1.9, 1.5, 1.6 and 23.2, you know you've got a cell that has gone bad!