bbrown2828

My Feedback: (76)

what are some companys online i can get some lipo reciever packs from at a decent price not 45.00 bucks apiece like the LHS

TimBle

I hope you are going to purchase a regulator at the same time....


Tower Hobbies should have all you need.

bbrown2828

My Feedback: (76)

yes i know you need a regulator will be buying a MPI regulator if i do go lipo

pdm52956

My Feedback: (1)

I've not purchased anything from them myself, but I have a couple friends that have bought from hobbypartz.com and have had good luck.

opjose

As long as you are bringing down the availabe voltage sufficiently, you should do well.

e.g. if you are going to use a regulator or BEC, shoot for an 11.1v battery, that will be regulated down to 4.8-6.0v.

I use BEC's all the time with LiPo's on MANY planes.

TimBle

whats the point in using a large Lipo only to regulate it down to 6V......?


is it for brownie points for the I fly Lipo club? :/


wheres the benefit?

KWJ48

They stay charged longer and they are lighter if you choose the right one.


I have a 3s 2100mah lipo in my tx that I haven't charged in over a month.


[link=http://www.valuehobby.com/index.php]Value Hobby[/link] has good prices. I've bought from them before.

TimBle

ok......... so...

thats the Tx, this thread is about Receiver packs.
I can swear Ive never seen a 11.1V pack smaller than a 6.6V LiFePO4 of greater capacity.

then theres the added complexity of the regulator (these devices are known to fail)

and unless its packaged in a large scale aerobatic or scale warbird requiring high torque digital servos; where's the benefit?

fly boy2

If I remember right, HobbyKing sells lipos for rx's. I could be wrong.

KWJ48

I agree with you on the LiFe packs, but he was asking about lipo. And any battery or component can fail at any given time.

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

AND........ are you going to remove the onboard pack evey time you charge it? I charge my onboard packs in the plane. Have you ever seen a plane burn to the ground due to a lipo fire? I have, darn near saw a grown man cry at the same time. I'll stick w/ NiMh and NiCad's thanks.

Rrragman

KWJ48

Yes... It's the same as any electric plane with lipos. No I have never personally seen any plane burn to the ground with any battery, but I know it can happen with any battery, all it takes is a short to let the smoke out. You ever see a car battery swell up and blow or melt wires and catch fire? It just takes a little more caution and knowledge with lipos. I have 6 planes that I currently fly on a regular basis. 3 are Electric and 3 are nitro. 2 of the nitros have lipos with regs. I charge all lipos in lipo bags.

jester_s1

bbrown2828, I'm not sure I understand your logic. You are obviously price conscious, yet you plan to buy a battery that requires a regulator? For what you're going to spend you can have a top quality Nimh or NiCd pack that will last longer, be simpler, and be safer, especially compared the the cheap Lipo's on the market. So what's your reasoning behind going with Lipo?

jimmyjames213

My Feedback: (2)

LiFe batteries....the solution to all your problems....
they dont catch fire
they hold their charge really really well
they dont ned a regulator
they can give out a ton of amps and give your servos a lot of holding power
and they are cheap

for example.
http://www.all-battery.com/lifereceiverpack.aspx
1450 is 27 bucks
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...93p?&C=MCD&P=7
a 1100 mah one is 25 bucks...not terrible by any means...that would last the avrage joe all day.


or you could build your own for 10 bucks
http://www.all-battery.com/lifepo4battery.aspx
their are 3 different sizes, 800, 1100, and 2000 mah (the brown ones at the top of the list) buy 2 of them (tabs makes it easier)
then get your balancer lead http://www.all-battery.com/jst-xhv23...2cellpack.aspx
shrink wrap (fits perfectly for the 1100 batts btw) http://www.all-battery.com/34387mmshrinkwraptube.aspx

if you guys want ill explain (maybe make a vid) on how to do it....its really easy as long as u can somewhat solder.

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

These batteries can indeed catch fire. Check out the mfg web page & there "safety precautions "

timcat26

Like anything else, the very rare negative incidents with the use of these batteries get the most attention. I'm sure if you looked at the number of those in use compared to the number of incidents like Lipos catching fire you would find an incredibly small number. Generally, if you charge/use/discharge and store them properly along with the use of a balancing charger you should have zero issues. I use 2S 7.4V Lipo Rx batts in 4 of my planes, 2 with digital servos, and have never had a problem. I charge them at the field once and can then fly any one of them all day without going below safe voltage.

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Timcat 26
Thank's for the 411 on lipo care and feeding, I "get" it. They are safe as long as you do this, you don't do that, you watch out for this,be mindull of that, bla bla bla. The problem arises when the human factor or eqipment failure is inserted into the checklist. All lithium batteries will combust givin the right conditions. Does it happen often? No. Can and does it happen? Yes !

Yet, and hopefully you won't
rrragman

timcat26

Excellent. So you "get it"! It's exactly like the rest of this Hobby, as far as I've been able to tell in a couple of decades of playing with it. Good show my man!

timcat26

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Differecnce is I've actualy seen a lipo fire. How many humans have you witnessed spontaneously combust?

rrragman

opjose

Regulators and BECs expect to see certain voltage differential to work efficiently.

I've recounted in other threads how Giant Scale flyers I know were using 7.4 v packs regulated down to 6v, and were discovering that their operating times were extremely low.

Switching to an 11.1v pack of the same capacity quadrupled the operating times.

All too often people make the mistake of trying to regulate the voltage down very close to what the battery pack already puts out. This is not a good idea with many of the simple circuits used on these things.

opjose

The "known to fail" response often used, is a bit specious.

Our servos are "known to fail", our engines are also "known to fail"... in fact anything in a plane is "known to fail".

Failure RATES for BECs and regulators when properly used are MUCH lower than what you are likely to see for an engine or servo, let alone a control surface.

Like anything else, you just have to use it correctly.

Were regulators so problematic, high end companies like PowerBox would never have the market they do.

Even the cheapie 9.00 BEC's have rather amazing resliliency. I've used dozens on an equal number of planes and have yet to see ONE fail in any way.

I've seen more "failures" with bad RX NiMH cells than I have with BECs.

timcat26

I see that we've skipped right past the point about how rare it is for this to occur given the number of these batteries in use. How did that happen?

heavy metal thunder

or you could build your own for 10 bucks
http://www.all-battery.com/lifepo4battery.aspx
their are 3 different sizes, 800, 1100, and 2000 mah (the brown ones at the top of the list) buy 2 of them (tabs makes it easier)
then get your balancer lead http://www.all-battery.com/jst-xhv23...2cellpack.aspx
shrink wrap (fits perfectly for the 1100 batts btw) http://www.all-battery.com/34387mmshrinkwraptube.aspx

if you guys want ill explain (maybe make a vid) on how to do it....its really easy as long as u can somewhat solder.
[/quote]

Always buy batteries with tabs as it is very easy to damage them when soldering. I personally have not had the need to covert to using LiPo's in the Tx or RX. I build my own packs with 2200 to 3200 mah batteries. Have not had problem with flight time with any of my TX and RX gear. One thing with using Lipo's you have to remember to turn off your equipment as if you let the voltage get too low on Lipo's you will damage them.

pdm52956

My Feedback: (1)

Sorry, maybe I should leave well enough alone but, this happens all too often. The original question was about where to get the batteries, not how many fires you can start with how many batteries. You guys that want to argue about what battery somebody should use are all missing "the point". That's not uncommon when someone asks about lipos. One of the reasons it gets harder to read these posts each day. Whatever the question, it just turns into a battle about how correct YOUR opinion is rather than providing a simple answer to the question to begin with.

OK, I'm done now. "Fire" away...............