New to Electric
08-08-2018, 11:54 PM
#1
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: HorshamWest Sussex, UNITED KINGDOM
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New to Electric
Returning to the hobby after a gap of nearly 10 years, and the most glaring big change to me is 'Electric Power'.
At the moment I'm flying my old IC stuff (fixed wing and helicopter), but I do find electric power very attractive in many ways (though I will morn the decline of IC in some ways).
The major thing that I find off-putting is flight time and the price of batteries. The two go hand in hand, with IC I could go down to the field with a gallon of fuel and fly all day if I wanted. With electric, I feel that my trip to the field needs at least 3 batteries and even that is only going to give me 18-30 minutes flying which is not very satisfactory - for a 550 sized helicopter, or a decent sized conventional build plane, that is over $300 of batteries, and I understand that you should factor in replacing batteries every 3 years or so.
But I think it is inevitable so trying to understand what are the popular battery sizes that can be reused in various models.
For example I have a small 450 sized electric helicopter that takes 3S 2250mAh which can also be used in the small foam sports planes.
I know if I go for a 550 sized helicopter (not certain I will) I will need 6S 5000mAh.
I have been looking at a sports plane - conventional balsa/liteply build, film covered, 60" wing and that would need a 5S 4500mAh.
It's disappointing that I would be buying so many different batteries with little reuse.
So throwing the question over to those more experienced than I - what are the sweet spot batteries that can be reused in a variety of airframes.
Cheers,
Nigel
At the moment I'm flying my old IC stuff (fixed wing and helicopter), but I do find electric power very attractive in many ways (though I will morn the decline of IC in some ways).
The major thing that I find off-putting is flight time and the price of batteries. The two go hand in hand, with IC I could go down to the field with a gallon of fuel and fly all day if I wanted. With electric, I feel that my trip to the field needs at least 3 batteries and even that is only going to give me 18-30 minutes flying which is not very satisfactory - for a 550 sized helicopter, or a decent sized conventional build plane, that is over $300 of batteries, and I understand that you should factor in replacing batteries every 3 years or so.
But I think it is inevitable so trying to understand what are the popular battery sizes that can be reused in various models.
For example I have a small 450 sized electric helicopter that takes 3S 2250mAh which can also be used in the small foam sports planes.
I know if I go for a 550 sized helicopter (not certain I will) I will need 6S 5000mAh.
I have been looking at a sports plane - conventional balsa/liteply build, film covered, 60" wing and that would need a 5S 4500mAh.
It's disappointing that I would be buying so many different batteries with little reuse.
So throwing the question over to those more experienced than I - what are the sweet spot batteries that can be reused in a variety of airframes.
Cheers,
Nigel
10-10-2018, 08:57 PM
#2
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Join Date: Oct 2018
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Bro, im new to "modern" lectricts too, it cracks me up at the size of radio recievers and servos. I grew up with ni-cad batteries and that was a while ago! I just bought a cool bird that's from Great planes up north in Illinois, a simple bird with a electric engine up front. The motor is very odd, the case spins around the coiled wires in the center, wild!, So this is a learing curve for me! I hear tell the newest Merican batteries are called Lipo? I hear tell if you over charge them or discharge them rapidly it could be bad news! So good luck with your choice of bird and batteries, im in the same boat as you and im scratching my scalp figuring things out......
