planeman1969

Hello
I have a Giant Super Sportster with a CRRC 40 cc gas engine in it. I flew it for about 30 minutes ( 3 flights) and desided to check the batteries to my suprize my ignition battery showed almost dead. I am using a Hydrimax 2000 4 AA pack 4.8 v, I did check the charge before I started flying and it showed full charge. Is this normal? I am new to gas engines. Have been flying for close to 30 years / mostly glow,
Thank You
Planeman

JohnB96041

you did not state the kind of battery. Is it a Nicad pack?

planeman1969

Hello John
They are Hydrimax 2000 . They are NIMH Nicole metal hydrite batteries. I know they are not nicad, Should have more power than nicads, I think?
Thanks

ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

If it's an Rcexl ignition, and the battery is in good shape (never assume with NiMh!) it should have gone much longer I would think? If it's not an Rcexl ign. all bets are off. Some ignitions can be power hungry little pigs!

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

The ignition draws about 300 mah, so a 2000 mah pack should last longer than you'd care to fly. Cycle test the battery, it is probably bad. I have had a lot of problems with Nimh batteries in general, and those Hydramax batteries in particular. I bought a bunch of them and they didn't even last one year. The best deal going now is just "biting the bullet" and buying the A123 batteries and a charger for them if you don't have one. If yours is one of the 4.8 to 6 volt ignitions, you need to use a diode to cut the voltage down a bit on the A123 batteries, but that's no big deal. The A123 batteries are nominally 3.3 volts each, so you'll only need two of them. They are much more durable than Nimh or Lipoly batteries, and it is worth the changeover to use them. My whole fleet is going that way here pretty soon.

AV8TOR

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

10-4 on the Hydramax batteries being next to worthless now days.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

+3 oh the Hydramax batteries. I've seen far more bad ones than good ones. Usually if I see one in a plane I issue a warning to the user to keep a very close eye on it. A123 and some other LiFe batteries are a far better way to go these days.

planeman1969

Thanks to all you guys:
I might just pull the Hydramax batteries and switch to NICADS. I have NICADs that are over 10 years old and still hold a good charge I understand them. I have a friend that is working on a very hi-tec UAV project.and they were using A123s and had some problems with them. So i am a little afraid of them. I use lipos in my electrics but still dont fully understand them. I know they like to catch on fire!!!! I have seen that when I crashed one of my electrics. So might just go with good old nicads.
Thank Again
Planeman

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

In the very late 90's the Hydromax batteries were great but the last four I bought were worthless. The charging peak was so small that none of my newer peak detecting chargers would not detect it.

Caused me to burn up a 2.4 receiver and wires to 3 servos.

irocbsa

My Feedback: (12)

Ditto on Hydrimax. Garbage, not to mention a rip off for what they charge. You can get two 1700 mAh LiFes for less than the price of one Hydrimax.

ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

I would trust nicads prior to putting much faith in the NiMh, no doubt!

Meanwhile, suggest you make an attempt to read up on what's been going on with LiFe or A123 (they're used interchangeably) technology recently. If you're like most of us, you should come away pretty impressed. Yes, there's a learning curve involved, but I think most that have taken the time to learn about them and convert will tell you it was time and money well spent? Many grins when you're done....and no downside.

earlwb

I have given up on NMH battery packs nowadays. The NMH cells just aren't all that good any more. Unfortunately, they settle into about 1.1v per cell and stay that way until they suddenly go dead, no warning or anything about it. The worse thing is you can charge them up, they check out fine at home, but by the time you get to the flying field they already are half dead. I crashed a airplane a little while back because the battery packs went dead on me in the air, but they checked out Ok on the ground with a battery tester. I thought I had like three or four more flights I could do on it.

I have switched to good quality LiFe battery packs instead. You can field charge them easily (no overnight charging stuff). Plus a two cell LiFe pack is like using a 5 cell nicad or NMH pack. Then the big plus is that the liFe packs have a really slow self discharge rate. You can charge it up and three months later it still holds almost all of its charge. Then the LiFe packs weigh less so you can run 2200mah two cell packs if you want to.

Oh yeah, a typical CDI module draws about 650ma at full throttle. So a 2000mah pack would be good for about two to three hours or flying time, maybe more. I have bneen using LiFe packs and after a days flying, I am putting in about 700 to 1000mah back into them, so I haven't pushed them to their limits yet.

Captain John

If the battery pac is green & comes in a Futaba TX....don,t expect it too last long...ore even be a bad one right from the start. They drop voltage just setting 2-3 days. Not my JR pack or my Spectrum...there 10 times better. Capt,n

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

A year or so ago I made up some A123 packs and last weekend discovered they had developed problems. Then I discovered eneloops. Well THAT conversion is done!

NJRCFLYER2

My Feedback: (42)

You can just eliminate the ignition battery with an IBEC. You just need to assure that your flight pack battery has enough capacity for the added load of powering the CDI module via the IBEC. You save space and weight and add the safety feature of being able to control the power to the CDI from your transmitter.

Captain John

I use eneloops in all my cameras.....best cells I have found. Capt,n

Cyberwolf

My Feedback: (4)

I have not had the issues that some are talking about with NHM batteries, I have phased out most of my ni-cads in favor of NMH and Life type batteries.
Most folks don't or won't break in a battery correctly, that info can be found on many different sites redsbatteryclinic.com is one such place.
I will say this , alot of NMH problems can be caused by a low grade quick charger that can miss the peak charge of a NHM which is much narrower than say a Ni-Cad is and in turn over charges the battery and ruins the life of the battery in short order. Another item is wall chargers that will never bring any battery up to full charge not matter how long one leaves it plugged in due to the fact most charge at 50 mah at most.
Another issue is cycling batteries which needs to happen at least once a year or more depending on how much use the battery gets. Cycling will bring the battery back to it's full capacity or close to it, depending on the battery's age and usage.
As for you problem I agree to ditch the Hydramax batteries in favor of another battery pack.
The planes I still have Ni-cads operating the IGN which are 1800-2200 mah 4.8 volt packs last for 4-5 10-15 mins flights and still show well in the green on my meters.
Just my 2 cents.

Bob Pastorello

My Feedback: (198)

Another option, if you like tinkering and DIY - get some LIFe04s off ebay or somewhere; 18650 o 22650 cylindrical cells with solder tabs. Available in all sorts of capacities, and pretty cheap to make your own 2S packs. Another source for RTF LiFe's are the LiFe Power from Tower. They even sell a charger for them specifically. Again, a variety of capacities out there.

NiMh batteries aren't even good enough for our solar-powered sidewalk lights; lots of better choices.

MTK

The best NiMH batteries I have used to date were from Radical RC. He has a great tutorial on his site that explains the early break in treatment. Mine lasted 5 years with more than 80% capacity when I retired them just because.

If you don't have proper charging equipment for LiFes, LiIons, LiPos, don't mess with them until you do. Except for LiFes, the other lithiums will probably need voltage regulation to get down to a useful voltage for CDI. But there are a few CDIs available that can use 8.4 volts CH Ignitions is one

What I use in all Of my planes is LiPos. I regulate down to 6.5 volts for the radio. I drive the CDIs with an IBEC which further regulates the voltage to the CDI to 5.5 volts. Both products are from Ed Alt, Tech Aero. Terrific products, highly recommend them. My LiPos are also from Radical RC. The guy simply knows his batteries

WI53072

Nicole? huh?

planeman1969

[QUOTE=WI53072;11602302]Nicole? huh?[/QUOTE

My old girl friend. LOL

planeman1969

She is always on my mind !!

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Pass on the Hydramax, and the NiCds, or Nicole for that matter; like someone suggested, bite the bullet and get set up for A123 for the ignition and RX,thats the route to go, some use a BEC and run one large A123 to power both.

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

What does your wife think about that?

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Problems with A123's are usually self induced. Notice I said A123's, LiFe batteries are NOT A123's. A123 cells are made by A123 systems and marked as such, and use nanophosphate technology which allows both better charging, discharging, and life cycles. Also, they don't catch fire, unless you dead short them, in which case any battery can, but they don't cook off like Lithium Polymer batteries can and they are hard cased so they don't suffer crash damage like LiPo.

Buy generic and you get what you get.

There is a small learning curve and most folks are a little unnerved because you can't load test them like traditional batteries.