Greg Covey

My Great Planes Little Toni Pylon Racer was meant for a .60-.90 size glow engine but I converted it to electric power using a Kontronik Brushless 600 Set.

Greg Covey

The GP Little Tony flies fantastic! The Kontronic 600 set provides incredible speed and power for this scale model.

Watch for my "How To/Review" in an upcoming issue of [link=http://www.modelairplanenews.com/]Model Airplane News[/link]!

mmmdowning

Great looking plane. What batteries did you use?

Greg Covey

It flies great too! The write-up will be in the next issue of Model Airplane News.

I used both a 20-cell CP2400 NiCd pack and a 6s4p configuration of ElectriFly 1500mAh Lithium-Polymer cells to power my Little Toni.

mmmdowning

Greg,
Like the article on the little toni. I'm wondering how to set up the batteries(lithium), this is new to me. Are you setting the battery packs in series or parallel? I have the board to plug each pack using the deans plug. I have 4 (11.1v 1500mah) packs will this be enough or do I need to change something. I'm also using a bec for the servos and reciever. Any help would be great.

Thanks
Marty

donp

My Feedback: (4)

Marty,

having a voltage of 11.1 per pack is already a 3 series cell. You have 4 of these packs so all you need is to put 2 of your packs in series to get the 6s (6 cells in series) like Greg's pack. Now the 4P stands for 4 Cells parallel. For Greg's configuration he will have a total of 8 - 11.1V packs. Since you only have a total of 4 packs you will just have a total of 22.2 volts and 3000mah. While Greg's setup is 22.2 volts and 6000mah. So this means you will have the same power as greg but half the flight time. Besides this you will need to know the current rating of your cells to be able to calculate the max current output your Cells can sustain. This is noted by the "C". I have seen cells rated from 8C up to 20C. To calculate the sustained output current you will need to multiply the mah x C = Sustained mA.

Example: You said your cells are 1500mah. Let's say your cells were rated at 15C. That gives you 1500 x 15 = 22500mA. This shows that your cells can sustain 22.5Amp draw. So putting 2 of your pack in parallel doubles that to 45Amp draw and so on.

Hope this helps you out.

Greg Covey

Marty,

Don is quite accurate on his description of the series/parallel combination. My original submission was downsized a bit due to typical space limitations in hardcopy magazines. At least the word got out to a large glow-powered audience.

The eight packs of 3-cell 1500mAh are a bit pricey so you can always start out with a 20-cell pack of CP2400 NiCds or GP3300 NiMH cells. I would buy two 10-cell packs and put them in series.

Next season, my Little Toni will have a slight upgrade to either 6s5p 1500 packs or the new 6.4AH unitized packs from FMA Direct or Kokam USA. I expect other companies to pick up the new line as I see Multiplex is already advertising them. Hobbico (Tower Hobbies) will certainly sell them as well. The advantaged of unitized packs is less combining of smaller packs and taps to each cell for true balancing on each charge with an appropriate charger.

Good luck!

Greg Covey

Here is shot of my electric plyon racer from a testing run last summer.

Next season, i'll likely have some of the new Kokam 3.2AH cells in a 6s configuration of 6.4AH.

Greg Covey

Leaving the pit area...and take-off with plenty of power to rise above the trees!