Ron McGrath

My Feedback: (10)

That should work fine we have ours mounted in the bottom of the cowl and it is cold when we land what are you going to use for batteries???

APGSpyder

My Feedback: (5)

thinking about going with a 10s LiPo setup... unfotunately that will be the very last thing to buy since they be a lot of green backs.

Ron McGrath

My Feedback: (10)

What type of cells??

APGSpyder

My Feedback: (5)

Thunder Power 5S3P 6000 mAh 18.5V Li-Poly Battery... or equivalent. If anyone has ideas on cells that woudl give me the same amount of juice and softer on the wallet... as well as better durablity and life expectancy please share.

Ron McGrath

My Feedback: (10)

kokam 3200mah 10 cells will do the job and about a 10 min flight time and keeping the plane light
if you use a 4 cell and a 6 cell pack you might have something else you could use them on also with the TP 6000 mah pack you can get 20 min flight times but I think it will cost you 2 lbs

lazyboyflyer

I'm using Thunder Power 5s4p 5300's with great results, alot of the pattern guys are using this battery. These batteries are better than the 5s3p 6000's because they have a 13c rating and are lighter. Plus, the size of these batteries fit the F90 very well.

OAK

Do you really need a 6000mAh pack and 20min. flight-time?

I would recommend the TP 4000 Pro Lite instead of the kokam 3200. You save almost 5 oz. and get 25% more capasity (flight-time) than the kokams.

Ron McGrath

My Feedback: (10)

are the TP 4000 a 20c pack like the Kokam

Greg Covey

Ron,

No, the TP 4000 Pro Lite pack is only rated for 12C or 48amps even though it has 2 cells in parallel. It will get hotter than the Kokam 3200 cell which is rated for 64amps. Further, balancing a 10s1p pack that is rated for 64amps and keeping the temperature below 150 degrees F is much more practical than a 10s2p pack of the 4000mAh Pro Lites. The Kokam pack will last for more cycles.

Note that the TP 5s3p 6000 pack is nowhere near the capability of a 5s2p Kokam 6400 pack. It's apples and oranges. One last note, use the rated capacity of any pack with a grain of salt. The actual capacity varies with current draw and current capability.

When designing a pack for your power system, always use the rated current delivery equal to or greater than your full throttle setting.

OAK

Its a 12C constant, 20C burst.

The TP cell may possibly get hotter, but again, it's a lighter pack so you have to expect that. And in this setup the pack-temperature should stay well below the point where the lifetime of the battery will be shortened.

My experiences so far with TP4000 is that keeping the temperature low is now problem. Have never exceeded 105 deg F in my similar setup (H9 Showtime with actro 40-5). 13 minutes of flying usually ends with pack-temperature of 95 degrees.

OAK

cjbravo

Nice Job...

kmp647

I have a question for Ron or Greg on using skyvolts/hd packs in series. When you charge to 5s packs seperately , then go to combine them in a series , how do you make sure the 2 packs have equal voltage? ( within .1 volt i think is the recomendation)

Does the charger terminate the packs close enough or do you find your having to play with the packs?

I am just starting to get into 10s setups and I am looking at the kokam and TP charger/balancer setups.

Trying to figure out what system will work for 3, 4, 5s setups, and for my 10s plane with 2 packs in series.

Kevin

Ron McGrath

My Feedback: (10)

With FMA's Balancepro HD (Skyvolt) charger each cell is brought up to the same voltage (4.2v) when you are charging them and with FMA's discharge module each cell is monitored untill the first cell reaches the low voltage cut0ff point then the discharge module lets you know it is time to land by pulsing the throttle. We PEEK charge Nicads and Nmh cells. with lithiums you charge to a predetermined voltage. When you charge and discharge packs with a nonbalancing charger small differences in the packs make the cells go out of balance so when you are charging without a balancing system you are overcharging some of the cells and undercharging others. this over time can cause individual cells to loose capacity and go bad long before they should. with the investment we make we all want to get as many cycles out of or packs as we can. As far as I know FMA has the only system that gives you the protection on the charge and discharge. also it is the only system that lets you charge 20c packs at up to 3 x the capacity that can get you back in the air in 20 minutes.

StephenT

I am using a AXI 413020 in mine with a 8S 4000mah pack and a 17X10 prop. I am going up on the cell count to 10S and down to a 15X10 prop.

dbflier

Just wondering what flight performance are you getting from your current setup - AXI 4130/8S 4000?

StephenT

Good climb almost, but not unlimited. I have ordered an additional pack to run as 10S. Pulls less than 40 Amps.

nolaniii

I'm in the process of converting a funtana 90 to electric. I'm trying to decide which motor and battery set up to use though. I'm torn between the Hacker C50 L or XL and the Actro 40-6. I have heard the Hackers are the best motor out there but the Actro seems much easier to mount with its fiberglass back plate. The two motors are just about comparable on price.

The next question is what battery packs to go with. And someone please explain how people quote the battery packs: for example 5S2P ok sp I'm assuming this would be a 5 cell battery that is actually 10 cells in parrallel to form a bigger 5 cell, is that right?

CHOPPER_D

My Feedback: (1)

I'm thinking of doing the conversion using the AXI 5320/28. I have some 5s2p packs i was going to use as a 10s2p pack, they are good fpr 64amps continuous and 94amps max. Would they work or would i need some packs that can handle more?

StephenT

Guys,

The Funtana flew great on 10S for a while. Straight up forever and not at full throttle. Never had to go there. Never did for 5 flights. Flight number 6 was a different story.
I was feeling confident. I even said "watch this". I took off, I went straight up, I said "watch this" then I pushed to WOT. The speed control blew in a puff of smoke and a lipo failured. I streamed smoke all the way down. I landed in one piece. Smoke and flames were coming from under the cowl. You could hear the crackling of the fire. I pulled out the hatch and saw that the lipo pack on the right was on fire. The clubs FX worked as well as its safety officer. I ran and got the extinguisher from my truck and put out the on board fire. One of the five 2S2P packs was ruined as well as the 77 Amp controller. The covering on the right side was melted and the cowl and MM.

I made a new motor mount and bought a new cowl. The old one was burned badly on the right side and bottom. Covering on the right side had to be replaced. It should fly again. I will stay with 8S for now.

StephenT

StephenT

Photos under power sources thread

AFG_Crusader

StephenT, the 4130/20 isn't made to handle over 8 lipo cells. Also, if a motor is rated for 8 lipo cells I wouldn't push it to the max, I would go with the next size bigger motor. Even though you might have had low amps you overloaded the motor with volts. If you want to use 10s lipo then get the next size bigger motor.

algutkin

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Ron,

An off subject question. Did you ever see Greg Covey smile? I expect he had to smile when the 540 flew with the new Axi setup.

Al

algutkin

My Feedback: (1)

AFG,

My two cents worth, OK it's only one cent worth.

The motors are also rated at RPM per volt. The larger motor might have a lower RPM per volt rating. So, you can go up to the next size motor and use a 10S config, but, the RPM might be the same as the smaller motor with the 8S config. In that case you gained nothing, you have a cooler running setup, but less prop. power due the the lower RPM. In this example, you supply the motor with more volts, but the RPM stays the same because the larger size motor is built for amps, not increased RPM. It's a tough call, you might also have to increase the prop size to take advantage of the 10S config, and larger motor size. Then, because the motor will draw more amps, 10S config with bigger prop, you would also have to increase the batts in parallel.

I think the best config for performance, is to use the 100% efficency specs. of the motor, as the goal. If the pilot is not stressing the motor during normal flight, 8S might be the magic number.

Quite a research and development project, isn't it? That's the fun...LOL

Al

AFG_Crusader

I understand what your saying however, I will make it quick :>) , the plane needs 10 cells to have good 3d power and you want to keep the motor cool and amps down. The trick is to have high volts and low amp draw. The amp draw was probably ok I think my motocalic read 40-45 amps or so but the motor temp was through the roof. More volts and a motor that will EASILY handle it is the best.

CHOPPER_D

My Feedback: (1)

I was looking at the motor mount for the axi 5320 on esprit models site, what length extension rods would be needed?