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ORIGINAL: kwblake

There is a bunch of info on A123's here.   http://www.hangtimes.com/

A123 filed for bankruptcy the month before last. Not sure how long their products will even be made, and I would bet their patent is tied up in that mess also. Their office is in MI, very near here, and, last I heard, they are down from several hundred employees to just a skeleton staff. They got a ton of stimulus $s or they would have been gone long ago!

I personally have stuck with LiPos. LiPo prices have come down significantly and they offer the same basic advantages as LiFe. Given the pending bankruptcy proceedings, I would bet that availability of LiFe is or soon will be an issue.

I do have Voltage Regulators feeding servos to keep them at 5.9 VDC. But the DLE 111's CDIs that I have are fed directly with 2S LiPos. The DLE CDIs are rated for up to 9 VDC. Whether or not you regulate any of these circuits is based on the components' input specs. Some CDIs and servos may not handle the 8.4 VDC max that a 2S LiPo gives you. Look at your components’ input specs.

BTW: SmartFly has a new Ignition Circuit Optical Kill Switch that has the regulator integrated into it. I have one for the next build. It’s input voltage is rated for  > 2S Lipo. But, I already have dozens of hours on one plane that does not have any regulation to the DLE CDI and it is using a 2S LiPo directly.

When your dealing with receivers, many have a cut-off of 4.3 VDC. And, you can momentarily see =< 4.3 VDC on some of these MiMh batteries when they are nearly fully charged and heavily loaded. This is where a lot of folks get into trouble when they get packs with too low of voltage (e.g. < 5vdc) and or capacity (e.g <2000 mah for a “run of the mill” plane) to start with. NiMh batteries can also get a false charge and fail on you very rapidly.  NiCads are just too heavy and bulky when you compare them to “state of the art” batteries.