a123 cells advice
10-04-2008, 09:32 PM
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RE: a123 cells advice
Visit the batteries and charger section for more information. Lots of A123 stuff there. I am interested in getting some smaller 1100mah cells for my plane but do not have any experience with them either. I have posted a few questions of my own in other threads and am waiting for the answers.
10-04-2008, 09:55 PM
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RE: a123 cells advice
I use both sizes of the cell and love em.
The 1100mah ones I use in my Vendetta ST and the 2300mah ones I use in my brushless CRT.5
I use an onyx 230 to charge my 2s packs made of 1100mah A123 cells taken from VPX battery packs. I installed balancing taps on them so I can use a blinky-123 balancer with them as well. They rarely need to be balanced.
For the brushless crt.5, I'm using a Neu 1509 1.5Y with 4S packs made of 2300mah A123 cells taken from dewalt 36V drill packs. To charge these I have a FMA Cellpro 10s charger which has a balancer built into it and requires to be connected in order for it to charge.
At the rates I charge these battery packs I would easily fry Lipo cells. I'm not really concerned about run time because by the time I'm done with one pack I have another pack that is 5 minutes from finishing being charged. A 3s pack would be nuts in a Losi stadium truck, heck you'd be doing wheelies with 2s. My crt.5 has center differential and even when it's really lose it wheelies. These cells have more punch than you know what to do with. That wont flame up like lipos, they take deep cycles way better than lipos, I've never been able to get my pack over 100F even after hard running. Only bad thing I can think of is the limited form factor and you can't solder to the cell body because it's aluminum. Soldering to these is way more touchy than normal cells also because the aluminum case transfers the heat so fast away from you solder area. If you don't have a large heat mass you will damage the cell by taking too long to solder.
The 1100mah ones I use in my Vendetta ST and the 2300mah ones I use in my brushless CRT.5
I use an onyx 230 to charge my 2s packs made of 1100mah A123 cells taken from VPX battery packs. I installed balancing taps on them so I can use a blinky-123 balancer with them as well. They rarely need to be balanced.
For the brushless crt.5, I'm using a Neu 1509 1.5Y with 4S packs made of 2300mah A123 cells taken from dewalt 36V drill packs. To charge these I have a FMA Cellpro 10s charger which has a balancer built into it and requires to be connected in order for it to charge.
At the rates I charge these battery packs I would easily fry Lipo cells. I'm not really concerned about run time because by the time I'm done with one pack I have another pack that is 5 minutes from finishing being charged. A 3s pack would be nuts in a Losi stadium truck, heck you'd be doing wheelies with 2s. My crt.5 has center differential and even when it's really lose it wheelies. These cells have more punch than you know what to do with. That wont flame up like lipos, they take deep cycles way better than lipos, I've never been able to get my pack over 100F even after hard running. Only bad thing I can think of is the limited form factor and you can't solder to the cell body because it's aluminum. Soldering to these is way more touchy than normal cells also because the aluminum case transfers the heat so fast away from you solder area. If you don't have a large heat mass you will damage the cell by taking too long to solder.
