RE: Making my own battery
Oh I,ve made up plenty of packs tranny and Rx as well as other stuff in night lighting set ups however these days where ever possible I will use a good quality pack every time.
So don,t do much of that anymore except on rare special occassions such as one tranny pack its an Aurora low voltage system and I am making up a special internal/external saddle pack for an extended flight next month.
But I never recomend this to new folks who are just trying to save a buck or two by cobbling up whatever packs from radio shack or somewhere.
Some of the 'cobbled up packs' I have pulled from airplanes is, well it's scary to say the least. Makes one wonder how many 'Mystery crashs' we've all witnessed have been due to cobbled up packs.
On the matter of those battery holders in most cases the cheap plastic one do have two serious failure modes and I certainly have experianced both. The first is eventuallly the spring contacts will corrode and fail. Its only a matter of time and how soon. The second problem on some of the plastic types the corner were one of the springs is will eventually weaken from heat (The plastic itself). This corner plastic will then be pushed away by the spring weakening the contact and eventually becoming intermittant. Of course there goes your RF link.
To all who I mentor I suggest if those things are included with a radio that they are discarded and not used in favor of premade commercial packs. To my dismay I often see those things include in even some quality radio systems now.
John