Today I took the Leopard out to a ¼ mile running track to do an endurance test, to see how far it would go on a fully charged DTX 3800 battery. I’ve always wanted to do something like this for a little while and today would be perfect, a pretty good breeze and not to hot, 68 degrees when I started.

The day before I charged the battery for 16 hours, the longest I ever charged a battery.

The goal here is to run the Leo NON-STOP until the battery is drained. At 12:47 I started up the Leo and begin walking with the Leo about two feet in front, I walked at a normal pace keeping that two foot distance, the Leo was at 2/3 power, matching my walking pace.

At more than 9 and 1/4 laps the Leo came to a stop and shut down, I turned off the transmitter. I looked at my watch and time was 1:44, or 57 minutes of non-stop running. After the last ¼ marker the Leo went an estimated 660 feet, or halfway around before shutting down.

Total distance in that 57 min run was 12,540 feet, running at 2/3 speeds.

After writing the distance and time I turned the transmitter back on and the Leo powered up, but only went about 10 feet and powered down. I changed the battery and at full speed (me going at a fast walk) went back to the starting line.

The Duratrax or DTX 3800 pack a lot of power, but there are even more powerful batteries http://www.teamorion.com/Products/Batteries/Lipo think I’ll get one of these and put it to the test, but first have to make sure it'll fit in that already overcrowed turret.

calvinwill