RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
dick Hanson, nice job on those packs! They look real nice. I just finished a few days ago
my second 3S A123 1,100 mAh pack and it is ready to go. After experimenting with some
new charging rates, I have decided upon a steady 6.30 Amp rate. This is 1.3 Amps higher
than the max standard rate of 5.00 Amps for these cells. On my Hyperion charger, the
3S pack had been run down and was measuring only 8.6 Volts, I was able to re-charge
the pack in exactly 9 minutes, 49 seconds. The pack was not any hotter than the 6.00 Amp
rate that I was charging them at before. I wanted the smallest increase in charging rate
for least wear and tear on the packs that would provide a dead even 10 minute re-charge
time on a run down pack. 9 minutes, 49 seconds is a personal record for me on a flight
pack; this is simply unprecedented. For now, I am not going to charge the packs any quicker
than this and I will accept the *hopefully* small decrease in cycle life this *may* cause, but
the re-charging time is just too good. As an offset to the increased charging rate, I am only
pulling like 3.95C out of the cells on average, which is nothing for these guys. Right at the
end of the 9 minute, 49 second re-charging test, the cells were warm, but not close to being
hot. For those concerned about the spot welds on these tabs, when I built my second pack
I had to pull off one of the welded tabs and this required considerably effort with a needle
nose plier. One of the tabs came off fairly easily, but the other was stubborn and I really had
to tug and pull with my needle nose pliers to yank the remaining tab off. I hope this sets some
of your minds at ease.