RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Thanks for checking in Brian.

I'm looking forward to future developments with these cells, most notably the release of the "official" RC battery packs and an update of the charging system.

It seems that A123's might have more of a "base" among RC plane enthusiasts than among those who drive land vehicles. Things sound promising in planes, but it's harder for me to relate to. I hope we get some reports from car users soon! [8D]

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

So far the "regular" size cells have done me well in dragracing my 6-7LBS vehicle. I have been abusing them for a long time and keep on ticking. I will try the smaller cells soon in my other dragster.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Cool, let us know how that goes snellemin.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

What's the capacity of these cells supposed to be? It seems that folks (including myself) assumed 1100mAh based on some info on the Home Depot web page, but I haven't seen anyone (including myself) putting more than 1000mAh back in to these guys. Also, what's the rated discharge rate? The same as the M1 cells?

I flew a 4s pack on my slowstick last night in windy conditions and got about 14 minutes out of them. Not too bad, performance seemed to be pretty good. I'm going to give them a shot in my Mini Ultra Stick once I get some time and the weather cooperates.

Edit: Duh...my "what's the capacity" question...I guess I should read the title of the thread. :eek:

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Hi charles, i've had a look on ebay.com but couldn't find that packs at all! There are only the old versapck cells...
Could you point me an auction, maybe my searching skill aren't adequate.. :eek::)
Or at least a website which can send them overseas..

Thanks!

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

EBay mostly has Starter Sets .

http://search.ebay.com/Black-Decker-...ageNameZRC0021



I did mange to E Bay a charger and 2 battery packs for $35 about a week ago. $10 shipping so a fair deal.

Charles

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Great, so it is official now. Everyday flyer, I am tempted to head down to my local
Home Depot to get at these new official A123 1,100 mAh cells in the Black and Decker
VPX packs and build my own 3S pack instead of waiting around for A123 Racing to
start releasing their packs, since I want to get up in the air fast with these new cells
and A123 Racing has made no official statement as to when they will start releasing
their new 1,100 mAh packs, but I had a few dumb questions for you. I have never
built a flight pack before, so that is why I am a little nervous to attempt this, but
my soldering skills are really good and I have a tonne of experience soldering.
OK, on to the basic dump questions: After taking the pack apart from Black and
Decker to get at the A123 cells, how would you solder it together; that is, I would
need to solder 3 of these A123 1,100 cells together in series? I know that I will
need 2 VPX packs for 4 cells so that I can make a 3S flight pack for my test heli.
What kind of balancing connector are you using? How does the balancing connector's
battery terminal leads get wired to the pack's individual cells so that a balancer can
monitor each individual cell's voltage during balancing? I am also seriously con-
sidering buying this charger: Bantam e-Station BC-6, since it can charge these cells
at a full 5 Amps in a 3S configuration, while also having a built-in A/C power supply
which is huge for fast charging these cells safely in my garage in like 13 minutes...
Also, what wattage soldering iron did you use or recommend for soldering the cells
together so as to make strong bonds, but not "cook" the cells' internal chemicals
causing possible cell damage?

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Great interactive wiring program here.

http://scriptasylum.com/rc_speed/_lipo.html

Input 3 for number of cells and check yes for balancing connector.



D&B cells have tabs which are easy to solder to. I use a 40 watt iron and tin / lead rosin core solder.

Connectors? There are tons to chose from I use Poly Quest / Hyperion type from Cheap battery packs .com . For a 3S you need the one with 4 leads.


Charles

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Thanks!! You are right, that website really does have very intuitive pictures
describing how to make LiPO packs with balancing connectors. Basically,
each battery cell is soldered together in series (+ to -, + to - etc .. since
voltage is additive in series), while the balancing connector's leads are
placed in parallel across each cell to measure the voltage drops. I was
thinking that the Black and Decker cells had welded tabs on them and I
could kinda see that in some of your pictures of a 3S pack on another
site (the one where you compare it against a 3S 1,320 ThunderPower
LiPO pack), so you can solder the leads to the tabs. Now, the difficult
part is to align the cells together, two on the bottom, one on the top
between the two on the bottom, while making sure that none of the
cells short against each other or the positive and negative parts of the
cell short against itself! I was looking at one site that said to wrap each
cell in strapping tape so that the cells "stand off" from one another making
it easier to place hot glue between each cell to further hold the pack to-
gether beyond just solder joints. Do you do that; that is, place hot glue
between each cell after the pack has been assembled and electrically ver-
ified for further strength?

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

B & D cells are in yellow heat shrink and carbdoard tubes. I removed the carboard sleves and left the heat shrink which is all the electrical nsulation you need. I use Goop to bond cells together and also to secure the leads and provide short protection on the neds of the cells.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Save those paper sleeves to slide back over the cells once you bend them into a stick. Just just a small hole in them that will be opposite where you want to solder the balancing lead. Once in place just CA them to the heat shrink and you have a real stiff stick. This is for a 4S pack, two sticks side by side.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Deleted - duplicate information

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Great little cells for ignition!!! Fall out the package.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Is there a picture of the 2300 and 1100 cells side by side for size comparison purpose?

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Well, I finally got a chance to swing by the local Home Depot after work. I searched and
searched for the Black & Decker VPX's batteries/chargers or any tools that used them
and I could not find them, I was just about to give up, when I turned to the left and
there they were, right across the way, I had walked right past them! Anyway, I bought
the charger and a 2S (~7 Volt) pack and one spare 2S pack for $19.99. Right now
I am slow charging them on the Black & Decker charger which apparently puts only
~230 mA DC into them steadily for a 5-6 hour re-charge. No matter, I have been so
busy and I will not be able to actually start assembling my first 3S pack for two days.
I am going to make sure the batteries are topped-off before the pack assembly pro-
cess, hopefully I will not blow up my garage[sm=confused_smile.gif]!

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

You sure you don't want the cells discharged before you start messing with them? Safer that way...

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

they are fully charged as you get them--
terrific cells!
Ihave been flying 4 of em in a 22 ounce flatfoamie with a 480 EFilte

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

The new smaller A123 cells are 18 mm dia and 65 mm long. Finished 4S pack shown below.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

1100 pack for ignition 100mm shrink wrap and 2300 with 111mm shrink and deans

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Thanks for the pics guys.

Panzl, do you have any issues with cell balancing without the balancing connectors?

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

mine new were within 0.01 of each other, I havent run them enough to know but Dick H and a whole bunch of other seem to find that they balance themselves once loaded up.
Im using a Cellpro so they get balanced whether I like it or not, charge time is so quick its almost funny even at 4amps.
I wire a JR connector so 4a is about the most it will take anyway. Red is +, Brown - and the Signal wire is balance. I wanted to charge thru the charge port, the 2300 has a balance lead also for the same reason, If going to something I dont want charged also, I will clip the signal wire on the output of the switch.
If you want to go faster then the A123 charger really packs it in but thru the Deans and one balance wire

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Questions for Brian @ A123 Racing:

How can I get my Hypersonic charger to charge these smaller cells?

I made a 2 cell pack for ignition use but the Hypersonic charger keeps blinking "error". I have the center node wired to the middle pin for the balancing connection but the charger doesn't like something.

I was holding off getting another charger until I had a better idea of what cell counts I'll likely be using in the future but it looks like I might need another charger for the interim (maybe the Cellpro4 or something like that).

If A123 Racing comes out with a V2 for the Hypersonic charger, will the original chargers be upgradable?

Thanks for any info.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6614191

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

Well, I finally got around to building my first 3S A123 1,100 mAh pack and
actually, my very first battery pack. I topped-off each 2S pack on the Black
and Decker VPX charger and then disassembled them. I took the packs
apart, but left the cardboard sleeves on each cell, since I wanted to take
advantage as much as possible of A123's welded tabs and solder joints.
I used one of the cells from the other 2S pack and soldered this into
series as the last cell in the pack and then placed my +/- motor lead wires
in parallel to the entire pack. I carefully measured the flight pack's voltage
and it was measuring a steady 10.60 Volts on my Sperry DM 4100A multi-
meter. I then plugged the pack into my heli and...............NOTHING!
The Phoenix-10 nor any of the servos came to life. I plugged, re-plugged
it in several times, but still, nothing!! I then placed the newly made pack
on a Whatt's Up meter and I had to look very close at the faint display
as it was only measuring 3.37 Volts; as if it were in parallel with only
one cell. I was stumped to say the least and I was about to post a
question here, but I decided to do a split-half troubleshooting method
on the pack; that is, I first chopped off the JST connector and measured
the voltage of the pack directly to the leads, still nothing, I then went
and measured the voltage drops off of each cell from ground and they
added up in series until I came to the last cell. The last cell was causing
the heli's electronics to not power up and was causing the Whatt's Up
meter to only "see" a single cell so I made a quick lead and placed the
+/- directly onto the first and last cells' +/- points respectively and then
the Whatt's Up Meter powered-up to life as normal and saw the 10.60
Volts!!!! It was the stock Black and Decker wire extension that came
off of the - part of the last cell that was bad somewhere inside! I de-
soldered this wire, made my own one, re-soldered the battery-to-motor
JST connector back on and sure enough the Whatt's Up meter saw the
10.60 Volts and the heli's electronics were powered-up. Below is a
flight test with a fixed pitch heli (an all brushless one that is the same
size as an ESky HoneyBee FP one). I know this is only an A123 1,100
cell thread, but I just want to show the Volt and Amp readings I was
getting for my heli which has a JustGoFly 300DF outrunner for the
main motor.

[Original]
Had a 12 tooth main motor pinion

[Modded]
Placed on a 14 tooth main motor pinion, since the 12 flew it, but was
just a little bit mushy and I like instant "pop" on my setups. The 14
tooth allows for an even greater climb away performance using these
new A123 1,100 mAh cells, than my old setup had with the 12 tooth
setup. The 14 tooth pinion was necessary over the 12 tooth pinion,
since these cells were putting out a little less volts and the weight of
the heli went up by about 1/2 Ounce.

[Measured readings on a Whatt's Up meter]
(Pack had been sitting around for three hours, since last charge and
I made about a 2 minute flight on the battery using the 12 tooth
main motor pinion setup)

1/2 Throttle: 9.20 Volts @ 6.30 Amps
Full open throttle: 8.75 Volts @ 8.60 Amps --> VERY GOOD

Tomorrow I will have to order the Polyquest balancer leads/connectors,
since I do not have any and I will more than likely order a new charger,
one that does everything! I am seriously considering this charger:
Hyperion EOS 0610i NET, since it can EASILY charge a 4S pack of these
A123 cells at up to 10 Amps and can charge all other kinds of batteries.
Granted, it is very early yet, but I am liking these new cells A LOT!
Thanks A123!!! Thanks to Red Scholefield, dick Hanson, Everydayflyer
and others for your information about the cells and how to actually
make a flight pack. I will post a picture of the finished flight pack
soon.

RE: New 1100 mAh A123 available everywhere and no word here!
 

I love these batterys see here for my post info with a video of what I am flying with them.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...7&postcount=72