I've been flying my 30oz yak with a .10 motor and 30amp esc and a 2200 mAh 3s lipo.

Today I flew with a 1300 mAh and a 2600 mAh batteries...

Is it just a matter of more or less flight time? Can I go with as big a 3s battery as I can fit in the plane?


Ready to order a couple more batteries but I'm thinking of go larger mAh....

Thanks

Steve

Yes. The voltage and C rating are the most important. I do the same thing with my Parkzone T-28. The largest pack I can fit without a bunch of cutting is a 2600mah pack, I mostly use 2200mah packs, but I have some 1300mah packs that I bought for my HZ supercub that I occasionally use in the T-28. All of these are 3cell packs, but one of the 2200mah packs only has a 20C rating, so it doesn't have as much power as the others, but still gives decent flight time. I get about 15min with the 2600mah pack, about 12min with the 2200mah packs, and 6 to 8min with the 1300mah packs in the T-28.

Yeah, as stated, stay within the voltage and current rating of both the ESC and motor. The capacity becomes an issue of weight. The higher the capacity, the heavier the battery. Just remember that, especially with electrics, weight is critical. Changing anything can effect the weight and the performance.

Watts = voltage X current (amps)

An amp = 1000 milliamps.

Battery rating of 1800 ma is 1.8 amps.

Watts per pound for any level of performance is really the goal. Increase weight changes the watts necessary to fly. Look at the sticky close to the top of the Beginners Forum posting listings.

Remember the performance goals and watts necessary to produce the desired performance. Add weight and the performance goes down.. at times, to the point where the plane won't even fly.

CGr.

If you put to much voltage in the system then you will let out the magic smoke...you know once you see magic smoke it can't be returned and whatever it came from is ruined...up as stated above the mA rating of the battery is how long you can go with re-charging

Magic smoke. I love it, Jetmech!!!

I always wondered what that awful smell was. [:'(]

You can go up in mah, but it's not a free lunch. The more capacity you have the more the battery weighs. The heavier the plane the more throttle you wind up using, not to mention your plane may not fly as well. You also will change the CG which may require adding weight to fix if you can't shift your battery around. If you liked the way it flew with a 2600 it won't hurt a thing to go that route, but understand that adding 20% more battery capacity doesn't mean 20% more flying time due to needing more power to fly the plane.

Popriv,

Here's a basic but easy way to remember volts vs. Milli-Amps with a battery: think of it as a gas tank with an outlet hole in it.

As your power needs increase, you need more fuel which means a bigger hole in the tank to get more fuel out of it. Hence the outlet hole equates to the voltage of the battery pack. More power desired means a larger fuel requirement (larger fuel line, or hole in the fuel tank), so the higher the voltage needs to be.

The capacity of that fuel tank is measured not in gallons, but Milli-Amps. The higher the Milli-Amp capacity is equates to a larger gas tank - more fuel in the tank means the further you get before you have to fill it back up.

One other thing to think of is the C-rating of the battery if you're going to use a high-power draw system. That equates to how fast the fuel can flow from the tank, or battery. The higher the C-rating, the faster you can empty the tank. The lower the C-rating, you can't empty the tank as fast without causing damage to the battery. This is where you have to use a Watt Meter and start figuring mathematically how fast you're going to drain the battery to determine if you're going to exceed the C-rating or not. Exceeding the C-rating will eventually damage the battery due to excessive heat. Unless you're flying high-performance on the edge, you probably won't have to worry about exceed the C-rating of the battery for normal activities.

So basically in your case, the higher capacity battery at the same voltage will be safe as long as you maintain your CG and the plane doesn't get too heavy to affect the flying characteristics. You're just adding a larger fuel tank.

Hogflyer

Thanks all for your answers..
I think I've got it now!


Steve