I am building a plane, and I am now putting all the servos in it. But there are a few things that I am unsure about. I am using my dad's old (7 year old) servos, reciever, transmitter ect. But I am unsure about the batterys for the reciever and the transmitter because they are so old. Will they still be good? I charged them and I havent got a chance to see how long they last.

Another thing, I am using a futaba radio, and a JR battery pack for the reciever. So there is a possibility of putting the pack in backwards and shorting the circuit (Which I did testing the servos). So I had to cut the wires, and solder new ones on. Looks and works okay, but one of the wires was black and really weak from the short, and I could not cut any further back. Will this be okay.

Will this thing fly? Or will I lose it from a low battery problem?

All this "Jimmy rigging" is making me unsure, but I am on a low budget so I guess I'll have to use the trial and error technique.

Sounds like you're just asking for trouble.... A Rx batt can be found for about 9-15 on the internet

The best way to fly on a limited budget is to make ABSOLUTLY sure all your equipment is in 100% working condition otherwise you'll be spending more on repairs!!!

Good luck

You need to get new batteries for both the trans and the rec. If they sat for 7 years, they are most likely trashed. If you try to fly them, you will wreck pretty quick. At least find someone with a cycler and test them first. I think you will find them to be toast.

You can even go to Radio Shack... get a 4-cell AA holder and use off-the-shelf AA Alkaline cells (which would give a couple f flying sessions per set) That is what used to be the normal RX pack before the NiCds became common. (gets expensive replacing batteries all the time)

The AAA size battery holders will work for the TX. (the AA holders won't fit in the TX) NOTE: If using alkalines you need to use a dummy cell for one cell in the TX 8 AA Alkalines will be too high voltage for the TX.

Radio Shack also sells some Cell phone, cordlerss phone and other type pre-made NiCd packs. Some of these are pretty good for RC use. You are looking for a 500 to 700 mah 4.8 v "nominal" pack. You can use a smaller capacity but you get less flights per charge. (I used a Radio Shack 250 mah cell phone pack to save weight in a model powered by a .25, and got 3 flights (4 oz tank) per charge.

Unless you are GOOD at soldering... you don't want to try soldering together your own battery pack. I have a friend that solders up packs from Ray-o-vac NiMh cells from Wal-Mart. $1750 to buy the 8 cells to get a 2100 mah TX pack, and we are using leads taken from old computers. (the LED leads fit the swithc harness and are heavier wire than the original battery leads.

There are PLENTY of options other than using old, unreliable batteries..

WoW They are well expensive cells $1750 for 8 thats $218.75 a cell lol

Yeah but you should see how fast his airplane flies!

Andy

I think the black wire you saw has "black creep" from a bad nicad. If this is the case the wire is bad. Don't use any of it. If the wire is all black colored when you strip it back it is bad. I'm pretty sure that indicates the nicad pack is shot also. Cut open the other packs wrapper and inspect for crystalization. I had a pack that was bad like that. It had black creep to.

Instead of going with "the batteries are bad for sure" why not at least charge them and see how long they last a few times. This will work for the transmitter but not for the reciever unless you're going to sit there for an hour+ moving the sticks with the servos hooked up... in fact with no load on them you still can't tell for sure on the rx. Not 7 years but I have batteries that sat for 5+ years and are still good.