Im looking to upgrade my tx/rx batteries for alot more flight time without having to swap batteries. ive been trying to look around but cant really find anything online. Seems selection is limited. I am looking for AT LEAST 2000 mah 4.8v ...im guessing same for tx. Using a Futaba 7CAP and futaba receiver. Can anyone point me int the right place? Any recommendations on a charger too?

Thanks!

There are several 2000mAh NimH batteries on the tower hobbies site (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0093p?&C=MFA) There are also several battery sellers online.

As for a charger, I would get a good cycler/charger for home like the Hobbico Acucycle or similar and a 12V DC charger for the field.

You don't have to replace your existing batteries. Just get a good quick charger like the Hobbico Quick Field Charger Mk II and you can quick charge your Tx and Rx batteries right at the field after every third flight. It will only take about ten minutes to top them up again at a 1 amp charge rate. You can fly for twelve straight hours with a 600 Mah Tx and Rx battery as long as you take a ten minute break after every third flight.

You can run the Hobbico QFCMT off your field box battery or your car battery. You can also purchase or make a 12v power supply and run it off AC electricity if you have access to it where you fly.

You've probably got 600mAh batteries. Most of the beginner/intermediate sets come with 600 in both the TX and for the RX.

Going up to 1650mAh for your TX is easy. Going higher means you're going to have to deal with batteries that aren't as user friendly. And my 1100mAh TX batteries last me all day. And the TX voltage readout makes dealing with the TX batteries easy. NiMH work great in TXs.

Going to high capacity in an airplane, you've got to consider the airplane's balance. I usually go with 800mAh and get more than 5 flights before quick charging. I usually leave the charger home and take more than one airplane.

Get an Accu-Cycle Elite and find out exactly how much capacity each flight uses. And it can do two charging jobs at one time, so you won't have a roadblock there.

BTW, if you want to get the maximum life and reduce the failure rate of your batteries, when you've got a charger that you can control the charge rate, don't push the batteries. C/2 is usually the fastest you need to go if you want the pack to give a decent life. Your 600mAh would then be charged at .3Amp or at 300mAh. The 1100mAh batteries would charge at .55Amp or 550mAh. etc etc Blindly charging any battery at 1Amp can shorten the life of a bunch of batteries. The battery industry seems to feel that charging more than the battery is rated is a good way to shorten that batteries life.

BTW, this guy has some good info. Has decent prices. Gives quick service.

http://www.hangtimes.com/

I know i's not the best Solution, but i just buy more planes

DaRock. Is there a way of charging a Futaba tx 6eax. I heard there was a diode that protected the tx so you could only use the one that came with the tx. Is that true. I have a charger for my rx either AC/DC

No problem. Diode, if there, is to protect against reverse polarity. I think they have a different device (polyswitch) similar to a fuse that opens if too much current is pushed through it. It auto-resets though. Keep charge rates reasonable and you should be OK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyswitch

I would certainly agree with you on this point, da Rock. I have a Super Brain 989 that I use to auto-cycle all of my transmitter and receiver batteries during what we Nebraskans refer to as "building season." I've been quick charging all of my Tx and Rx batteries at 1 amp for three seasons now, and all of them are still cycling at above their rated capacity.

I don't "blindly charge" anything, I cycle my batteries and make sure that they're still performing up to specs.

Yep, i also have a qucik field charger. Usually charge at the 1c rating. Batteries last a VERY long time like that.


Oh, and

www.cheapbatterypacks.com

is my source of NiCD and NiMH batteries

The sound byte, "quick charge batteries at 1 Amp" leaves out an important consideration.

Beginners might not catch the significance.
A lot of systems come with 600mAh batteries.
Quick charge them at .6A or 600mAh at the most. 1 Amp is almost twice the rate for a quick charge.

I didn't differentiate my experience from your full statement, because I'm using 600Mah Rx and Tx packs. In theory, it is best to trickle charge these batteries at 50 Mah overnight for longest battery life and fullest charge capacity. In fact, my NiCd packs are still delivering 650 Mah to 710 Mah of cycle capacity even after being quick charged regularly at 1 Amp over the last three years.

In theory, recharging NiCd packs at/near 2C should cause them to get hot while charging and they will vent electrolyte gases, which will shorten their usable lifespan. I'm flying plain old Futaba and Hitec Tx and Rx batteries and they're holding up fine to charging at 1.6c.

Is it possible that I might only get four or five seasons out of my batteries instead of six or seven? Possibly. That's why I make sure I cycle them regularly on the Super Brain 989 to test their usable output. I have two Tx batteries and four Rx batteries, all 600Mah NiCd, that are all still producing more than their rated capacity after three years of 1.6C quick charging.

Your statement was correct in a textbook sense, da Rock, but real world experience indicates that quick charging at a reasonable amperage doesn't do the batteries any appreciable harm. In fact, my batteries barely warm up at all on the quick charger. Maybe NiCd packs have simply gotten better over the years, I know NiCds aren't as succeptible to "battery memory" issues as they used to be. Perhaps they are also better able to be quick charged than they used to be.

In any event, it costs less than $10 to replace a 600Mah Rx battery. If I only get four or five seasons out of one instead of six, it's worth it to me to be able to quick charge and fly when I want instead of only trickle charging or going through the added expense of battery upgrades and rebalancing. Your suggestion of using larger capacity Rx batteries is probably a better one, I simply suggested quick charging as a simple solution that has worked for me based on my experiences.

BIGEDMUSTAFA: How long does it take you to quick charge a 600mah battery?

Boy you have that right!

I left my NiMH 1400mAh equipped JR 8 channel TX on for over 12 hours by accident and it still could have let me fly for several hours.

ro347:

There are TONS of suitable batteries available, including those from the already mentioned sites and Tower and Horizon.

At worst purchase a suitable pack and solder on the connectors from your old pack.

This is my favorite source for batteries: www.radicalrc.com He has NiCd and NiMH packs for your transmitter at good prices. I use his 1100 mAh NiCd packs on my Tx. They are good for around 4 hours, which is more than I ever fly in one day. Actually, the standard 600 mAh packs gives more than I fly in one day.

I can top up a transmitter or receiver battery in about ten to fifteen minutes when using my Hobbico QFCMT at a 1 Amp charge rate. This is the perfect amount of time to drink a bottle of water and watch the other guys fly for a few minutes, which I normally like to do after two or three flights anyway.

i use "NiMH+" from www.vapextech.co.uk, they can hold 80% of their charge for 6 months and are 2100mah

you can get a RX 4.8/6v pack AND a TX 9.6v pack for £15

Foamy,
I hate to burst your bubble, but NiMH batteries will not retain a charge for that long. At around 70F, the loss is around 1% of the remaining power per day. At 100F, it is around 3% a day. So at 70F, batteries that had a complete charge would have around 3/4 of a charge after a month, and around half their charge after around two months. At 100F, the batteries would only have around 40% of their charge after a month.

Ken

its true ken, but these are new technology NiMh's, not the Regular ones that you stick in your digital camera

the site says:

ive noticed they do hold a good charge in my radio even if i dont get to use it for a while, but i never really fly long enough to know the difference, but hey, atleast when i get some decent flying weather im ready to fly!

Foamy,
Once again I hate to break this to you, but there is no NiMH+ batteries that I know of. I'm pretty sure that you are just falling for some slick sales pitch. If there were a "new" type of battery chemistry for NiMH's I'm pretty sure that we would have heard about it before you came along to educate us. But if you want to go ahead and believe what he is telling you that is definitely your prerogative. Charge you batteries and let them sit for six months and go flying with them. But if you do that please take one small piece of advice, take a trash bag along to bring the plane home in.

You'll find as you get older that salesmen will make a lot of "claims" as to how great their product is in order to sell it. But when people buy it and take it home they find that the actual performance isn't quite up to what the salesmen said it would be. This has been going on in this world for centuries now, and I doubt that salesmen will suddenly become "honest" anytime soon. There is a great Latin saying that comes into play here, Caveat Emptor. It means "buyer beware".

Ken

Ken
I have a cbp 2200 NiMH reciever battery that i used to run in my helicopter. I put 2150 back in after every charge. I baught it about 3 months ago.

I'm not saying that there isn't a 2200 NiMH battery our there. Heck, I have 2500 Mah batteries in some of my planes. What I am trying to point out is that NiMH batteries do not retain their charge for that long of a time.

Ken