I have a couple of quick tx battery questions. Is there a good place to get an upgraded tx battery besides Radical RC? What is the best type of battery to buy? (NICAD / NIMH)
Thanks
Mteal

Take a look here:


http://www.hangtimes.com/nobsbatteries.html

Answers to your second question can be found at many locations. One that I know of is Radical RC's web site FAQ's. Yeah, I saw you don't want to go there, but they do have a factual and informative FAQ area.

Thanks CG

I have read that page at Radical RC I just wanted some more opinions on if people liked the NIMH packs or were still using the NICADs. I wouldnt hvae a problem with Radical RC but there customer service is not very good.

Mteal

I use nicad packs, as do alot of poeple. You might try ebay, you can get more than one and combine shipping. If you are looking for costomer service, tower hobbies is EXCELLENT!

I stopped buying nicad batteries several years ago. The only ones I have came with a radio. The power to weight and power to size ratio of nimhs make them much better IMO.

I bought replacement a replacement 1100mAH NiCD RX pack for my trainer. I had been getting about 4 flights on the stock 600mAH NiCD pack before I started getting nervous. Recently put in 8 full flights with the 1100 pack. With an upgraded 700mAH TX NiCD (up from 600mAH) the TX held out just fine.

For a 7 servo model I upgraded to a 1650mAH NiMH pack for both the RX and TX. Haven't flown them yet but current NiMH are quite good. I think they take a bit more care in charging properly.

I prefer NiCd for my transmitter. NiCd is less expensive and needs to be replaced less frequently than NiMH. I never fly enough in one day to wear down an 1100 mAh transmitter pack. Wish I did.

Recently purchased 1650 mah NIMH batteries for tx & rx from Radical RC. Money well spent.

What you really need to do is read some of the inputs from other people here on RCU. There are many other postings asking questions and offering advice about all sorts of battery issues.

One thing you really want to make sure about when you buy a battery is that you are getting a quality product that you can rely on. The last thing you want is to find out that a cheap battery that you just put in your bright and shiny new aircraft is a junk battery that either won't hold a charge or has breaks the tabs that connect the cells due to some inherent vibration. That's a tough way to learn about junk batteries because you end up picking the battery out of a pile of broken balsa, shredded covering, and splntered ply.

Things you should be looking for is how the batteries are bonded betewen each other, size of the wire used, strain relief for the wires, how the battery packs are bound together in a pack, capacity, discharge rate, and so on.

Don't be afraid to spend a little more for a decent quality battery.

RadicalRC and NoBS batteries are probably as good a place to start, but not the only place to buy batteries. I can tell you this, though. I bought a LiPo from RadicalRC a short while ago. I think I accidentally shorted the leads together when soldering on the Deans Connector. Sloppy and I should have known better, but that's besides the point. Anyway, the gentleman at RadicalRC replaced that battery, no questions asked. So, another great feature of a battery supplier is service and that they back up what they sell, no matter what. I'm sure if I crashed the plane and the battery was squished then they would balk at replacing the battery, but that's not their fault.

Just find a decent supplier that has a good quality battery and backs it up, and go for it.

www.hangtimes.com I use the 1650 Nimh pack I got 2 years ago, it runs all weekend long flying a mix of helicopters, planks and my glider (some long flights) acutally the glider flying is what sent me off in search of high capacity.

Remember if you switch to a NiMh Tx pack and use the Voltmeter as an indication of when to recharge [ NOT RECOMENDED ! ] a NiMh pack will drop in voltage very rapidly as it nears the end.

This caught me out as I was used to a good 10 minutes from low battery alarm to TX shutdown with Nicads, with NiMh it was less than 2 minutes.

Thanks to everyone for all the input. Do those of you that use the NIMH cells charge overnight?

I have a Futaba 9C with a 2500 NIMH battery pack. I can fly almost all day with it. I always charge the battery at 1.2 amps. It usually takes less than an hour to fully charge. Your charger must set to NIMH. My little wall chargers will not charge this pack as their output is too small per the instructions that came with the battery.

Note I quick charge all of my batteries - NICd and NIMH. But I watch the charging process pretty closely.

Several people at our cub use this 2500 mah battery in their 9Cs without any issues.

bob

I have a Sirius field charger that I use regularly. It will put a full charge in the 1200 mah NiMH in about an hour or so. But, I use the Voltwatch and keep a pretty close eye on the battery condition before and after each and every flight.

This battery will be going in a 9C. I have an Ace Hobbies DDVC charger that I use. It is a variable rate charger that you set and it charges at a constant rate until you turn it off. It will put out 500ma so it will charge a 5000mah battery @ C/10. My old battery was a NIMH that I charged overnight and I burnt it up. I was under the impression that C/10 was a safe rate for overnight charging. Turns out it isn't.

Mteal

If it does not detect when the battery is approaching full charge (by it's voltage) and continues on at 500 ma then it will certainly damage the battery.

I have a bench charger, an AccuCycle, one of the older ones, that will charge at various rates but will detect when the battery is fully charged and switch to trickle charge. That way, the battery does not get damaged from over-charging.

Have a look at RC Battery Clinic.