Well I want to upgrade the battery in my Nexstar. Its a 4.8V 600Mah Nicd in the rcvr. Also there is a 9.6V 600Mah in the Tx. Now is there great benefit to going to NiMH packs? And I assume the Nicd charger would work for the Nimh just take longer to charge? Thats if Im using the standard nexstar charger of course. Im thinking of going up to a 6V in the rx with 2000mah+ capacity. Does that sound doable? And what would be a good upgrade for the Tx?

Thanks,

Erik

It's "doable" to put the bigger battery for the receiver, but you won't be able to use the charger that comes with the plane. Well, not exactly. You could use it but it would take days to charge the battery. If you are going to get a bigger battery you will need to get a better aftermarket charger like the Triton 2 from Hobbico. Also, there is a little difference in the way that Ni-cads and Ni-mhs are charged so you should use a charger that is capable of charging Ni-mh's

[link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMAJ0&P=ML]Great Planes Triton 2 Charger[/link]

Ken

It's doable, but I would question why? I wouldn't add another cell to the trainer if it were me. I would just get a nice 1500 mah 4 cell battery. It will weigh about the same as the battery you already have, so there should be no balancing issues. make sure you get a AA cell battery pack, and not a C or sub C battery pack for weight issues.
For the tx, same thingget yourself a 1500 or larger battery pack. The tx upgrade will be one of the single best investments you make, as it will allow you to fly all day without recharging the radio.

Well for the rx I was trying to plan ahead as far as future planes go. Would like to upgrade it so I could use it in something else later. Oh and I also have a JR 9303 on its way which comes with a 1500Mah Nimh batt. I wonder if the suppied charger direct charges the battery or if it plugs into the Tx. Ug Who thought batts could be so difficult. Oh and I just learned about Mah and all today. Only had the plane for 4 days and was just charging and flyin.

How far in the future do you want to go?
For one thing that battery won't last forever, a couple of years.
And as you collect more gear you will want to keep a few planes flyable and not rely on a single pack.
Needing a 6 volt pack is not a given either. I only own one 6 volt pack and am not even using it right now and that is out of 7 planes from a 40 size trainer to a Super Stearman gasser. The only reason I have the 6 volt pack was for a plane that I wanted to squeeze a little more torque from the servos.
Most of my packs are 2,000mah NiMH although I do have a couple of 1500mah NiCad

Not sure how far i want to go. I have a cosmic wind minnow waiting for me. Also gonna build a 60" 109 from VQ warbirds. Unsure of the packs I may need for them.

Oh and thanks guys. I am reading your posts and looking around ebay and some online stores.

How are the ebay battery packs? Anyone used them? Also with the triton charger how many packs can you charge at once?

I was thinking of upgrading battery packs, too. My thoughts were to go Nimh, 1500-2000mah, and charge with my wall wart charger. It would take a long time for a full charge, but I imagine I could fly a good day on my batteries, charge overnight, and still be able to fly the next day, then really charge up in on the days off. Then when W sends me my economic stimulus, I can buy a nice charger.

So if Im looking for a multi battery charger which you could charge multiple batteries at once and the option to charge from a outlet from home or at the field what would I choose? It seems with the tritons you would have to buy the appropriate battery connectors seperate. Is this right? And are JR/spectrum and Futaba connections teh same as far as battery charging?

Ebay doesn't make battery packs. You would have to be more specific.
Here is a source for low cost packs.
Receiver:
http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp...ROD&ProdID=886
Transmitter: http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp...S&Category=165
JR and Futaba transmitter ging cables are not the same. The polarity on JR transmitter is the opposite of all the rest, Futaba, Hitec, Airtronics ect..

Take a look at the Hobico Accu-Cycle Elite, it does everything you are looking for.
The **ge leads are separate, but easily made if you are inclined.
The Rx ge plugs are universal (except for older Airtronics), but the polarity of the Tx ger plugs
is different between JR/Spektrum and Futaba. Check the pin polarity on the **ger that comes with the radio.

Edit: ** For some reason, the string c-h-a-r will not display in this post...

4.8v are just fine, but with a 6v pack you can lose a cell in flight and not lose the plane. As long as the battery has a 1500 - 2000 mAh rating you should be able you fly most of the day with out worry..... ALWAYS check the pack with a loaded meter before and after each flight to keep a close eye on your battery's health.

I just bought 4 of the "Tenergy" 6v 2300mAh packs from all-battery for a few larger planes and so far I am pleased with the quality.... This weekend I am going to run a few cycles to see what the true capacity is and if it matches the rating on the pack. So far I have only done the first slow c-h-a-r-ge for conditioning, and they have held the c-h-a-r-ge, as they should, for a week now. The packs seem very well assembled and came in the typical partial c-h-a-r-ged state.


Edit: for some reason the word C-H-A-R-G-E is no longer alowed on RCU [&:]

Ha thanks guys. What up with the c-h-a-r-g-e-r thing?! I was looking at the all batteries batts. I ordered 2 4.8 2300 mah and 2 9.6 2300mah. Figured I might as well get 2 of each for how cheap they are. We'll see how it goes. Now I need to pick a "ger".

When I spoke with the manufacturer of my radio the rep told me about these folks... http://www.batteriesamerica.com/newpage8.htm . I called them up and they put me in contact with someone that knew all about RC radio batteries, helped me with an order as well as getting a charger. It won't do more than one at a time but they made a Y-adapter so I can charge either my TX or RX batteries easily.

Have only used the RX batteries so far but the charger works as planned. They told me that most all chargers with NICad or NIMH will report a full charge early and that it was necessary to turn them off briefly and turn them on again until the charging sequence stabilized. (This has always been true with any rechargables I've had) But, that it was a "smart charger" and would adjust during the cycle and not cook the batteries.
Only for 110v and is not a field charger...https://01836cd.netsolstores.com/ind...OD&ProdID=1058

Seems to work just as promised,

Clay

The included charger outputs 100mA, so he could charge the battery in 24 hours give or take an hour.

The slower charge rate will also prevent damage to the batteries and permit him to leave it hooked up ( if overlooked ) without causing real harm.

The triton charger only charges 1 battery at a time, but it is very nice. I have the older version of it. Also, the wallwarts will charge NiCd or NiMH either one. It's when you get into automatic chargers that shut themselves off when peak voltage has been reached that you need different chargers for the two types of batteries. Basically, NiCd and NiMH peak differently when charging, so if charging a NiMH with a NiCd auto charger, it may not get fully charged before the charger shuts itself off. That's the basic difference.
And when charging, how many volts or cells the battery has makes no difference to the charger, it will (for the most part) charge at a consistent rate regardless. That is, of course, unless we are talking about the very cheaply made chargers. but I wouldn't trust my planes to anything just because it was cheap.

Greetings Gents,
Would some experienced pilot out there be kind enough to suggest some kind of formula for determining an adaquate rx battery for planes? Maybe for both mini-servos and standard ones. I need info for aircraft up to maybe .60 size. Thank you in advance for your time and help guys.
Goose

What goes up must come down - if it can solve the re-entry problem........

There is no formula because it is impossible to tell how you are going to fly. Gentle sports flying will use less than stickbanging aerobatics.
Most radios packages and beginners ready to fly packages come with a 600mah battery and in most cases is good for around 4 flights or so. Alot of people upgrade to 1000mah or higher. Most of my batteries are either 1500mah NiCad or 2000mah NiMH. All but one are 4.8volts.
My airplanes range in size from .40 cid glow to 25cc gas (about 1.40 cid) Airplane size alone does not really change receiver battery requirements, it is more of how many servos, what kind of servo and how will you be flying it. A 600mah battery will fly any gas or glow airplane but if it has 10 high torque digital servos and you are flying 3D you may only get one flight out of it before needing to recharge.

Ok guys I ordered the triton2. Now it comes with clips so i can connect it directly to my car battery right? Ill upgrade to the field box with 12v batt later. And in general are these quick chargers any harder on the batteries than a normal wall charger?

Be careful not to drain your car battery when charging.
The Triton is a nice charger, but really needs a power supply as all 12V DC chargers do.
It has the nice alligator clips with the banana plugs installed.
It's always better for your batteries to charge at the lowest possible rate.

The thing about the triton is it has to be powered by DC. When using it indoors, you will need a good power supply that converts AC to DC. Computer power supplies work great, and you can usually find an old one here or there for very cheap or free. There is an online battery clinic that shows you how to make the power supply work the way you need it to. It is a very easy project. I made one for mine and it works great.
go to [link]http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com[/link]www.rcbatteryclinic.com to find out more. Lots of good information there.

The first charger I bought was the Triton2. I used the 7Ah battery in the battery box for a year to charge my Rx - Tx in the field, run my fule pump. I Then put the 7Ah battery on the Wal-Wart over night. This worked , like I said for a year. One day, at home, I cycled my Rx battery with my Triton2 . My 7Ah battery discharged in about 3 hours, couldn't complete the cycle.

I bought a AC to 12V power supply and now all is good. I have seen some flyers use Motorcycle batteries in the field. One way or another you will need a 12V power source in the field. The auto/truck connection is a little clunky for me, so I still have the 7Ah battrey box as my source in the field.

I have all 1100Mah batteries in my Receivers because they came with the transmitters, but I think a 1500Mah receiver battery would be an improvement and save a field charge or two.