Several months ago I bought a pair of 6.6 volt (two cell) 1800 mah Lithium Ferrite Posphate (LifFe) packs. I fully charged them then put them away thinking that I would use them as replacements for two of my planes. I posted a picture of the "servo tray" area of my Skylark 70 in this posting:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_9699431/tm.htm

It clearly shows my LiFe pack.

Well, as I said, I bought this pack, one of two, several months ago and fully charged them at that time. Well, just before I put the pack in my Skylark 70 this afternoon, I put it on the charger. It took about 5 minutes for the charger to do it's thing and it "reported" fully charged.

My point here is that these batteries do in fact hold their charge and are well suited for use on our sport aircraft, using receivers and servos that can work with 6 volt packs.

BUT, and there is always a but, isn't there? Butttt.. the issue with these batteries is that they do require a charger that can deal with LiFe packs. So, before you decide to buy them, make sure you have a charger that is capable of charging LiFe packs or are prepared to buy a charger that will charge LiFe packs. I did the latter.. I bought the Electrifly Triton 2 EQ that can handle charging pretty much all of the batteries that I use, including LiPo and Lead Acid.

CGr.

The other trick to these packs is that you can not tell the condition of a partially discharged pack. When you start out with one of these packs, you have to fly a few 'normal' flights, then top off the pack. By looking at how much charge went back into the pack, and dividing by the number of flights you just flew, you'll get an idea of how much charge you use per flight. Then you will be able to safely determine how many flights you feel comfortable with on a charge.

My big reason for wanting to switch to these packs is the rapid recharge time, but the long shelf life is a huge bonus.

That's good to know. I'm planning on trying these on my next project.

This one of the reasons I bought the Triton 2 charger is that it is LiFe capaptable. I do not own any Life packs right now but when i drag all of my planes back out of storage I am going to convert all of them over. I am tired of using the NiCd and NiMh packs. There seems to be a best of both worlds with the LiFe packs. Good to know they hold up well during long storage.

Yeah, a good choice. Just consider the charger requirements for LiFe packs.

But, for most of us that were satisfied with 600 mah packs that came with our radios, these 1800 mah packs give us not quite 3 times the flight times, just based on their capacity. This gives us quite a good bit more flying time per charge.

Consider that these are 6.6 volt packs and the slightly higher current, well, I'm sure you can figure the rest out by yourself.

CGr.

Can someone please clarify what the advantages and disadvantages of a LiFe battery and NiMh are?

I have always used NiCd in my model. I installed Chamelion 2200mah AA cells in my original 6EXHP TX and when I obtained a used 9CAP I replaced the measly original but good 600mah with a Hydrimax 1800mah only considering yhat I wanted better life. Both of these are good: neither of my transmitters discharge even if I dont charge them a couple of weeks, note that I fly everyday atleast 30mins on my sim with these

Ameya

LiFe, Lithium Ferrous Phosphate, battery packs have the advantage of being Lithium based so they have similar advantages that LiPo batteries do, two cells = 6.6 volts (nominal) so you can use them on our receivers (that are able to work with 6 volts), have a good discharge rate, and are light weight.

Disadvantages are that they require a specific type of charger similar to the Triton II EQ.

As I said in my original post, I just installed one in my Skylark 70. I went from 1200 mah NiMh to 1800 mah LiFe and the pack is lighter than the older, lower capacity battery pack.

CGr.

The other advantage is the shelf life of the charge.
The NiMh will self discharge about 5% a day.
Once it gets down very low you need to reform the
battery to make it usable again.
The LiFe will hold its charge for a very long time as
CG reported at the beginning of the thread.

The advantage of LiFe over LiPo is the lack of volatility.
It is recommended removing LiPos from their devices
to charge in case they decide to burst into flames.
Rare occurrence but documented.
LiFes do not have that problem.

I will be switching to them soon for my receivers.

Good Luck,
KW_Counter