I bought 4 Zippy 2200 25c for my EXI. Will get about 3 min into the battery and it just cuts out. I still have full control of everything except the throttle so luckily I have yet to have anything more than a hard auto landing. I dont even have to unplug them to spool up again. My 2200 20c ABF's have no problems doing loops and flips without a hitch. Anyone else experience this with the Zippy's 2200 25c (or any for that matter?) I would have disregarded it if it was just one of 'em but its happened to 3 out of the 4 so far. They balance fine. I know they arnt the best batteries but i mean its not like im doing tic tocs or even hard flying for that matter. I could be hovering.

Rosebud6

I have zippys 2200 and they working fine up to this point.

Funny you bring this up.
I had 2 ABF's they worked fine for about 50 flights then they started losing their punch.
I bought 2 Zippy 2200 25c's 2 weeks ago and they just dont seem to be working right.
I dont have the head speed I had with the ABF's. And when I punch out, the tail blows out.
Everything on the heli seems to be fine. Turn the blades by hand and everything spins freely.
I was going to do a complete tear down.
But now I think I will go buy a good battery and try that first.

Mine are great....when im not being forced into auto's. lol Great headspped and punch out. Temps dont get above 110. Bums me out now that i have $100 in batts i cant trust. Live and learn right.

I have the ABFs myself with about 40 to 50 flights each and they all started to puff up at about 20, still good capacity and staying balanced well so I will chance it and keep using them
I am curious about your ESC settings, sounds like you might have a hard cutout set for low battery and/or perhaps not set for lipo?
Generally on low battery with heli programming it should reduce power to the motor not cut it out completely.
Of course, as is always the case, it could be another issue all together.

Running a Castle Creations 54. I dont think it has a 'low power' setting. Just a cutoff. But the thing is its 3 min into battery. I can usually fly em about 6 min and be at 3.6-3.8 per cell. I bought a programming card and am going to try and lower the voltage cutoff a bit to see if it clears the issue. Maybe the Zippys are exactly what they are, cheap batteries, and one of the cells drops under load. Will experiment and post findings. My ABF's fly great. Have not had a problem with em yet. Hobbycity stopped celling the 2200 20c. I went looking for some 25c and only came up with the 1800 20c on their site for ABF.

that's why i run with EVO FlightPower or Thunderpower lipos. I have over 250 cycles on my TP 2200mah 25c and they are still running. i just noticed the other day that finally its losing its punch. but i can still use them. just start timing them to see the drop and adjust your timer. i expect to use at least 50 more cycles before they go into their salty death soak. 300 cycles with amazing power at 75 bucks is not a bad deal.

cuts out like just "bang" and its dead or does it do a really major slowdown fast!
Reason I ask is I have a brand new mystery battery that was fine for a few flights however now it is beginning to fail. It shows 12.6 volts but after about 2 min it just loses power fast like in about 4 seconds it winds down to nothing and I do a forced landing. Check it out and it shows maybe 12.5 volt or so so its got voltage but no Amps. Start it up again and it does the same thing. Wires on the batter were not hot neither was the battery but all my other batteries are fine so I knew it was not my ESC. Suspect it should be a 3C battery not a 25C battery.

Maybe I'm wrong but it appears its not what you pay for you get, in batteries. Seems like even the more expensive batteries will tap out almost equally as the cheapies. I bought the cheapies and so far haven't had any troubles with them. I think that many of these batteries are likely made out of the same factories in China but different labels are slapped on depending on whos lot they are running that day. Thats why I can't see spending 30+ on a battery. I'll take the $20/ battery, delivered, because if it fails after 20 or so flights then its not a big loss. IMO

happy fly'n

I've got tons of different batteries and will tell you for a fact they are NOT made in the same factory. My "Mystery" brand batteries have ALL puffed, I use a thunder power 1010C w/ balancer, TP 610C w/ balancer or Triton2 w/ balancer and only my cheap chinese batteries have ever puffed on me.

My Air Thunders, Thunder Power and Outrage batteries are all running fine and I expect to get a minimum of 200 cycles from them all. So $75 for 200 flights is about 38 cents a flight. My longest lasting Mystery was for 50 flights and cost $20 that's 40 cents a flight. Where are the cost savings?

The plot thickens....So the programing card did me no good as it will not let me lower the cutoff voltage. The option is for NiCad. There is an Auto option for Lipo's. Flew out 2 batteries. First one, whith which I had problems with before, flew fine. Second one cut out@ about 4 min. I auto down, and then without even unplugging the battery, it allowed me to spin up and take off againonly to cut out again about 30 seconds later. After work I went out with my neighbor, put in my ABF's and doing flips and loops without a problem. My neighbor offers up to fly one of my Zippy's in his Trex v2, just hovering and punch outs to give the battery some stress.....NO PROBLEMS!! I'm baffled. I have a thunderbird 54 and he has a Pheonix35. Might go get a pheonix just to see if thats the problem.

I don;t knwo which version of ABF U using, but the older version sticker stated as 2200mah 20c is not wat it is, it is actually only 1800mah 18c. I got it for $18 each.

I have 3ABF, 4Zippy & 2 outrage. None have caused any problem. all 9 packs adds up to atleast 300 cycles. Heli don't fly as it should can cause by many problem, mechanical error, electronic error, setup error etc..Lipo puffing or lose of punch and capacity can cause by mishandling i.e: discharge it more then 3.75v per cell, high room temperature, charge it right after a flight, lousy charger etc...All in all, $154 for 7 chinese lipos and $120 for 2 outrage, without 7 chinese lipo wat makes u think I can achieve 300 packs today with such low cost?

It is safe to discharge lipos down to 3.0v per cell. 3.7v/cell is the nominal voltage of lipos. When you get down below 3v/cell is when you start to lose batteries. Also, don't charge above 4.2v/cell.

I new i heard something about them being mislabeled but not that far off. Thought they say it was a 2100 not a 2200. Ive been chargeing it as a 2100 and have yet to have any problems with either ABF. Hoping I can clear up this issue with zippys so I can fly them with confidence.

I'm just letting you know about the mislabel of the Old ABF. But you don't really have to worried much cuz i've been charging them with 2.2amp too. Like I said, I don't know which batch you got but the one that I bought 3 months ago is actually 1800mah 18c but labeled as 2200mah 20c. I don't even need electronics tester to know it cuz is obvious I got 1mins less flight time compare to zippy 2200mah.

To Allfat, 3.0v percell is a point where if you go on further you will SIGNIFICANTLY hurt the Lipo. 3.75v percell is the point where U should stop discharging it to maintain a HEALTHY Lipo. If you want your Lipo to have the LONGEST LIFE ever, you want to stop discharging it at 3.75+-v per cell. If you ever heard of the 80% rule, 3.75v+- is it. 80% rule is where ppl don't discharge their Lipo below 3.75+-. This is the only way to give your Lipo the longest life-time.

Below 3v is Hurting your Lipo, Below 3.75 is consider not taking GOOD care of your Lipo. You get the picture here?

Picked up a Phoenix 45 and a CC 10a BEC today (got the 45 cuz it was $5 more than the 35) to see if maybe its the Thunderbird54 not playing well with the Zippy's. Either way, I wanted an ESC with soft startup and shutdown which the Thunderbird doesnt have. Will post results.

So first initial test flights are good. Ran 2 packs through it today (finally no more rain) and didn't have a single problem. Will charge the other ones and put it through a more thorough test.

Soooo... 8 flights later ( 4 hover and 4 loops loops flips and just hard flying). No problems. I think the onboard BEC on the Thunderbird 54 could have been the problem. Am going to attach the new 10a BEC with it and see if it can keep it up in the air. If it does then I can honestly say that the thunderbird 54 was the problem and have CC replace it. Either way...Problem solved. The Phoenix 45 and 10a BEC flying full out at 3080rpm after 4 flights in a row of flips and loops... The warmest item on the thing is the battery @ 89°F

This is pulled from the following link:
NOTE: Thunderbird controllers are NOT for use in helicopters. Please use a Phoenix controller for heli applications.

http://www.castlecreations.com/produ...nderbirds.html

I don't think the BEC in the cheaper Thunderbirds can handle the number of servos and the gyro in a heli. If you ad an external BEC you maybe can continue to use the T-bird.

Hmmm....Not sure how i missed that one. Guess i'll have to take it back to the LHS and tell they to take it back as its what they suggested.

Thanks.

have you got a no cut power setting on your esc try it and see how long the battery time lasts. otherwise may i recomend a mid priced battert try the apache 2100mah its great ive used it over 120 times and still like the day i got it