Josey Wales

My Feedback: (61)

How many of you throw your planes on a field charger between flights? Im talking maybe 10-15 min between each flight If so do you find it puts enough Mah's back in the pack(s) to make a difference?

AEROSHELDON

My Feedback: (99)

What kind of batts? When I flew NiCad I always fast charged with Sirius chargers, but now with Duralite Plus' I never do.

Josey Wales

My Feedback: (61)

Li-ions

AEROSHELDON

My Feedback: (99)

The batteries have more of a cycle life as I understand it and it would not be necessary to charge between flights. Are you not getting a good day of flying in before the voltage is low?

dork_blaster

My Feedback: (14)

The only reason to do that is to lengthen your time at the field before your battery capacity doesn't allow you to fly safely - assuming your flying every 10-15 min ALL day or something. This is more applicable to NiCd or NiMH of course. Battery longevity (in terms of conditioning) shouldn't be a concern if you cycle your packs periodically, again only applicable to NiCd or MiMH.

Or maybe you're asking this question because you're using a 600mAh RX back in your 40% plane?

Since I switched to LiPos (Duralites) I can fly about 10 times (8-10 min flights) before the battery level indicators on my PowerBox even start to drop. Don't even have to cycle them. Just need to make sure I top them off before I hit the field. I will never use NiCd or NiMH in big planes again!

Cheers!

DB

Daniel Hice

Just bought 2x4800mAh Fromeco packs so I hope to be able to fly for quite a while.

BBW Walt

My Feedback: (11)

I have not done it yet but I have considered Lipo's for big planes. I now use 2-2700Nimh battery's on rx and 1650's on ignition's. After 4 flights I plug in a Hughes + and in less than 20 minutes Im fully topped off and ready to start all over again, Plane and Transmitter. My lipo's in my electrics I use a Astroflight 109. This charger takes close to an hr to top off 1 battery. If I was using lipo's it would consume close to 3hr's charge time for a mentioned 10 flights or whatever you guys are getting, and still have the Transmitter on another charger. Am I missing something here with these wonderful lipo's. How is this more convenient and reliable than 4 batterys topped off with one charger that takes 20minutes to recharge to a full charged condition. I can do this between flights after 4flights already flown, and I do my initial charge for the day on the way to the field, Please unconfuse me, If you got 3 of these lipo's in your giant your a busy person getting all charged up for your 10-15 flights or whatever you get, Walt

sillyness

My Feedback: (25)

No kidding... I run 2 x Fromeco 2200s (now he sells 2400s instead) in a 35% with 6 8611s and a throttle and choke servo and they last longer than I can at the field. I don't let them go below 7.4V with a 1A load just to be safe... that's well above the recommended 7.0V stopping point. You don't want to keep topping off LiIons... the way I understand it, every time you charge them it chips a little more off their life.

For ignition, I won't fly if the voltage goes below 5.0V on a 4-cell pack. I use a NoBS Batteries 1950mAh NiMh on a DA-100 and a ZDZ-80... it is a VERY low impedance cell... this means that it holds up the voltage for longer through the discharge curve, resulting in more usable mAh before charging is required. It's a very nice DURABLE pack that is capable of a 40A output!!! This means almost NO voltage drop under the loads that an ignition places on it, even under full power, which makes for a consistant running and happy engine.

If I ever needed to charge any pack at the field, it would be the ignition, but so far I haven't needed to... I usually fly about 4 times in a day before my kitchen pass runs out.

Josey Wales

My Feedback: (61)

Thanks everyone..I decided to just get a 4800 Li-ion and be done with it..No charger to bring and no worries about running out of power..