Been out of the hobby for a while.Getting back in. All of my stuff had nicads.

What is the best route to take? Your thoughts please.

If you're willing to buy the supporting equipment, LiFe packs are the way to go for flight packs.  Nicd's are old technology.  Nimh's are good if you're not doing crazy big stuff with high drain digital servos.

I found myself in your position a year ago.  I had enough high capacity chargers, that I have stuck with Nimh's so far.  As I cycle through batteries, I'll probably eventually switch to LiFe packs.

I too was where you are about 10 -12 yrs ago. All my stuff was Ni cad or NIMH & my charger was a Hobbico Accu cycle elite. I ended up useing Li-ions for this reason only.... The charger would charge Li-ion packs up to 3 cells only i believe. So i bought Li-ion 2 cell 2600 mAh packs for everything from Fromeco. I have them in all my giant scale stuff with zero problems for years now &( i didnt have to buy a different charger)! I do use regulators on the batteries though. The packs are small & inexpensive & made it easy for me. I use the same packs for up to 3 years & then just change them out. Like i said there might be better stuff out there, but these worked for me with out haveing to buy another charger......Gene

PS I'm running 9 servos on most of my stuff 8411s, 8611s, 8711s etc

Good info. Keep them coming. Thanks

I also just recently came back into the hobby due to peer pressure from a co-worker newby rc pilot, even after sitting 10 years idle my old ni-cad stuff cycled up great.
Par for the course is my futaba fg gold series FM, catch alot of flack about that antenna but I don't care I'm old, can't see well and not frugal enough to keep up with the high tech croud lol. I can't see any reason not to use a good ni-cad if you already have it.

If the nicads will still cycle OK, there's really nothing wrong with them? If you want new and you're going to stay on the smaller side of 120 generally, you could go with nimh. The bigger stuff, that's looking high torque and metal gears, I think LiFe/A123 (same thing, but not to be confused with LiPo) are a better plan.

Here some reading if you'd like some help coming up to speed on the new stuff. No association with the company, just steering you to somebody that's put a lot to think about in print. Put a lot of "stuff" into much clearer focus for me!

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

http://www.hangtimes.com/a123rxsetup.html

http://www.hangtimes.com/a123_batter...iants_faq.html

What plane are you planning on putting them in? What servos are you planning to run? What type of flying do you prefer?

My favorites are genuine A123's from WrongwayRC or TailDragger RC and a CellPro4 charger.

Andy

Going to put the new batteries in 1/4 scale warbirds with eight JR 8711 servos.

Mike

There is'nt a 1/4 scale warbird out there that requires that kind of servo torque. Unless you already have 8711's, your wasting your$$$ I still fly Ni-Cads in all my warbirds. They have'nt let me down in 20 years, no sense changing now. The great thing about Li-po's is they have brought the price of Ni-Cads down. I guess I'm just Old School.

Because you can get flat pack life 1100mah from HK for under $5 they just aren't good enough for some people. Course more than that after shipping! Many people here are using them in .40, .60 and larger models. They wouldn't do for high draw digitals but the 2000-4000 lifes would.

You know this kind of attitude from the Warbird guys always confuses me, it sort of fits with the "you can't put that big an engine in it, it won't fly scale)... to which I respond "can't you take advantage of the fact that the left side (mode 2) stick on the tx also moves forward and back as well as side to side?????

Okay, tirade over.....

IF the OP is going to be playing with larger models, the bigger servos are only a few dollars more than the mid size servos and he can put 'em in anything he want's down the road. Buying a mid torque range servo that isn't any good for the next model is "wasting your $$$" if you ask me.

This is also a place for genuine A123 batteries; 30C continous output and they can burst to 60C. That is a WHOLE bunch more than an LiFe and if you get the genuine article A123, you don't usually have any QA issues found with the copycat LiFe batteries. Places like Andy mentioned are really good sources for A123's and the FMA chargers which have been the leader in maintaining the A123 technology since it came out.

The other question for the OP is what kind of radio gear? If it's Spektrum/JR DSM2 or DSMX, the big PowerSafe rx's are ideal for this kind of application. If it's a big Futaba then Smart-Fly has just come out with a nifty device that plugs into the end of the 6014 rx and allows you to input power from larger size wires like the PowerSafes.

Here's a picture of my 1/5 scale Mustang fuselage equipment. The two 1100mah A123's are the black objects at the bottom of the picture on either side of the fuel tank for balance purposes and you can see the JR DSM2 12 channel PowerSafe rx at the rear of the air tanks. Oh, it's got Hitec 7955's all way 'round just like the Comp-Arf in my avatar....