I got my E-Starter last week and this week Im going to buy batterys. I was looking into KoKam Li-Ploy batteries. Can any one recomend a size for them?

I am not sure for the e-starter. But my neighbor uses a 2 cell 700 mah on a tiger moth. He gets 50 min fly times on it. This is the size i would recomend. Might want to hear other peoples opinion before final purchase. Good luck on the E-Starter!!

With no offense to Brian, Micheal I might suggest a 1200-1300 mah 2s lipo, for the E-starter and you can expect 9-13 minute flight times with those capacities. The Tiger Moth uses a much smaller motor than the E-Starter, in a much lighter plane. "Load or discharge rates for lipo's are critical for the battery life. ( [link]http://edogfight.com[/link]) is advertising batteries this month on special. I think the 1300's were under 30.00 $. You will be able to maintain full throttle for an extended period of time with these packs, without damaging them.

If you don't all ready have an ESC desinged for lipo's, you will need to monitor your batteries with a timer and a voltmeter.


Craig.

You are going to really like this plane. We (my friends and I )have five E-Starter's. We have thrown every battery we own at this thing and it loves them all. The 1200 lipo's are without a doubt the best that we have tried. Just make sure they are the 2cell (7.4v)and not the 3(11.1v). The motor will fry with the 3cell packs. Always balance a new plane ,but none of ours had to have any weight added to get them to balance. Going to put floats on mine this summer!!![sm=drowning.gif]

Well thaks for all the info. I will be getting my pack this afternoon. And I cant wait to go flying, I have heard nothing bad about the E-Starter from every one I talk to.

The 2 cell Li-Po battery will be light compared to nimhs so be sure to check COG and you may have to add a little nose weight.

Wow, this is new, do a search, when I got mine no one had anything good to say about the e-starter, mine was balanced but the plan was wrong so it was tail heavy, couldnt get it high enough on the first flight to trim it out,, the tail section is weak, big complaint there, weak landing gear......one day I might make it a glow plane if I feel like fixing it up....Rog

Rog, I too, had a host of problems with my E-Starter. Like all of my GWS kit's, this one was shipped with some damage.This time, it was to the tail feathers and a warped wing to boot. At least I got all of the parts with the kit, which was not the case with my Corsair (missing the stab) or my Zero (missing instructions, hardware, motor stick)

My E-Starter balanced ok, but had some really strange traits, while in the air, particularly at high power settings. It would roll into a turn and enter a grave yard spiral, randomly, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right. It would do this with no particular frequency. I even swapped out the entire flight pack, thinking that would help. After flying R/C planes for nearly 25 years, I had never experienced this kind of behavior.

[&:] It wound up in pieces eventually.


Craig.

I'm running the Thunder Power 2100mAh 2 Cell li-po pack in mine. 1.7oz lighter then the recommended NiCD pack, and 3 times the flight time. I'm getting 15-25 minute flight times depending on how aggresive I fly.

I am currently flying a SS with a GWS 730 mAh 8.4v NiMH battery. Will I be able to stick this battery in an E-starter? I am just wondering about the size and weight. I am moving up to a 4 channel plane and am hoping to keep using the batteries I have.

You can use this battery for the stock motor in the E-Starter. Your flight times will most definitely be limited to 4 or 5 minutes. If you decide to spend the funds, go with li-po batteries. Or I have a closet full of Ni-Cd's I can sell you for real cheap.

Thanks for all the help guys so I got an FMA Ditect Kokam charger, but I have to wait a bit longer to get the battery, as my funds ran out.

Thanks NMPhi767. More duration would be nice but I made the mistake of bringing my wife with me when I was buying my first equipment for my Slow Stick. She vetoed the li-po batteries and charger because of the cost.

So putting a 8.4v battery in when it recommends a 7.4v is not a problem?

Duration won't be that much of a problem though. I fly in a baseball diamond that is across the street from me. I can be flying within 2 min of walking out the door. Besides longer flight times attract more kids (i mean walking obsticles).

Well, technically, there is some possibility that you could burn up the motor at this voltage. Like if you ran it at full throttle for a very long time. You would have to have some large capacity li-po's to pull that off though. The 8.4 voltage is not that much higher, it's not like you are running twelve volts through the thing. There is probably little or no risk involved here.

I have run 11.1 volts through a GWS 350 motor (not recommended!) before and I have yet to burn it up, but I try to stay off the throttle until I need it. The funny thing about modeling is as you get more into it, you will try all kinds of stupid things to get more power, like running 11.1 volts through a gws 350 motor or putting a 350 motor in a GWS Pico Cub. Many times it works out alright, but there are those few times that your plane falls from the sky in a blazing heap of foam glory and you learn from your mistakes. In the case of the cub, I ripped the wings clean off at an altitude of about 150 feet because I had too much thrust and did not know you are supposed to reinforce your wings with carbon fiber rods. Granted it was a forty dollar lesson, but it was fun.