Okay, now that I have 16 flights on the Morris Topcap I feel at least somewhat qualified to say that Lithium Polymer cells work amazing in this plane.

Let me give you an idea, I recharged by batteries at 2 flights so I could measure exactly how much it would take out on my next flights. Well, I did another 14 flights over a 2 day period LEAVING the plane and transmitter on the whole time inbetween flights refueling etc. Went home and measured the battery.... 7.81V!!!!

Give you an idea, 8.4V is fully charged, a 2s Lipoly puts out 90% of its power from 7V-8V. So I can easily get 30 flights here per charge with safety margin, gotta love it!

You guys need to try it

Cool, I know of some that have done it too

I just purchased a Thunder Power 2 cell 1300mah for my OMP Yak. Just curious as to which voltage regulator you used. BTW, I will save 5 OUNCES over my NiMH pack!!!

interesting....let us know which regulator you used.

I am using the Smart Fly 6V regulator at www.smart-fly.com . I chose this because the Fromeco regulator is more expensive and VASTLY overkill and weighs 2 OUNCES![:@] The Smart fly only weight .5 of an ounce

That Smart Fly regulator will take input voltages of up to 18V, so you could run the 3S lipos from your foamy on one if you wanted to.

Shane,

Mark C. is using LiPo's in his OMP, but I don't remember any of the setup information. Next time you see him out at the field, pick his brain. Says he really likes 'em so far.

J.

What charger are you using? What is your charging method - for example, do you take the batteries out of the plane to charge, and do you watch the batteries continuously as it is charging?

Many of the things I have read about LiPo's say that they should never be charged in a plane, or around anything flammable, that they should be visually inspected between uses, etc.

It is my feeling that batteries used for RXs are much less likely to be abused (and therefore should be safer) than those used to power brushless motors, but I don't know this for certain.

Leonard

Leonard, I live life on the edge I guess. I have never taken my Li Poly pack out since I got it over a month ago. Charge it in the plane and never take it out because the hatch is a pain if I want to take it out.

I use the Astroflight 109 charger and charge at 1C charge rate. I will stay somewhat near the plane when I charge but I leave it in the garage with the plane.

Is there an advantage to using a 3 cell lipo with a regulator over a 2 cell with a regulator?

I don't really know, it's just that lots of guys have 3S lipos around. I have 20 assorted lipos and no 2S in the bunch.

I was actually going to use 3S at first but I decided to go 2S and try it out. 3S works fine

If these regulators use commodity ICs for their internals, it's safe to assume any extra voltage just gets dissipated as heat. Put another way, whether you are 2S or 3S, a 1200mAh pack will still give you 1200mAh at the output voltage.

Now, if they called these DC-DC converters I would have a different opinion, but those are much more complex (read heavy and expensive) animals than regulators.

Bottom line is its unlikely 2S->3S will do anything except add weight.

That's exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks.