What are you using for a RX battery ?

4 of AA rechargeable.  Its what the RX was designed for.

Why dbl A,any combo = 6 volt will work. Want to know what others are using

Thats what the battery holder that came in the box takes. Keeping it simple has great merit.
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I have ben doing RC for over 30 yrs,have 23 radios,switching to 2.4 to cut down. The "question" was,what are others using? 6 volt rx pack nmh- nicad or other?

I use 4 x AA NiMH with my kit plastic yachts, with a Y lead. so that the RX gets 4.8V from the Hitec servo. (Voyager,Seawind,Victoria)
With the IOM, 5xAA NiMH, Y lead, Whirlwind winch.
Marblehead, as above, Hitec winch.

Hope this is what you are looking for.

Edward.

I race IOM boats and with the RMG winch I only use one single battery pack to power the Rx and the winch.

I typically use 6 cell NIMH LD 800 or 850 mah which gives me plenty of power with 7.2v to the winch and then the wnich regulates the voltage to 6v to power the Rx and rudder servo. The 800 or 850 mah is enough to power my IOM for up to 4 hours depending on wind, water condition and rig used.

I assemble the pack myself - I buy them in bulk or 20/30 and then I match them to assemble them by pack of either 5c for 6v or 6c for 7.2v. Pretty much all the RC sailors in Ireland now use my battery pack so they're light and go the distance.

Let me nkow if you want more info...

Enjoy



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forgot to mentioned that my packs of 800 and 850 mah are 78gr for 7.2v as I use AAA size battereis.

I also use AA size battery for my tri and cata which are AA Nimh LD of 2100mah...<br type="_moz" />

I also use a 7.2v pack, but made of 2 LiFe cells (DeWalt A123 batteries), in my IOM. I use a CC BEC voltage regulator, set to 6v, to run the RX and rudder servo, but the sail servo gets the full 7.2v. My next IOM will use the winch that will supply the RX and rudder with 6v.

My Victoria uses a 5 cell AA NiMH pack at 6V nominal.

In my Seawind I use a 4 cell NiMh 1650mAH pack. I have run this all day and the most I have put in it was 1100mAh.

I use AA as a balance between weight of battery and capacity of battery. As long as you're using it for a receiver battery (as opposed to running power equipment off of it), a cheap AA cell is providing 600mAh. For a radio that drains it at an average of less than 150 mA ... it'll give a good for 4 hours of use before needing to be recharged. I could use bigger batteries, but since I don't sail more than 4 hours, I have no need for bigger batteries that add only weight and cost to the system.

If I did need more sailing time or had more load, I still wouldn't need bigger batteries because I could use beefier AAs that are available pretty cheap with twice the capacity, so I could be sailing 8 hours or more on that size. I don't use smaller batteries because... well just because, I guess (no real reason there.) For the way I use them, I actually could use smaller batteries and save a little weight.

I don't use higher voltage because my radio gear is built for 4.8V. IF it would take higher voltage (and I don't know that it would even survive at 6V many systems will not), adding that cell to go to 6V means 5/4 as much voltage for 5/4 as much current flow and thus 4/5 as much time to discharge. I'd get no benefit from raising the voltage, but I would be risking my equipment AND cutting my sailing time by almost 25 minutes per charge.

So that's why I personally use a 4-cell AA pack.