Hi guys, I just finished off a 1/16th scale mato tiger I which I swapped out the stock electronics with the latest RC pack from taigen. The tank runs well on cement and pavement but off road the battery drains too fast. The tank will run, slow down then the sound system / electronics reboot and I need to hit the engine start up switch again. My guess is the extra weight of the model being all metal. For the battery I'm using my standard 7.2 5000mah Ni-MH battery. These work great in my other builds but again because of the weight I think it's not enough.

I was thinking on adding a second battery of the same type and hook them up in parallel to bump up the amps. Before I do this I had some questions.

1. will doing this burn or damage the taigen electronics,
2. Will I be able to charge both simultaneously with my battery charger.,
2. Will this even help with the tank's performance, as is this a amperage issue or is the tank's weight just too much for these electronics and the tank is hitting a fail safe when being under too much strain?

Doubling your batteries in parallel will increase the available amperage but the board only draws as many amps as it needs. I would check with Erik at imex just to make sure, but I believe you're fine running two batteries in parallel, though I would probably install a 10 or 15 amp fuse in between the batteries and the control board, just in case.

As for charging them together, I would never recommend charging a battery in a tank, but I know you can get boards to charge multiple batteries at the same time.

So what is happening is the stock battery cannot keep up with the current drawn which leads to a voltage drop. That in turn makes the Taigen board think the battery is dead and shuts off. A stronger battery will help this issue, but buying a new battery and pairing with an older battery is not a great idea. A better idea would just be to purchase a single good battery that can handle the current and would also be both safer to use and maintain. The stock batteries are ok, but I definitely recommend an upgraded one if you plan on off-roading a lot. I would go with at least a 3000mAh, a 5000mAh+ would be even better. We also carry power cables with Deans/T-Plug connectors on them too if you find a different battery with that plug.

Not for the first time I am probably wrong BUT I was under the impression that the latest "Mato" Tiger 1s came with a "CLARK" board already installed by the factory,
I like the "Taigen V2" board that I am running in a "Torro" Tiger 1 but it is not as good as the "CLARK T22" that I have in an old Heng Long Tiger 1 so if it was a "CLARK" board in the "MATO" Why the change?
Shaun.

Thanks for all the info guys,
Jarndice, I can't speak for the current Mato offerings but the tank that was supplied to me was what I was told is an older unit, and the electronics were utter garbage. They didn't work OOB and the tank was a paperweight

Erik, The battery age is not an issue as the one that I'm using is brand new out of the packaging. They are 5000mAH

Cirus, I don't agree about charging in the tank. After I'm done rebuilding / detailing these models opening them up regularly becomes an issue, as this leads to inevitable parts breaking / paint getting scratched. On an early tiger this is even more so due to the fifel system. On my builds I like to do everything from the outside and only would need to open the model up for emergency maintenance.

Well my Tiger 1 tanks in the hot FL sun, sand, and high grass I get around 30+ min on my 5000mAh batteries, but then again I don't shoot much airsoft either and drive slowly for the most part. I still think 1 good battery is better than two OK or less than that batteries. Putting them in parallel is not that great of an idea IMO. If your current battery cant handle it then getting a new one will not help the situation. In fact you could potentially have a safety issue if the batteries are too far off when mixing them, charging is going to be a pain due to twice as much heat, need thicker wires to run more charge current, etc. Honestly a single good battery cost less than two and all the accessories and such needed for running them parallel.
Also just because a battery is new doesn't mean it can't be bad. I just got 20ish packs from a manufacturer and 2 of them had dead cells in them. 6 cell lipos are NOT cheap either. These are name brand packs too, not your average cheapies. They measured fine but once I pulled some current from them the cells just died. Have you tried to put your battery on a smart charger and discharge it and charge it back up and see what mAh you are getting out of a 1C charge/discharge cycle?

You can charge in the tank. But if you have a catastrophic battery failure your tank is toast. But, I charge my batteries sitting on a bookshelf, so...

But I don't use those fancy lithium batteries, either.

Steve

Even though I'm about 95% Lipos myself I always find it funny the NIMH batteries get pretty hot while charging while my lipos stay nice and cool Even at 1C some of those NIMHs can pretty darn hot, hence my warning on charging inside the tank. I charge approximately 20-30 batteries a day on our chargers (3 of us here at work also RC after work so there is always something to charge) and while I always put Lipos in a fire bag I also treat the NIMHs the same way. If you guys haven't seen the Bat-Safe it is a great product for any type of battery really, it will mostly contain a fire and even filter it too, it isn't a catch-all but is definitely a step up in charging. My buddy also used refractory cement inside of an ammo can to separate and isolate batteries while charging too but it doesn't have all the neat features of the Bat-Safe.

Erik, On all my other builds the 5000mah battery is more then enough for the job and the tanks work perfectly fine both on and off road. The problem that I'm having with this one is that it's not a stock or upgraded taigen, but is a all metal Mato. On flat hard terrain the model runs as good as any other tank model for almost the same duration. The problem is when the model is driven off road, the tank runs for about 3 minutes until it runs out of steam. I have tested the tank both ways, first on flat smooth surface, then on off road. The model was charged fully before each run and the results were repeatable.

My guess is that because of the tank's weight the power source is on more strain compared to a standard or plastic or metal upgraded model. However this strain combined with the more stress of off road conditions is too much for even the 5000mah battery

I will try swapping out the current battery with the another fresh 5000mah I have on hand, but I'm not expecting anything different

Steve, I'm not using lipos or anything fancy on these 1/16's and over the last 20 years I've never had a battery go kaboom on me. *knocking on wood intensifies*

Ahhhhh that makes much more sense then. I was reading into that way too deep Out of curiostity can you try another one of your batteries in the MATO tank to see it if does a similar thing? Do the MATO road wheels and idlers have bearings? Also can you time the run? How long does it run on pavement versus off-road? I'm always interested in this kinda stuff, especially with batteries. Also after the battery dies can you get a voltage readout immediately and about 10 minutes after?