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Post by salford1986 on Jul 26, 2008 14:23:17 GMT 1
Ive decided to upgrade to lipo (gunna be a challenge but hey!) i have found a lipo batteyr i want but i dont understand what conector it has on the picture because i doesnt look like a deans conector could you let me know what conector it is and what conector i need.....also IS IT THE RIGHT LIPO! LOL www.f1hobbies.com/shop.php?id=952&level= |
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Post by flydiver on Jul 26, 2008 15:03:04 GMT 1
Won't work well, it's a 2S. No way to adequately manage LVC unless you time the flight.
You need 3S and remove the lipo jumper.
You also need to pay attention to size and be prepared to modify the battery box since most of them don't fit. Think some of the smaller (1300'ish) ones of some models will, like Thunder Power.
Since you are obviously going for power I'll advise you now to get a GWS 10x6 HD prop for that. Otherwise you are probably going to burn out the motor with the 3S.
fly
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Post by mrmugen on Jul 26, 2008 17:04:38 GMT 1
Yes fly is right. A 2s is not going to work. It will not have enough power to get oyu off the ground and if it does it is but sheer luck. A 3s is what you want. Anything from a 1200mah-2100mah is good. Don;t worry about the "C" rating with this plane. It only draws under 20a which most of the 3s lipos will produce. If you want help locating one just hollar. I have a few good suppliers of them.
Kevin
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Post by salford1986 on Jul 26, 2008 17:11:49 GMT 1
cheers guys im gunna keep reading and get bk to u lot later
thnkz very much for ur time and help....pure legends lol
chris
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Post by flydiver on Jul 26, 2008 20:55:03 GMT 1
Three CRITICAL things to take into consideration for moving to lipos:
1. Charger - A good charger makes a WORLD of difference. Cheap ones are.....cheap. Do NOT buy it unless it balances and/or expect to add $30-50 EXTRA for a blanacer.
IMO best charger going for a reasonable price is a FMA Cellpro 4S. There are a LOT of guys going for the Bantam Chinese clones (many types). Almost the same price. Not in the same league as far as I am concerned.
2. Balancing taps - $%$^&$#$ manufacturers have come up with no less than 5 balancing tap variations. You want to charge it safely, you have to balance it so it needs to connect to the charger. Adapters are a pain, possible, but a pain.
3. C-rating - Got to know what that means, how to use it, how to determine the power rating of the battery, use for charging, and use for flying and modifying the power plant. All work together. Not as useful to know part of the picture. Best to know it all.
This is NOT easy. I spent the better part of 6 MONTHS sorting it out and am still learning at an incredible clip.
fly
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Post by admiralev on Jul 26, 2008 22:27:04 GMT 1
hey fly when your using lipos (i was just perusing today...perhaps my next mod) they have two cables on them. do you have to remove one of those? im not worried about the deans conversion on the cable anymore
thanks~!
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Post by flydiver on Jul 27, 2008 1:57:43 GMT 1
Like a 7-cell NiMh battery is 7 cells soldered together a 3S lipo is 3 cells soldered together. UNLIKE NiMh which balance themselves when charged through the power tap a lipo does NOT do that. As cells are used they can get out of balance.
Non-balancing chargers only job is to bring them up to a specific voltage > 12.6v for 3S usually. If 2 cells are out of balance LOW and the 3rd is HIGH, as the non-balancing charger dumps volts into all 3 it will OVERCHARGE the high one >>>>>bloooeeyyyy! lipo fire.
That OTHER (usually smaller) wire is the balancing tap. You charge through that, each cell individually. It's got a bunch of little wires.
I repeat - DO NOT BUY A CHARGER THAT DOES NOT BALANCE.
You'll just end up buying another charger in short order most likely as you begin to understand how lipos work.
DO NOT BUY LIPOS WITHOUT A BALANCING TAP. Boycott those POS out of existence.
Why am I telling you this? I MADE EVERY one of the mistakes above. Learn from my mistakes or make them again.
BTW - if the charger is less than $30 and says it balances, I would suspect a HIGH degree of being loose with the truth.
And do NOT expect a decent lipo charger to run off wall power. You'll need to buy a separate power supply. Factor in those $$ also. It's annoying, but that's the way it is.
fly
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Post by admiralev on Jul 27, 2008 2:34:57 GMT 1
yea i just realize that when i looked, but thanks. where can you get a wall-converter for DC chargers?
thanks!
admiral
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Post by admiralev on Jul 27, 2008 2:41:46 GMT 1
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Post by Ellis on Jul 27, 2008 2:56:40 GMT 1
Yes fly is right. A 2s is not going to work. It will not have enough power to get oyu off the ground and if it does it is but sheer luck. A 3s is what you want. Anything from a 1200mah-2100mah is good. Don;t worry about the "C" rating with this plane. It only draws under 20a which most of the 3s lipos will produce. If you want help locating one just hollar. I have a few good suppliers of them. Kevin Hey Kevin, This is my hollar. What's your opinion for 2100mAh lipos for the SC? It will probably be just for the SC, so high end is not what I'm after. I guess I'd like lower cost but not an obscure unknown brand. Ellis |
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Post by admiralev on Jul 27, 2008 4:16:36 GMT 1
i feel bad we hijacked salford's post
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Post by flydiver on Jul 27, 2008 4:35:29 GMT 1
The PZ charger does work. Like the rest of the PZ chargers it's not a quality or reliable unit. Mine works but I don't use it anymore. Some cells it charges fine, a few it chargers OK but never seems to finish-known problem. I've gone pretty exclusively to the FMA Cellpro 4s, a vastly superior charger. www.fmadirect.com/products.htm?cat=45&nid=4I do have a non-balancing e-flite for a couple batteries I bought without taps before I realized how important they were. Just a couple days ago I got up enough gumption to take 2 apart and solder on balance taps. One turned out to be well balanced. The other was way out of whack. Fully realizing that this is a PZ Cub forum and a LOT of people are just thrilled to death about the plane once you have gotten over that infatuation and learned a bit more you'll end up realizing both how inexpensive and limited the Cub and all it's attendant products are, and how remarkable PZ put out such a functional product for a cheap price. A lot of their products are that way. I have a Stryker, the lipo is fine, the plane is very good, the TX is satisfactory as is the charger. It's a step up from the Cub and it shows but people almost give away those TX once they move up to a decent 6-ch computer TX. A lot of folks sell power supplies. FMA sells their own but it's a basic 5A unit. I got a 7A Duratrax unit. Claimed to be 7A switching 12V unit. Turned out to put out 16v unloaded. A BUNCH of chargers will NOT work if the voltage is over 15V, so this one didn't either. So much for specs on a brand name product huh? I did (with the help of the RCGroups) figure out how to put a couple diodes in line and pull the voltage down below 15v so its my main unit now, but I shouldn't have had to do that. If you are lucky, know what you are looking for, and shop thrift stores you can sometimes find 12v/5A laptop power supplies. They work great. Some folks convert desktop PC power supplies for use. There are threads on that. On my to do list sometime. fly |
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Post by flydiver on Jul 27, 2008 4:38:02 GMT 1
i feel bad we hijacked salford's post Naw, he needs to be brought up to speed. Mostly this is pertinent info for the future. fly |
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Post by admiralev on Jul 27, 2008 5:10:44 GMT 1
yea i dont plan on buying a stryker i was just mentioning how that charger is included in that RTF kit
horizon hobby has a package that comes with the parkzone charger and a 2200 mah stryker battery (which i hope isnt too much for the cub, i was told 2100 mah), so i will probably just get that for now (do stock sc motors run with 2200 mahs?)
thanks!
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Post by mrmugen on Jul 27, 2008 6:04:34 GMT 1
Thats HZ charger is a joke and should not be used IMO. It charges and tries to balance while charging. If it see's full voltage before it is balanced it shuts down. I have had several people prove this including myself and my lhs owner. Matter of fact I brought it to his attn. It only balances while charging. Most of the time they require more than the charge time allows. Money spend on a good charger will pay for itself in cell life and power output and longevity.
Kevin
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