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Electronics tech Anything to do with the electronics in a model. Lights, Radio, ESC, Servo, Basic electrical.


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  #1  
Old 03-11-2014, 03:28 PM
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Default Batterie life span.

How long do your standard hobby shop batteries last you. Not talking about run time, asking about life span


I bought some 3500mah packs last winter and I think they are cycled out. Likely about 100 use out of each. I always fully discharge then recharge but now they seam like I only get a good 15 min of solid power out of them where i used to get an hour or more...It gets to the point that the esc shuts down when just driving on the driveway.....


Just wondering.
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Old 03-11-2014, 03:36 PM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

I got 8 Venom 5000mAh NIMH running my trucks for three years now Still going strong. 4 hours runtime / battery so far. I'm running the trucks once a week or more.

Last edited by Bo Wallen; 03-11-2014 at 03:39 PM. Reason: Explanation
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Old 03-12-2014, 10:56 PM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

You talking NiMH, NiCad?

I run the NiMH pretty low, but never fully discharge... I get several yrs out of them with regular use. They're primarily Sanyo cells that I get from Robot Marketplace.

Although, before I learned channel mixing, the continuous running hyd pumps may have drained some (I used certain batts strictly for equip) NiMH packs too quickly & some I cooked in a yr or so. They would take & hold a full charge, but I wasn't getting a full power release from them anymore, like maybe could there be one cell in ten restricting amp flow... trks & equip ran like a half charged pack from start to end. Now with ch mix, I haven't bought any new packs in better than 5yrs.
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Old 03-12-2014, 11:16 PM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil Giants View Post
You talking NiMH, NiCad?

I run the NiMH pretty low, but never fully discharge... I get several yrs out of them with regular use. They're primarily Sanyo cells that I get from Robot Marketplace.

Although, before I learned channel mixing, the continuous running hyd pumps may have drained some (I used certain batts strictly for equip) NiMH packs too quickly & some I cooked in a yr or so. They would take & hold a full charge, but I wasn't getting a full power release from them anymore, like maybe could there be one cell in ten restricting amp flow... trks & equip ran like a half charged pack from start to end. Now with ch mix, I haven't bought any new packs in better than 5yrs.
I am only using NiMH Venom all other battery died to fast or 1/2 charge or one cell was bad. I have consumed a lot of battery sense 1982 when I started playing with RC Cars ugh....And Lipo aj aj aj
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Old 04-30-2014, 11:40 PM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

I actually run my Lipo's packs on mine. I mounted a voltage alarm on it so I wouldn't run it to low, but so far I have yet to even come close to setting it off after hours of use. The Tamiya MFU and motor just doesn't use a ton of power.

I also do heat checks and so on, (just as I do for my SC racer) and never have a problem with heat either.
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Old 05-01-2014, 10:47 AM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

I seem to get about 4 years from a pack. I had a 3500, 4200, 5000 go bad in the last year here but the lower #'s were the oldest.

Venom has a program where you can get warranty on them. 1st year is replacement, 2nd year is % off and 3rd year and on is 30% off a new battery.

I cashed in on that and got them off the venom group website (http://www.atomikrc.com/). that way there is a receipt right there. lipos you can register on their site to. orders over 60$ i believe were free shipping (even to canada except duty/tax fedex)

I did have to cut one of the wires on the battery, take a photo and send it in to get the deal
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Old 05-01-2014, 01:49 PM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

From my experience with batteries, it is often a case of you get what you pay for.. Unfortunately, good quality NiCd/NiMh cells are becoming hard to get these days, especially with LiPo batteries growing in popularity..

Sanyo has always been the brand of choice in NiCd cells.. I have some Tamiya 1400mAh packs (Tamiya packs are Sanyo cells), and some random Sanyo 1700mAh packs, and they still discharge to over 80% of their capacity, and they are well in excess of 10 years old..

I also have some GP3300mAh NiMh packs that were used and abused for racing for the first few years of their 8+ years of life.. These packs still discharge greater than 2800mAh, which is pretty good considering that they are often left fully discharged for months at a time..

Venom NiMh batteries I don't even rate.. All of the ones that I owned, failed in less than 6 months..

The biggest issue with the larger capacity NiMh batteries, is that the cells self discharge, often at different rates.. When this happens, you may end up with one cell at 20% capacity, 4 cells at 40% capacity, and the last one at 60% capacity.. What happens then is when you charge the pack, the one cell that is at 60% charge reaches full charge before the other five cells.. As the charge cycle continues, that 60% cell, then starts to go into overcharge, giving off the energy that the charger is trying to put into it as heat.. By the time the charger completes the charge cycle, that one cell that started at 60% is now way over charged, and the excess heat often damages the cell beyond repair, or sometimes the cell can even explode.. Lets not forget the cell that was at 20% capacity.. Because its charge level was much lower than the other cells in the battery pack, when the charger turns off, it is not fully charged, so when you run the pack, that one cell goes flat long before the other five, until it fully discharges, causing more damage to that cell, damage that can cause your charger to turn off (false peak) before the battery is fully charged the next time you try to charge the battery... Pretty soon, you have a battery with two dead cells, one from over charge, and one from over discharge..

To combat this problem, most racers would completely discharge their NiMh batteries before they charged them, and after discharging the whole battery, many would then put the battery on a discharge tray such as a Novak Smart-tray to discharge each cell individually and equalise the pack before putting it on the charger..

Since buying LiPo batteries, I rarely use my old NiCd/NiMh battery packs.. Sadly, many hobbyists have gotten themselves caught up in all of the negative hype that surrounds LiPo batteries, and do not use them..

In my opinion, LiPo batteries (together with brushless motors, and 2.4Ghz radios) are one of the greatest innovations in our hobby in the last 10 years.. Again, treat your LiPo batteries with the respect they require, and they will serve you well for many years..

Last edited by Backlash; 05-01-2014 at 01:54 PM. Reason: sp..
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Old 05-01-2014, 06:27 PM
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Arrow Re: Batterie life span.

I have a dozen NiCd that I purchase over 10 years ago and I'm just starting to have trouble with. I'm slowly replacing them with NiMh now, only drawback is I had to purchase a couple of new chargers for the NiMh.

Perhaps you just need to cycle the batteries and test them on your voltmeter, or take them to a local hobby shop that know how to do it for you.

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Old 05-02-2014, 01:06 AM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

I keep two nihm packs for the vintage tamiya guys that wont take a lipo pack.

Ex- pumpkin, M1025, Mighty Bull, M03.

the clod will take a lipo if it has the wires coming out the middle and not post style connectors. I still havent run a lipo in my semi yet. dont want to cook mfc even though I know lots of guys use them.
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Old 05-02-2014, 06:04 AM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuff View Post
I keep two nihm packs for the vintage tamiya guys that wont take a lipo pack.

Ex- pumpkin, M1025, Mighty Bull, M03.

the clod will take a lipo if it has the wires coming out the middle and not post style connectors.
Yes, some vintage (Tamiya) runners can be a problem in getting a LiPo to fit.. However, you can put a LiPo in an M03 Mini..

Quote:

I still havent run a lipo in my semi yet. dont want to cook mfc even though I know lots of guys use them.
You probably stand a better chance of damaging the LiPo when using an MFU (no low voltage cut off) than you do damaging the MFU with the LiPo..

Just run a Low voltage cutoff such as the Novak Smartstop, or a Low Voltage LiPo alarm when using the LiPo on the MFU (or ant ESC that does not have an inbuilt LiPo cutoff), and you should be good to go..
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Old 05-04-2014, 02:31 AM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

On my Kinghauler I run the Venom 8000mah battery with a low voltage alarm.
The MFU is only used to run the lights and sound as I have a Tamiya speed controller mounted under the hood , onto the two servos, to controll the forward and reverse and it has Lipo low voltage cut off also (cant think of its number at the moment).
I used to have issues with the truck shutting down at some of our outdoor shows due to overheating as thrown in there also is an infrared lighting kit!
Back to the battery, I can run most of the day if not all on the same battery towing up to 11 trailers so in my opinion Lipo is the way to go. I run Lipos in my King, Globe, Aeromax, F350 and my HSP drift car. Only one that doesn't is my Merc only because I need to buy more batteries!
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Old 05-04-2014, 12:50 PM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

i have tried a mix of batteries in mine over time and for starters i find dynamite battery packs are garbage. i use duratrax dtx 1600 in my trucks where space is limited,they work really great .i ended up using also Reedy Wolfpack 4200...3600...2400 ni-mh and have been using them for the past 5 years.i get around 1 hour of run time without lights and around 45 mins with lights give or take with the larger ones 4200.the smaller ones i use for quick runs in between times when i am getting loaded at companies .i won't use lipo's in any of my trucks i am too afraid of the fact that some will catch fire easily for some reason.but i agree with the statement earlier here ...it depends what you pay for ..there are cheap batteries and a little more pricey better batteries
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Old 05-04-2014, 02:57 PM
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Default Re: Batterie life span.

The best NiMh packs I have ever owned came from Duratrax, and any pack that used GP or Sanyo cells. I've had mediocre luck with Traxxas packs - the ones used for the mini RC trucks. Their fullzied sub-C cell packs had very low capacity. The worst battery packs I've ever bought were from Venom. If there is one thing I will say about NiMh cells today, it's this. The quality isn't there like it used to be. I don't know what happened, but most NiMh cells today seem to have less capacity than they did back in the hay day.

Now days I use LiPos for everything. I waited a long time before giving them a try. I'll never go back now. Nothing compares. In fact all the old NiMh packs I used to run have been collecting dust for so long now that I doubt they'll ever come back to life. I've been buying all of my LiPo packs from MaxAmps. Some don't think they are worth the money, but I've been very happy with the performance of them. I hear lots of good things about Gens Ace LiPo, which are more affordable.
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