I'm thinking about going lipo and geting some maxamp 8000's and/or the trackpowers, but then I saw on their website (trackpower) that they can only do 100 race worthy cycles or 200+ practice/mixed cycles. I don't really want to spend that much money on batteries if their not going to last that long (2 packs for my E-maxx). That would cost more per run than using nitro fuel.
I thought one of the good things about lipo was that they lasted a lot longer than other batteries (1000 plus cycles), but 100 cycles is less than nimh.
Am I missing something?
Does anyone have some old trackpowers (or any lipo)? How do they go after a few hundred cycles?
thanks.

I don't think they are worse than other lipos... they must be under-rating the cycle life. Lipos don't just die after xxx cycles... they slowly lose capacity.

Did they say what capacity the will be after 100 cycles? They may be basing their #'s on a very high % like 90-95% capacity yield.

Also, keep in mind that typical use, like racing... many 'cycles' are only partial discharge.... like 25%... 50%... 70%... etc. Cycle life is much higher when they are only partially discharged. Their estimates likely are for full discharge cycles.

They way I look at lipos is that I will be ready for newer better packs, or I will goof up and destroy them, before I wear them out. I really don't get to run my cars that much, lol...

My 8000mah pack has about 6 cycles on it and none of them probably went beyond 50% discharge.... my 12000 pack has maybe a dozen runs... with only a couple deep discharges. I sure hope I get to run the crap out of them this summer. If I get 100 runs total for the summer I will be happy. :D

Perhaps Dafni can shine his light on this one; he is using the 5S2P 3700 FP packs with great succes, and they are still going strong (as is the FP pack he is using in his rc18t) and he uses it a lot.

2 facts I learned along the way:
-lipo packs should stay cool. The warmer they get, the sooner you'll see a decrease in capacity and performance.
-even just a 1P 3700 FP setup does not get warm at all in my truck, but a Maxamps 8000 setup in the same place does noticeably get warm. Not hot, just warm. Makes you think. They claim the same discharge rate, and even have more than twice the capacity. Still they get warmer.

As for cycle life, a good Lipo should outlast any Nickel cell without problems.
And Patrick, how long do you think will it take you to get "a few hundred cycles" on a pack? Just curious.

nimh's are getting quite poor after 70-80 runs. they take about 70 percent of the energy. They don't really like the spikes the monsters are loading them with.

I have some very old nickle cad packs and they did not even reach 70 cycles...:)

Ok - vague and open to lots of variables question alert - with these TP4900's how much run time do you think you see under race conditions on an E-MT with something like a 8XL or 7XL...?

I was seeing about 6 mins tops on my 3200 LiPos...just wondering if the 4900's give much more.

DM

Probably a 15minute runtime befor the pack starts to go huff huff..

I suppose it would take 2-3 years to get 100 cycles on them, and a race uses about 2500mah for ~5 minutes I think.
I might get some Trackpowers soon. I like the sound of 8000mah, but the maxamp batteries seem like the specs are a bit over rated.

It is possible that a 5000mAh pack runs longer than a 8000mAh pack when the voltage drops bad on the 8K pack. i wouldn't worry about runtime with 4900's.

I got the 3700 5s EVO pack.. this should be healthy for the LSP:)

I have 3700 packs, you will never ever want to go back after using Trackpower Lipos. The consistancy and power is gold.

Hopefully, yes!:)

You got a fresh 5S 3700 Sylvester? that's great man!

Those are nice packs, Sly. Congrats.

Thanks guys, i thought, more voltage, less weight, better grade lipos = happy camper. But i didnt like the fact they were 3700's, so i went ahead and got 2 of them:) Now what shall i do with my maxamps packs.. hmmm ;)

Say hello to my little friends:

http://skellyo.com/trakpower.jpg

ooooohhhhh nice!!!!! :004:

Wow...thats...beautiful! :)

Those are fine cakes youngmen!

Nice! Ill take some pics of mine once they get here.. to bad they wont have that nice gold colour!:)

Skellyo, where did you get those packs and the balancers? I cant find them anywhere.

Brad

I found the trakpower packs, but I cant find the Trakpower balancer. However, I see the Flightpower V-Balancer, would this work with the trakpower pack?

That is the balancer, the v-balance.. it will work with the trakpowers... but skellyo- where is the link to the trackpower balancer, not the flightpower..

I bought them from duralitebatteries.com I called them up to order them last Thursday and had them here yesterday.

You have to call them at duralite to ask about the balancer...this one is not on their website. It's a V-Balancer, but it comes with the necessary balancer adapter for the Trakpower packs. Also, instead of $49.95 for the V-Balancer, this one was $44.95 and included the adapter. If you call them up, Jack at Duralite is very helpful and was great deal with when I ordered.

Another little tidbit of info...

A little birdie told me that Mike is interested in carrying these and has been in contact with duralite.

Nice! Mike, we need to see these packs in your store!:)

Just a small update....

I finally got a chance to try out one of these packs today in my BL T3. I'm running a 380C 6L in my T3 on a MM and have Masher 2000 tires on it as well. I was extremely impressed by how the 6L came to life with this pack in there. It's like a totally different truck from when I was running a 6cell GP3300 pack in it. I had to shift the pack as far forward in the battery tray as possible to keep the front wheels on the ground while on concrete. In the grass, nothing helped...the front wheels were darn near always in the air. If I can, I'm going to grab a quick video of it this evening before dark...just gotta charge up another pack. I forgot how much fun it was to run this truck. After using these, it really makes me want to ditch using NiMh's in my E-Maxx and just pop in a couple of Trakpowers.

Edit: No chance for a video this evening...hopefully tomorrow.

Good to hear!

This is a heads up for anyone needing the Trakpower balancer, duralite have it listed in their store now.

Couple of vids...grass was a bit tall where I was running...

www.skellyo.com/T3_Run1.WMV
www.skellyo.com/T3_Run2.WMV

Cool video's. That t3 sure looks fun with all that power. :027:

I'm hoping this coming weekend to be able to get some vids of it at full speed in the field up the street. I took it up there after these vids by myself and had a blast burning through a single pack. Took some temps on the motor and ESC and it looks like I'm a bit undergeared. I think next time around I'll add another tooth to the pinion and see where that gets me. Hopefully I'll get to try the GPS on it as well...should be in the low-mid 40's as it is now though.

I hope they could do a 3s TrakPower and not only 2s..:(

Yeah, I would like to get some trackpowers, but I'd also like to try 5s.

Captain;

I contacted them about it, He said he would consider it. So i consider that a no..

a no?...Oh, well..there's always the FlightPowers, I guess. Thanks, for the info, Serum.

nice videos skellyo, fast considering that its in thick grass.:)

I just can't wait to see Skellyo's LSP on those TPs! ;) Be sure to up a pic of the two packs wired.

More diamond mound weeking jumping I say! Hehehe

You'll have to bring the cam for sure.