Glad to see that you are putting your datalogger to good use. I was eager to see some discharge graphs of those batteries.

I browsed through my logfiles and found a comparable one where i used 8s2p A123 cells. I zoomed into a 108A discharge peak.
http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/atta...1&d=1261946239

. @108A voltage drops to 22.14V or 2.7675V per cell
. discharge state of my pack at this point: 1/3

There are many parameters influencing v drop: internal resistance of the battery pack of course which depends on cell temperature, cell count, solder job, discharge state and so on ...

Judging by this single discharge peak there shouldn't be that much of a performance difference between a 2p A123 setup and those turnigy packs.

You may want to browse through my eagletree file.

Maybe you could attach yours too.

Wow! Thanks for the graph. The proof is in the pudding huh?

They are pretty much the same. My graph was fully charged but on a cold day. 35 degrees or so outside.

Yes, there are many variables that alter a packs performance. That's for sure.

You can see most of my graphs so far on Photobucket under sikeston34m

Done
 

Thats already been done Brian. In Britain they already have an all electric version, which came out like three years ago. It was never done in the rest of Europe for one reason or another, probably due to the battery technology at that time. I think the range on it was only like 70-100 miles, but it was still a great vehicle for running about town and such. Personally I like the idea.

I have been out of ths states for a few years now. How is the smart car doing in the USA? Sales, specs, opinions, milage? ETC...

Not entirely correct; we do have electric smart cars, but the majority are still petrol engined- got tiny little 0.8L engines and such (smartfor2 model). There are also things like the Geewizz that are horrid plastic electric shit boxes, but due to lack of infrastructure there are relatively few electric cars- no where to charge them (quickly).

What?
 

So what part of my post was not entirely correct?

I think you cheated... :whistle:

I swear it said we have only electric versions, than an all electric version...

Confess your treachery/ post editing, confess now!

Laughing.
 

While reading your response I was laughing my rear off:na:. You crack me up Neil:rofl:. It did not say all Smart cars in Britain were electric:neutral:. I was merely making the point that there was already an electric smart car on the market, after BrianG mentioned wanting to convert a smart car from combustion engine to electric:rules:. My edit really had nothing to do with the content of the post:whistle:. That's OK Neil I enjoyed getting you into a twist. :lol:

Really? Cool. Too bad I don't live in Britain. And anyway, it would be fun to do a conversion. Have no idea how they're doing for sales, etc. I have seen a few around, so they are selling. After seeing several on the road, I don't know how safe I'd feel in that tiny thing next to even small cars! Wow, they're small. The good news is that if they get stuck in the snow, you could probably pick it up and carry it out. :smile:

True that.
 

Yea the electric version was only produced and sold in Britain by Mercedes from what I have read and seen. If Chrysler (who now owns the Smart car) would make an electric version I would surely have to own one. They really are quite peppy, and top out at around 90mph. Your correct lite as hell, and would not do very well in a good stiff wind on the freeway. Still they are great for puddering around town doing errands and such. I would probably do very little highway driving with one. I would think it would be much like owning a luxury golf cart, except that it would be steet leagal. The crash testing that has been done on them is quite impressive. The car itself is built around a very strong cockpit, which is allot safer than it looks. It even does better than some of the American vehicles it was compared to. The pricing is still a bit steep for what you get($14K), but considering the savings on annual gas cost I would say it is a very good trade off.

90mph in a Smart car... you probably feel like Chuck Yeager in the X-1

scary.

and imagine how scary it would be in those things on an icy highway

What about the Hammerhead Eagle iThrust?

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

:lol:

Ordered one 3S pack for my Slash. (VXL and 5700kV motors) Should fit nicely since 3S lipo is a bit insane. :mdr:

These Turnigy 4500mAh 2S2P Pack are little bit too thick for me, 25mm...are there any 6,6V packs under 23-24mm?

Can these packs be charged using A123 Sonic charger?

[QUOTE=suicideneil;341162]What about the Hammerhead Eagle iThrust?

Nice show Neil. Thanks for sharing that with us. I have missed the wit of the English TV shows. I used to live in Holy Loch, Scotland 1977-1980 & 1985-1990 (2 X US Navy tours). I really miss the TV and the fish & chip.

Anyway that show was brilliant to watch. Funny bunch of coconuts those three. It really does make the idea of creating your own electric 1:1 vehicle seem not so hard. Of course their sense of design and ingenuity are pretty lacking. Still very funny show.

Not that I know of (r/c spec ones at any rate), and not easily.

You'd need a lower capacity pack to make it thinner, but the majority of whats on the market currently all seem to be the same 2250mah packs- paralleled to make 4500mah. Lutach would be the guy to talk to as he's trialling various new packs, but they wont be in general circulation for a while; will have to go lipo or see if you can enlarge your battery trays some how.

As for the charger, you will need to make an adaptor for the balance taps as the hobbycity packs use the common jst-xh ( align ) style plugs, where as the A123 charger has its own weird little setup and different wiring configuration- you may be better off with just picking up a cheap (sub ~$50) charger with a built-in powersupply and balancer- look up the Thunder AC6 for a good example.

Good lord... so much data and rambling in this thread that I've gotten to the end and have no idea what was accomplished here. What's the bottom line here fellas? That the cheap Turnigy LiFe packs are every bit as good as the MA packs? Or did we determine something else? Let's summerize!

Some more data.

Summary:

MA suck balls, long-live Turnigy Lifepo4 cells!

They are every bit as good, if not better due to the much lower pricing.

Thanks for the data guys !
Now I'm waiting LifePo4 Turnigy packs with more mAh :mdr:

Is hobbyking.com the only place that sells them? 2s that I need are out of stock for a while.

So far I've only found them on hobbyking regularly. I did see that there was 1 person selling them on Ebay a while back...

Maxamps
 

MAXAMPS also sells them, but at a hefty price.

Hefty price is right, worked out at $100 AUD to get a pair of Lifepo4 packs (2s 1100mah) for my Mini Revo, but that said they work well and seem to hold good balance, run it till it dies, charge at 7 amps and in 10 minutes off we go again.

5000 cycle warranty, and I'm counting lol :)

If
 

If they do last that long the value would seem to be a pretty good deal, don't you think? I know Maxamps has not developed a very good rep on here, but 5,000 cycles would prove to be a boost in the right direction.

By the time you get to 5,000 cycles the battery tech will have moved on again and we'll all be using LI-MP-MN-$C packs or something equally ridiculous. You reckon Maxamps actually counts on anyone claiming on that guarantee?

"Well, these batteries should last for 5000 cycles so for them to have died at 500 you must have abused them"

Baseline is, you are paying a massive premium for a guarantee that means nothing in the real world.

Even if these Turnigy Lifepo4 cells aren't the same or slightly lower quality than the Maxamps cells, is it worth paying a $140 premium for a 3s2p 4500 pack that MAY last a few more cycles. The answer is no. It is not.

Wow....5000 cycles, true 60C rating and priced a little too high....I can't fall for BS marketing and big corp. like practices, specially in a hobby. Have any of you guys wonder why they don't go for the Aircraft guys? Here's a hint....Most newcomers to the hobby will always get started with a rc car and will read the rc magazines and fall for the marketing first before finding out there are similar packs out there at less the half the price.

I wonder when MA will leave the rc hobby and move on to the military and/or auto industry with their incredible cells. The owner of MA also has other ventures going for him, so he should be ok when they can't sell anymore over priced packs. Apogee made the move to supply the military with their cells and I haven't seen any being used or reported by the military.

That's a very good point Lutach. Aircraft folks generally know what they are doing.

The majority of newbs to RC get a traxxas because it has ridiculous speed claims on the box and the shiniest packaging. They then hop on the net and see a Maxamps advert and end up on the site seeing yet more shiny advertising and speed claims and before they know it they've dropped $200 too much for tat.

My sister's boyfriend bought an E-revo and then bought a set of Maxamps pack for it. I went skits. Now he is well versed in the arts of lipo and brushless and the truck is full of NEU, Castle, Spektrum and RC-Monster products.

Odd that Maxamps aren't so hot on boat and aircraft packs. Considering the fact they have the best products in the industry you'd have thought that everyone with high amp boat and aircraft setups would be all over that shit. :lol:

I would be willing to bet they are the SAME cells.

Conducted testing here and the results were good, on the cheaper cells.

I haven't been able to justify giving the amount requested to test against the "competition". There's nothing wrong or misleading about the Turnigy Lifepo4 packs.

The "Competition" is full of BS, and hoping to line their pockets. Just my opinion. :yes:

True, and if any other company had Lifepo4 cells that fit the Mini Revo I would have been all over them like a rash.

Noone did.

I ran my 2 2s 8000 Maxamps packs in one of my boats, they got a little warm but worked fine. Funny thing is that by using them I INCREASED the load on the motor which increased ESC and battery temps. With Maxamps I had to use such heavy lipos to get the amps I needed that it weighed the boat down causing it to run VERY hard on the water which builds more load.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E82kX9Vio4o&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E82kX9Vio4o&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Drop a pound of weight off that boat and it would've ridden on the very last inch or two of the hull rather than have 2/3 of it still in the water. I know NOBODY that runs Maxamps in their planes, boats, or helis though. Rhino packs, yes, but no Maxamps...that's sad.

Now I want a boat.Very cool vid.

Thanks, they're a ton of fun! Lots more complicated than a truck though. Lots more to go wrong and when things do go wrong you'd better be prepared to retrieve it. I have an inflatable raft and electric air pump I keep in my car for when things go wrong. When everything comes together and works as it should, it beats the pants off bashing a truck!

But how often have things gone wrong? I've always wondered what happens when it flips over or hits something and starts getting water in. Just kiss your expensive electronics goodbye? I really want a boat (very similar to the one Hippie just bought actually) but the whole thought of it sinking isn't to pleasant...

A-Main now carries ProTek LiFEPO4 batts...better price than MA.
http://www.amainhobbies.com/advanced...09&filter_cat=

I wonder why none of their packs are the same 4500 mah as the Turnigy packs....

I would say form factor. I've got the Turnigy packs and I don't think the volume they take up (even if rearranged) could be squeezed info a hard case the size of the typical ROAR legal pack.

Cool beans- I wonder if MA will drop the prices on their Life packs, or will they just say ' protek am factory rejects' like they did with the Turnigy cells? :lol:

All Packs are rejects! Except their's!!! Give them all your Money!

NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

:lol::rofl::lol::rofl:

Great news.
 

Thats great news. What a great sales pitch though. If you buy our item you are getting the best for your money, but if you buy anyone elses crap you are buying rejected items that the factory sold them for cheap. That should be the new sales ads for Ford Motor Company. Don't buy anything but Ford or you are buying reject automobiles, and you will be subjected to recalls or accidents.:rofl::whistle::rofl::whistle::rofl:

Boats flip all the time, it happens mostly from turning faster than the boat can handle or hitting chop going too fast. The hardware at the keel it usually attached tight enough that water doesn't come in through the holes, the stuffing tube is packed with grease which helps keep water out, and you are supposed to tape the hatch down so the hull is basically an air chamber which keeps itself afloat. This Spring I'm going to start taping the hatch, in that video I didn't have it taped and despite the busted up bow I would have been able to go in after it before it sank if it didn't take on so much water through the hatch.