What batteries to buy and why?
 

OK, I've been using Maxamps lipo packs for a few years now; but I've only just started using them in 1/8 scale conversions. When I first got my buggy converted, I ordered some of the 6Ah 4S2P packs, because they were rated at 120A constant. My setup is a 7XL with a Mamba Max Speed controller running 14/46 gearing. I think it's all setup right. Neither my motor or esc ever get to over 140 degrees or so.

The thing is that I've now killed three of these 6Ah packs. Just tonight, I puffed one and I wasn't doing anything nuts or off the wall. I was just running on a track. From what I understand, my setup might hit 120A in spikes, but that's about it. It appears that the Maxamps pack cannot deliver what they are rated for. Now, I was getting ready to order some of their 5Ah packs, but I'm very skeptical. I even considered going with an 8Ah pack, but my friend got one and although it hasn't gotten blazing hot, it's gotten to over 130 degrees, so it's obviously being stressed. I feel bad about that too, since I recommeded the maxamps pack to him.

At this point, I'm giving up on trying to find "bang for the buck" with my batteries. If I destroy the batteries trying to get them to do what they are supposed to, there isn't much bang for the buck.

Can anyone tell me what the absolute best battery pack that I can get is? I want it to be able to easily keep up with the demands of my system, but I also don't want it to be a brick. Is there actually a 4S pack with a capacity of 5Ah or so that can really deliver without toasting itself? I'd love to be able to find some that will fit my battery tray. Unfortunately I designed and built my whole battery setup around the maxamps packs.

Thanks.

I'll give you the answer that most will agree with:

FlightPower 4900mah Evo20 or TrakPower 4900mah packs.

These are the best overall with affordable prices, super high performance, holding more volts at higher amp draw than other lipo packs, Stay cool even after countless charging and discharging, world class customer service, VERY DURABLE AND FORGIVING THAN THE OTHER LIPOS OUT THERE and almost an infinite range of battery selection all the way from 200mah to 7500mah.

These are the BOMB!

Ill second captain.. I tried maxamps 8ah pack in my lsp.. they weighed a TON compared to my new evo 3700 4s pack..

I also have to say, the evo only runs 10 minutes less than the 8ah pack which is pretty amazing since its less than half the maxamps capacity..

All i have to say is, go with quality and never look back. I LOVE FLIGHTPOWER!:)

what about enerland batteries and Hyperion batteries aren't they made from the same cells as flightpower?

Yep!
But the difference is that flightpower has superior experience in matching and building up their cells. AP lipos are built of Enerland's cells, as well, but not as precisionly built as the FlightPowers.

So, what about the tanic packs?

What's the deal with the 4900s? I saw that there are also flightpower 5000s. Are they just different cells that result in a pack being too large for a buggy? Is anyone running a Feigao 7XL with the 4900? What sort of runtime are you getting?

Is Mike going to carry flightpower batteries?

If Mike does not get them where would you get them, a web address please I am shopping online since I live in Kuwait.

www.duralitebatteries.com should be able to take care of you if Mike doesn't have them soon

duralite doesn't show any 4S 4900 packs.

This website sells flightpower packs also. Just do a search for flightpower
and you'll find them.
http://www.atlantahobby.com/
This website has been one of the few places I've seen that sells flightpower packs. Why do so few places sell them?

In the US, they can be had from atlantahobby.com
http://www.atlantahobby.com/shopexd.asp?id=6220

If ordering from duralite, they told me they can get anything that flightpower makes, they just have to order it. They said they place orders weekly for products from flightpower.

You could also go with the Trakpower packs if you don't mind wiring them to get 4S.

I took a better look at the flightpower packs and the lead routing is going to make battery swaps a bit slower. It would be great if I could get my hands on some bare enerland cells, so that I could make my own packs. Can they be had?

I'm sure they can be, but I don't think that they will be as good of a quality as if you were to buy a Flightpower pack.

IIRC, the enerland cells are used by a few pack manufacturers. I believe that they are hyperion, polyquest, and polyrc; is that right. If so, polyrc 5Ah packs can be had for under $200 for the 20C packs.

Does Flightpower manually measure and load match cells for each pack? If so, that could add to the price of the pack, but worth it IMO...

I'm so up in the air about this, I'm about ready to go back to nitro. I have my buggy running so well that it has exceeded all of my expectations, but these issues with the batteries are killing me.

The 4900mAh FP pack is around $250. That's almost $100 more than a maxamps 6Ah pack. Am I correct in understanding that these flightpower packs will run cool in my buggy, where the maxamps packs have failed to do so? If that is the case, the price of the FP pack will be well worth it, since I've already thrown almost $500 worth of maxamps packs in the garbage already.

IT WILL BE WORTH IT.

You can refer to either Serum or another member called virusss to give you more details about them.

I'm not talking out of anticipation. I have them at hand( the 3700mah ones) and they are extremely strong. I've even shorten them by accident and thought that they'll blow up very soon, but nothing happenned. Not even a single rise in the heat measure was felt.

I chose the 4900mah for you, since they are even more powerful than the 3700mah( giving more juice).

I believe you're gonna need a 4s pack for your buggy?

Then try out the TrakPower 4900mah 2s1p pack and see for yourself.

Our friend virusss was able to push his LSP-R truggy to 50mph+ with two of the trackpowers and only the tiny 1930/8 motor.

I've thought about the trakpower packs, but would really prefer to run a single pack. The other thing about the trakpowers is the balancing connectors. I use a Thunder Power 1010C charger and like the interface with the TP balancer. I really don't want to loose that.

I've also looked at the 4800mAh Kokam packs. They are a bit less expensive and they are wired the way I need them to be. They will also fit my battery box perfectly, where the flightpower packs will require me to make a new battery box.

What do you guys think of the Kokam cells? I've heard good things and that they are really tough cells. Does anyone know if the balancing connector on the Kokam packs is compatible with the TP balancer?

OK, another question. I really hate all of this second guessing. If the enerland cells are what's great, what about the polyrc packs. They are supposed to be the same as the hyperion packs and are made up of enerland cells. Purehobbies has the 5Ah 20C packs for under $200.

As far as I know, Kokam and FlightPower batts are the best in the market, but I'd rather that you go for the FlightPowers, since alot of people here are starting to lean to it.
As for the other question, someone else should enlighten you.

Id go flightpower right away!

Soon there will be flightpowers everywhere, lehners used to look expensive, but now people are munching on Mike to get their own! :)

Flightpowers are expensive to people who havent tried them!

Here's a heads up on what I found out today talking to Kokam... (not trying to spoil the enerland lovefest, hee hee)

They have a new line of 30c cells coming this summer. So far 4000 is the biggest cell but they say larger ones are in the works. I asked for a @5500mah cell. :)

Anyway, I asked about the discharge #'s for this 4000 cell (rated 30c continuous.. 120 amps) and he said it holds @3.8v for @80% of the cycle.

That is awesome! They are claiming that these cells will handle ANYTHING you can throw at them, period.

hmmmm..... me thinks we need to build a Baja 5B and run it on a single 4000mah pack :D

I'd imagine that by the time those come out, they won't be the only ones on the market with those kind of numbers. The big question though is what kind of form factor will they have with their cells? The 4900mAh enerland cells are just about made for locations where a standard 6cell sub-c pack would go. Granted, that's not necessary for most of our conversions, but it is nice when you want to pop one of your 2S packs in a B4/T4/Rustler/Stampede/Whatever that is set up for a 6cell sub-C pack. That's the primary reason I went with the Trakpowers...great numbers and a size that will fit in my LSP-R, E-Maxx, T3 or EVO III without hassle.

According to the guy I talked to the 4000 cells are due in 7-8 weeks. I'm not saying these are better than brand X cells... it's just the latest and greatest from Kokam.

For what it's worth the Kokam 4800s are made to replace nickel packs... it's what is in the Orion/Peak hardcase lipos. The 4800 are labeled 20c...

We'll just have to get you to buy some and run em on your eagletree to give us some numbers for em. :027: If the price is right, they could be a good alternative to using Flightpower 3700's.

It isn't like I'm biased to a certain brand or something, but FlightPower is the only thing that I can afford with world class performance. A 3s 3700mah from flightpower is worth 120-130 dollars. From Kokam( with only 3200mah capacity) it is worth 185+ dollars. I'd say FlightPower has the upper hand till now. Oh well, if Kokam can make some 4000mah packs with reasonable prices, I have no problem to get some of them..:)

The current Kokams are similar in price to flightpowers but still a little more... 3s 3200mah is $129 at towerhobbies.

Hopefully the next generation packs stay about the same $$....

I think I'm going to try one of the Kokam 20c 4800s.... but I really have not had any problems with the Maxamps 5000s so it's hard to justify dropping more $$ on another pack.

But I'm dying to know if I'm missing out... and it would let me compare the #'s and see if my eagletree is all jacked up or what?

Why would you buy the Kokam 4800's instead of Flightpower or Trakpower packs? They're pretty close to the same price even.

I guess it's a matter of flavour and preference.

I've been considering both the Kokam and flightpowers because they are about the same price. I know that many have been touting the flightpowers here lately, but the Kokams are premiere cells in their own right too.

I don't know about GD, but from my perspective, the wire routing coming out of the Kokams are what I need, and from what I understand, the Kokam cells are of a safer chemistry and are more tolerant to overdischarging. The Kokam cells are also supposed to be pretty tough.

Since I've destroyed so many lipo packs, maybe a heavy duty pack is just what I need.

I'd also consider running two of the trakpower packs in series, but I don't want to sacrifice the convenience of the charger/balancer interface that I have with the tp 1010C and balancer.

BTW, can two of the flightpower packs be charged in series? If so, is there a way to wire up the packs with a more conventional balancing tap so that I can use my tp balancer?

I can get a special deal on the Kokams...

How cheap can we get the flightpower 4900s? (4s)

I would think it wouldn't be a problem to charge them in series if you can put together the proper balancing adapter. If you know what sequence the TP balancer wants on the cell taps on the connector, you should be able to make one up yourself. However, you'll still need the Trakpower harness adapter for balancing since the pack uses a plug versus having a connector hanging out.

If you can get the Kokams cheaper than tower prices, you'll probably do better pricewise with them versus the Flightpowers. The 4S 4900 pack from atlantahobby.com is $244.99. I don't think you'll find it any cheaper than that. I've yet to find them available from a place that uses discount codes like tower does.

Yep... quite a bit cheaper than tower....

Sounds like a good deal to me.

Ok... well I ordered some Kokam 4800s so I guess we will see how they stack up. Now if I just had another $250 for a Flightpower... :)

for the Flightpower junkies here: :D

Just wanted to post an amazing discharge graph of a Flightpower pack. The 5000 is by far the best of graphs shown on atlantahobby's site... it has an incredible voltage curve at 20-30c... where several other sizes of the flightpowers fall off.

http://www.atlantahobby.com/images2/...geCurve_lg.gif

The 4900's have the best discharge curve of the Flightpowers at 20C IMO:

http://www.flightpower.co.uk/core/da...0curve_600.jpg

vs. the 5000's:

http://www.flightpower.co.uk/core/da...0curve_600.jpg