Zippy 4S 5000 Pufed! (Photos)
 

Hey, guys. So I'm running:

Losi 8ight
Neu 1512/2D/F
Mamba Monster V2 (Still working so far)
Zippy 4S 5000
16/46 gearing

I was running it in the walmart parking lot last night and my battery puffed! I was running on asphalt and being really hard on the throttle (popping wheelies and stuff).

I'm not uber experienced with LiPo so I need to get some info as to why this may have happened?

• What are the most likely possibilities?
• What should my LVC cutoff be set at?
• What should my radio voltage alarm go off at? (radio sounds and vibrates at a when battery goes below custom-set voltage)
• Was I maybe pushing the battery too hard (amperage wise)?
  • Would lower gearing help?
  • It would be much less stressful off-road than on asphalt, right?

According to my radio the battery dropped to 12v at one point. :( I haven't changed any settings on my MMM due to fear it may jinx my so-far good luck with the ESC.

So any help would be appreciated. I don't wanna puff my other zippy packs. I had to wait months to get them. Thanks, guys!

Here are comparison photos:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3026/...a58824190c.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/...bd5b8e33b5.jpg

-Jeff

Generally I like to set my LVC to 3.2V/cell to keep voltage as high as possible. IMO if a battery can't handle that 3.2V/cell and the LVC trips as a result, then the battery is improperly sized for your setup.

I think at 3.2/cell I should be able to run about 13 minutes at race pace. Maybe 15..

But - should I set it on the ESC or should I just set the alarm on the radio? I don't want to jeopardize my esc by changing settings on it...

-Jeff

I would set the lvc on the MMM. Looks like you pulled too many amps from the battery when the voltage was low, considering all of the cells puffed. 3.2v per cell is a great cutoff. I use that with all of my setups, although I can tell when the battery is losing power, I just quit driving at that point.

The 1512 2d is a amp hungry motor and it probably pulled too many amps when the battery was nearing the LVC. I would set the LVC to 3.2 volts. Zippy batteries are great for the money, but I find they can't withstand dropping below voltage under load as well as the higher cost brands. For this reason, you need to set the LVC to 3.2 to be safe. You can get away with a 3 volt LVC with the enerland based cell packs but not the zippys. Especially with a high amp motor like the 1512 2d.

I tend to aggree with Metalman here. I don't think the LVC setting is going to help much.

You have a very hot motor there with aggressive gearing. It's going to pull a huge amount of amps.

If the Lipo isn't up to par for the amp load, it's going to puff. If the "C" rating/max amp draw rating is in line with the amp demand of the setup, you should be able to run to the lvc without a problem.

My 2 cents. :yes:

you guys think the 2d is an amp hungry motor huh? i thought it was a gentle beast after taking my 1.5d out of there, batteries never get over 110, its a very good motor, smooth power delivery

I use the same 1512 2d neu motor, but i use FP 4s 5000's with no issues on the battery . My lvc is set to 3.2 & i get at least 13- 15 min plus of runtime in my buggy . Im running a 12/46 gear & a MM esc . I have plenty of speed with this gear . To me a 16/46 sounds a little tall .

ill be running the S version in a buggy with the newer zippy -r. hopefully they wont puff!

i got 12, 13 and 15t gears and i cant imagine why you would want a 16t gear when i saw the performance of 4s2p a123 (which are heavy and drop voltage like no tomorrow. i struggled to get past 92A spikes though (on concrete) that was with 50K centre diff fluid too!

are those packs 20 or 25C?
thanks bad luck though - at least you can buy another 2 before you get to the cost of 1 enderland - that said, id rather 1 good pack from the start than 3 puffed ones. they do have a 30 day lipo warranty on ALL packs and a 3 month warranty on selected packs. depending on how old the lipo is u could try return it?

I've actually had the LiPo for quite a long time and probably have 10+ successful cycles on it without issue. However, I was using it with the Mamba Max esc and had a cutoff set.

I agree the 16t is a little tall. I actually have two 16t pinions and if anyone would like to trade me for a 14 that would be awesome.

I think I have a better understanding of LiPo at this point and I'm taking the following steps:

14t pinion
3.2v minimum cutoff on the ESC
3.3v notification from the radio

I am confident that the remaining zippy packs will perform correctly with these precautions in place. I'm going to post a thread in the castle creations forum regarding custom LVC on the MMM..

Thanks, everyone :)

-Jeff

did see that you had that pinion on till now, a 12t is perfect for that motor, a 14t is perfect for th 2.5d

also u cant compare your set up with the MM and MMM. the mm cant draw as many amps as the motor is asking for so it sort of protects the battery from over amp draw. the MMM says gimme MORE the motor is hungry .i dont care if you puff!LOL

To put it simply, the battery kill itself in order to satisfied the amp demand. I think tall gearing + asphalt did kill it.