A123 M1 Results
 

Well today was the first day I got to use the A123 M1 cells.
I have a 6S setup and took my G2R for two test runs this afternoon.

Test run 1 w/6S M1 Packs & Maxcim N32 brushless system:
Charged packs to 20 volts.
The truck ran well with 40 series Wabash Wheels.
I ran the packs until they noticably lost power. The packs "dumped" ~14 volts which is no where near the 2V per cell cutoff.

I changed the wheels to crime fighters for less weight/more effiency.
It took ~17 minutes for my NiMh charger and LipoDapter to cutoff running at 7.5AMPS. The LipoDapter is designed to cutoff early to avoid damaging cells and it ended up cuting off at 20 volts (92.5% capacity).

Test run 2 w/6S M1 Packs & Maxcim N32 brushless system:
This run lasted ~10 minutes of hard running and again "dumped" at ~14 volts. The run ended with the packs at 103F. The truck ran faster with the CF wheels but was less stable at higher speeds.

Test run 3 w/5S Kokam 3200mAh Lipo & Maxcim N32 brushless system:
The 5S Lipo pack seemed to have some more punch but it also started off at 21 volts. The run lasted 13 minutes with lots of WOT throughout the run and cutoff at 15 volts.

It seems the M1's have a slight edge in run time compared to the Lipo's (~6% longer run time in this test case (comparing mAh to mAh)).

I am very pleased with the performance of the M1's and really pleased with the fact that these cells are more durable then Lipo's. These cells are more tolerant to over-charge and over-discharge. I plan to run 7S as soon as possible to get better efficiency from my Maxcim system. The LipoDapter is also a great little adapter and makes use of my NiMh charger which would have just sat around collecting dust since I don't use NiMh cells anymore :017:

I plan to run both Lipo's and M1's for racing now, with the M1's taking up most of the work since they'll be used in the 5 minute qualifiers and can be recharged in only ~17 minutes :017:

OK so here's a few pics of these goodies I got from modelelectronicscorp.com
The 4S Solderless Power Tube
http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/4SA123M1SPT.jpg

The 6S SPT setup (saddle pack style) for my G2R
http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/M1SPT.JPG

Here's the LipoDapter. The "Dapter" is great and I use it to charge my M1 packs with my Astro Flight NiMh charger.
http://home.comcast.net/~jrwoodjr/LipoDapter.JPG

Great!

Do you know what their voltages are under load?

You can't stop playing with that airplane stuff, right? LOL

I just can't stop playing...

I don't know what they are rated for under load.
I monitored the voltage via my sensor during the run. The voltage drop seemed pretty linear until it "dumped". I'll have to keep a better eye on the voltage under load next time but I don't remeber seeing the voltage drop much when I was gunning it.