Brushless A123 upgrade - RC-Monster Forums

**Brushless A123 upgrade -** 05.05.2009, 10:39 PM

Hi,

Just upgraded an ebay sourced Emaxx 3906 that I've had plenty of fun with over the past 2 years to brushless and A123. Running two 6S1P packs in parallel for 19.8 volts. The difference between stock motors with two 7-cell NiMH packs is incredible. Previous maximum speed is achieved at about 60% throttle. Many thanks to the many postings on this forum that guided me to selection of ESC, motor and gearing.

snellemin · 05.05.2009, 10:43 PM

I'm happy to see another A123 user. Nice carbon fiber mang.

05.05.2009, 11:53 PM

Sweet truck man! Im in Houston also, I am working on an E-revo right now, but belong to an offroad club for scalers and crawlers, which is where most of my RC time and money is spent. Anyways, where in Houston are you from?

KaztheMinotaur · 05.06.2009, 06:22 AM

Nice. Are most people still getting A123 cells from DeWalt packs? What are they going for now?

05.06.2009, 07:37 AM

I picked up the A123 cells from:

http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id=C2116942

A couple of months ago the TREX 500 packs were on "introductory offer" for $99.90 a pack, but I see they are now $134.90. Another place with keen pricing is:

http://www.toddsmodels.com/category_s/140.htm

snellemin · 05.06.2009, 08:00 AM

You can get the dewalt packs for 80 dollars shipped now. The lowest I found them for was 45 bucks.

Unsullied_Spy · 05.06.2009, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snellemin

You can get the dewalt packs for 80 dollars shipped now. The lowest I found them for was 45 bucks.

Aren't the new ones using a different cell though?

Arct1k · 05.06.2009, 08:56 AM

Holmes has them at 10 / cell made into any config...

I use 6s2p in my G3Revo and 2s (2300) / 3s2p (1100mah cells) on my crawlers...

Love them - they stay in balance so well and charger super quick at 2->2.5C...

snellemin · 05.06.2009, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unsullied_Spy

Aren't the new ones using a different cell though?

Nope, that was just a rumor. All the packs that I have bought has the proper cells in them.

A123 had warned me though about using those cells. They preferred me using the batteries made specifically for RC use or the developers cells. I personally don't see any difference between the two in performance. I'm guessing quality control might be different.

I love the A123's for my purposes though. I recently had a mishap with one of my "properly" built A123 packs, due to a ESC letting the magic smoke out. Cleaned it up, soldered heavy battery bars, charged it up, heatshrinked it and works like a charm again.

Unsullied_Spy · 05.06.2009, 09:54 AM

Well that's good to know. I still wish they made those cells in a different size/design.