Quark fried, blown capacitor...

I ran the A123s in a 5S1P configuration in my 8ight T. Even with the 1P configuration, the batteries only temped 130*F. I know that's hot, but it is within spec, and it tells me that running a 2P configuration is going to run MUCH cooler. These batteries can deliver punch. The 5S1P A123 pack had as much, if not more, punch than my 4S2P 8Ah lipo pack. What was also great was that I had forgotten to set the voltage cutoff. I ran the pack until is dumped, which is ver abrupt. One second I was doing wheelies and the next, the truck would hardly move. Since I was running a 2S pack and 3S pack in series and only had one charger, I had to charge them individually.

True to the claims, each pack charged in 15 minutes. I won't say that the performance is the greatest advantage of these cells, because in my setups, the lipos do fine. I think the greatest advantage is going to be in not having to worry about fires due to a crash or charging error. I have to say that I am sold on the cells.

I don't like the form that the premade packs come in, but I will be getting some loose cells.

This is what I was running them in...

Just as a point of reference, that tire on the right is one of the stock MT tires.

Brian, you're right. What she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?

[BrianG]

lol, I guess not. Hopefully she won't come here and see that you said that! :)

I'll swear that it wasn't me. LOL

[zeropointbug]

Well, that's music to my ears! I assure you, running 2p from 1p is HUGE, especially at speed, the higher holding voltage will give much more punch.

What gearing were you at? As 1p is really pushing these cells hard.

I find they are very capable indeed, let's be honest, that amount of power being safely delivers from 2.3Ah! :027:

The dumping is one of my favorite parts of these cells! It literally is ABRUPT, I have done high speed runs up and down streets, the whole run, same power; once I got to the other end, I turned around and had no power to get back! :eek: :005: hehe

With the tires that you see in the pic, I was geared 12/44. The only thing that concerns me about the A123s is that 10 cells weighs in excess of 700 grams. That's more than a 4S2P 8Ah pack. I just don't know if the capacity to weight ratio is worthwhile. I won't know until I can get an actual real world runtime on the A123 2P pack.

[zeropointbug]

For me personally, I don't care for more runtime than 15-20 mins (18/51, 7XL), but the weight isn't heavy, it's just not as dense as LiPo (they sacrifice safety for energy). Another thing about the A123's is that they deliver more of their Ah rating compared to LiPo.

I will for sure let you know how my system compares to before with more caps on the Quark.

BTW, I used to have 1/8 Moabs on my 1/6 rally car (4wd). They were good all-around tires, on asphalt, dirt, and grass (drifting was super fun on grass)

[gixxer]

wow, that looks like a totally different truck. it is great to see that the caps are working so well for you. I will wait to see a few more people test them and then I will have to pick some up to add to my mm.

[jhautz]

Got the caps today Aangle. Thanks for the speedy delivery. I wired up a 5 cap stick and slodered it up tonight. I'm using my Matrix buggy as my test platform. I'm running 5s, Quark 80B and a 1512/2.5D and at 16/46 gearing it would get to thermal in about 5 minutes in grass even with a heatsink. I was running all day at 14/46. I'm going to see if it will allow me to run the 16/46 gearing now. I never had a cogging issue so I wont be able to coment on that part. (have to leave that to the folks running the MM, Quarks dont cog.)

I'm traveling for work tomorrow and friday and the "honey do" list is pretty long for Saturday. So hopefully I'll get some good weather on sunday and be able to put this to the test. If they help temps, every ESC I have will get them.

[suicideneil]

Capacitors; man's new best friend.

[zeropointbug]

JHAUTZ: So they DID make a difference for you then? It's kinda hard to know from how you said it.

Capacitors are my best bud, they always have been. :027:

[jhautz]

Originally Posted by zeropointbug

JHAUTZ: So they DID make a difference for you then? It's kinda hard to know from how you said it.

Capacitors are my best bud, they always have been. :027:

Haven't run it yet. I'll let you know Sunday.

[zeropointbug]

I'll be waiting! :027:

[MetalMan]

I got my caps in on Wednesday, also a very fast delivery :005:. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to soldering them up yet, but I am hoping to do that tomorrow. And, I do have some real testing to do: 7XL/MM on 5s2p A123 geared for ~41mph (or I can drop the spur teeth and run it at 47mph), and I have my Hyper 8, which is now running a Neu 1512 2.5D and MM, on Maxamps 4s 5000mah Lipo geared 18/46 (WAY too high, estimated 48mph top speed). The Hyper 8 is geared high enough that it cogs VIOLENTLY on startup about half the time, however, the MM has not yet thermalled even without a fan over it.

[GriffinRU]

Finally capacitors being discovered by RC!!!

But keep in mind they only good if they close to FET's, very close, almost mounted on top of them. Cap per bank of FET's, otherwise you add inductance which doesn't help you at all, actually will cost you at higher RPM's...
While selecting capacitors in addition to ESR and Voltage check for 125C version.