Skipjack 1/72

[Buellman1]

Other than size, shape, and capacity obviously. Soldering lipo cells differ no more than soldering nicads, nimh or even alkalines if you choose.


You will find the tab on lipo to be stainless steel which doesn't take solder, but you should find a bit of metal spot welded to the tab that can be soldered. Generally packs are stacked, but if you had room constraints, you can make separate packs to locate in other places or positions. They are delicate too, don't squish em, poke em, prod em or short them together. They will likely not survive and sometimes seek revenge by igniting on fire.


But in the end, I still highly recommend ALL lipo packs be balance charged each and every charge. Lipo chargers seek a minimum voltage for permissive to start charging and charge to a predetermined limit. And they are accurate at predicting cell count. But... If a bad cell is in the mix, they can overcharge the other good cells. 3volt min on lipo. 4.2v max. Per cell.

[Subculture]

I can give you lots of pointers if you're interested.

Also bear in mind pretty much every mobile phone, laptop, tablet etc. is powered by lithium batteries these days. For high current/performance these batteries aren't the best, but are fine for scale models/subs.

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__34564__Turnigy_5000mAh_1S_20C_Lipoly_Single_Cell_UK_Warehouse_.html?strSearch=lipo%20ce

http://shop.lipopower.de/Akkus-Batterien

http://dx.com/c/electrical-tools-499/batteries-400

[greenman407]

Thats interesting. I havent seen where you can buy individual Lipo cells. But you are free to take apart your own cells and mix and match I guess.

[Subculture]

Making your own packs is straightforward. You can purchase balance leads cheaply. Lithium packs are even easier than the older battery tech, because you have fewer cells.

Back in the eighties when I was kid doing this stuff, I couldn't afford posh batteries form the model shop. Instead I used to get surplus batteries at ham radio shows. These tended to come in big packs, which I had to break-up and solder together into smaller packs. It used to look a bit Heath Robinson (Rube Goldberg for U.S readers), but they used to work alright.

[greenman407]

Wow! You make your own packs?

[Buellman1]

I've been using lipos for years now. My experience says balance all lipos or you WILL lose a cell. I even use alarms on the lipo balance plug itself to be sure if one cell drops off before the cutoff is met via esc or lipo guard. Alarms can be found on eBay or through Hobby King for about $4ish.

When I do lose a cell, I disassemble the pack and save good ones until I get a like cell to create a new pack.

[greenman407]

Also, its suggested that you should never store a fully charged Lipo. Reduce it to 50% for storage. I think that might be where I am going wrong.http://uterc.org/files/LipoStorageTips.pdf

[greenman407]

I wish that was the case with me. Ive gone through several real short life spans in a row with LIPOs. Im hoping that this will fix the problem

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Oh....and by the way.......whatever you do ....dont short out any of the wires. It wont be pretty!The TitanicHe's on his favoriteScuba DivingGive him a soapbox!Very AngrySquare holeBLUSHER Im sorry, I just had to.

Absolutely. A 30C Li-po can weld!

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Oh....and by the way.......whatever you do ....dont short out any of the wires. It wont be pretty!The TitanicHe's on his favoriteScuba DivingGive him a soapbox!Very AngrySquare holeBLUSHER Im sorry, I just had to.

Absolutely. A 30C Li-po can weld!

M

[greenman407]

Oh....and by the way.......whatever you do ....dont short out any of the wires. It wont be pretty!The TitanicHe's on his favoriteScuba DivingGive him a soapbox!Very AngrySquare holeBLUSHER Im sorry, I just had to.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I never bother with a balancer as I'm not into competition racing -- an activity that demands every Erg you can cram into the pack. Banging up of the batteries series wired cells directly has worked fine for me the past three years -- and almost every charge has lasted till I got bored with the boat. The one exception is my 1/72 SKIPJACK: Even with the six-Ampere's of battery aboard, if I lead foot it for an hour, the Lipo-Guard will rudely inform me to come back home and replace the battery. But, that's the exception, not the rule, and I have nearly twenty boats (and counting).

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I never bother with a balancer as I'm not into competition racing -- an activity that demands every Erg you can cram into the pack. Banging up of the batteries series wired cells directly has worked fine for me the past three years -- and almost every charge has lasted till I got bored with the boat. The one exception is my 1/72 SKIPJACK: Even with the six-Ampere's of battery aboard, if I lead foot it for an hour, the Lipo-Guard will rudely inform me to come back home and replace the battery. But, that's the exception, not the rule, and I have nearly twenty boats (and counting).

M

[greenman407]

OK, so you dont want to buy a detector, no problem. There are three main balance plug configurations. Most likely yours falls into the same category as this battery plug style. The Lipo charger uses not only the main heavy wires to charge but also the balance charger wires to charge as well as monitor. So , take a volt meter and put it on the black and Red wires on the balance plug. Those wires are connected internally to the same place as the larger wires. In the case of a 3 cell , you have three cells connected in series. If you put your volt meter on them you will read full battery voltage. If you want to read each battery cell sepreately just put your leads on the first set, in this case the black and yellow wires, thats one cell. Read your voltage. The second cell will be read using the yellow and blue wires. The third cell will be read using the Blue and red wires. KAPEESH???

[greenman407]

This experience made me a believer.