Skipjack 1/72

[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]

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]

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

[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.

[greenman407]

Thanks Guys. Since water ingress is always a possibility in a submarine, Im on the lookout. I noticed that the SAS pump is really close to the bottom of the Subdriver. It will therefore get wet if any amount of water above a tablespoon gets in there. Since the most fragile component of the motor is the printed circuit control board soldered to it with its various electronic components attached, Im going to spray it down with this stuff. National Chemsearch Clear Guard. Its made to seal water out of such devices. Another thing Im going to do is what I have done for years is put a small sponge in the bottom. As far as water droplets getting past the safety valve, Im not too worried about it since the closest component to it is the waterproof speed control. But just for "reasons of good form" Ill put a hose out of it to drip into the bottom area.

[greenman407]

OK, so Im setting this thing up using the radio , typing in the model name and setting freq. and servo reversing........and all of the sudden.....ch.2 stops working and ch.4 stops working..........but ch.1 is fine, ch. 3 is fine and the drive motor turns but Ive lost some channels. OH....I must have messed something up when I was programming the radio......But what??????
OOOPPP, I turned the subdriver over and the LIPO guard has got a RED light on it. Blankety Blank thing is shutting me down. ITs that bad LIPO. So I ordered another one but this time I know how to better care for it. I got a 6400MaH this time.
DAGNABIT and DADBLAMITALL!!!!Very Angry

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

... maybe you want me to sing you the Happy-Kitty song?

You Puss!

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

... maybe you want me to sing you the Happy-Kitty song?

You Puss!

M

[Slats]

... maybe you want me to sing you the Happy-Kitty song?

You Puss!

M

That I'd pay money for! In fact Mike, you could sell tickets for it, which should of course include complementary sick bags

[greenman407]

Yeah.......well........actually I was hoping to incite the masses to share there similar experiences............or am I the only one whos had such a debilitating, emotionally traumatizing situation?(quietly sobbing.....snif.....snif)

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

LOL. OK, I've had my fun, Mark. To business:

Maybe you forgot to punch 'menue' twice to save your settings? But, I'm at a loss to understand how you lost functions at the sticks and switches -- were you in the stick/switch assignment portion of the set-up?

Our best guy here for this kind of thing is Kevin.

Kevin .... Help!

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

LOL. OK, I've had my fun, Mark. To business:

Maybe you forgot to punch 'menue' twice to save your settings? But, I'm at a loss to understand how you lost functions at the sticks and switches -- were you in the stick/switch assignment portion of the set-up?

Our best guy here for this kind of thing is Kevin.

Kevin .... Help!

M

[greenman407]

Well, I was reversing the servo direction for channel four and then saved it. At that point I lost the ballast control and the rear planes servo. I think that the LIPO guard is doing what the instructions say that its supposed to do,"Block the receivers ballast signal from being transmitted to the ADF." Since the rear planes is connected in this same circuit, then perhaps thats why that channel doesn't work. However if you move the subdriver around that servo will move as the ADF detects an out of level condition and tries to correct. I haven't plugged it in today to see what happens. At any rate I have ordered another LIPO. Itll be here in a few days and there is other stuff to do on it.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

No, the 'angle-keeper' and 'fail-safe' circuites will not drop out together if the signal is blocked by the Lipo-Guard (providing that the Lipo-Guard is only feeding one of the two ADF2 circuits).

Sure, your fail-safe will go off at low battery voltage, but you should still be able to drive the stern planes from the transmitter.

I don't think your transmitter went sour, Mark. Break out a spare receiver, receiver battery, and four servos and check the transmitter.

I bet you got a wiring/device problem somewhere in that SD of yours.

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

No, the 'angle-keeper' and 'fail-safe' circuites will not drop out together if the signal is blocked by the Lipo-Guard (providing that the Lipo-Guard is only feeding one of the two ADF2 circuits).

Sure, your fail-safe will go off at low battery voltage, but you should still be able to drive the stern planes from the transmitter.

I don't think your transmitter went sour, Mark. Break out a spare receiver, receiver battery, and four servos and check the transmitter.

I bet you got a wiring/device problem somewhere in that SD of yours.

M