What Lipo to use

[z71baja]

fellas, i'm running an axial honcho TR on a 3300 mAh 7 cell NiMh battery and only getting about 5-7 minutes of decent run time. Any reccomendations on which type of Lipo to use and what will be my new expected run time? The truck is all stock out of the box and for now i don't plan on upgrading any other electronics, other than the battery pack to get the most run time possible. thank you for your feedback

[Charlie-III]

I would have to guess you have a battery issue. I run smaller mah packs (4 cell & 6 cell) in high draw applications and get longer run times.

How old is the pack (age & runs)?
What do you charge it with?
Have you maintained your motor?

If you get a LiPO (not saying you shouldn't) you need a charger than can charge them.

If you want to stick to a NiMH (I still run lots of them), try CheapBatteryPacks.com, you can design your own pack, prices are decent and they are a vendor here.

[z71baja]

my 2 batt's are fairly new, about 3 months old. i also use them on my 2wd brushless slash and am getting about 12-15 mins runs. I would say they have no more than 30 runs and charges on them currently. i am charging them on a charger with auto cut off and 3 different charging stages. i usually charge them on the stage so they juice up in about an hour. my honcho is brand spank'n new and this was my 2nd run. i'm aware of the balance charger needed and dont mind making the expense as long as i can get a lot more running time.

thanks for the info Charlie III

[Pointman]

I would say something is off here. Your slash should discharge a pack quicker than an scx.

Does your Honcho have a lipo cutoff in the esc?
If so, it might be activated and cutting your battery off before its truly discharged.

[Pointman]

I used to get about 4 hours of run time out of my 5000mah 3 cell lipo in my Honcho. You should be getting quite a bit of time out of a 3300.
mah is the same when you're talking about packs. Lipo won't last longer than a nickel battery of the same mah.

[z71baja]

i think you are right!! the guy at axial mentioned that there was a lipo cut off in the esc. if anyone can advise on how to deactivate it let me know....sorry for all the rookie newbie questions. i should probably do my homework and read the manual.


thanks hommies....very useful information from all

[forbid89]

If you have an AE-2 ESC then you can hook it up to castlelink and deactivate the lipo cutoff and change other parameters as well.

http://www.castlecreations.com/produ...stle_link.html

I tend to think there is something with your battery, it should last much longer than 5-6min before reaching the lipo low voltage cut off. What charge rate (in amps) have you been using? The proper rate would 3.3 amps (1C) in order to make the battery last longer.

[z71baja]

i've been using 4 amps for about the last 20 charges. i'll charge it at 3 amps and hope this will help. also i'll check out the castle link and take it from there

thanks again

[bcaz808]

Originally Posted by z71baja

i've been using 4 amps for about the last 20 charges. i'll charge it at 3 amps and hope this will help. also i'll check out the castle link and take it from there

thanks again

4 amps is way too much how hot are your batteries when they finish charging? I wouldn't charge any higher than 2 amps, ideally you wanna charge at 0.5.

[Stangrocka]

5-7 minute runtimes? gee whiz.mos def a battery issue, i use a wide range of nimh and 2-3 s lipo. i can use a 6 pack for atleast 45 minutes of pure hauling a$$. lipo last longer. the last time i ran my crappy zippy 2150 mah it lasted about 2 hours.

[TexasSP]

Pick up so blue lipos or sky lipos from www.hobbypartz.com and stop wasting time with nimh. You can have some really nice packs for about 10 bucks each.