Feeler; 1S batt mod for radios

[losikid]

How many of you would like to be able to run your radio of a 1s lipo?

Should i make the battery so it includes all the circuitry to charge it, boost the voltage, and discharge protection, or would you prefer to plug the battery into a simple boost regulator with discharge protection circuit board?

The simple circuit board that requires some soldering will be quite cheap, but if its a all-in-one with lipo, charger, regulator, solder free install etc, it could get quite expensive, around 50 bucks.

The circuitry won't be much bigger than a quarter, and a small lipo will power a radio for afew hours. But the reasoning behind a 1s lipo mod is to make the radio lighter. My main intention for this project is for use with the gt3b as its still using a 8 AA pack and HEAVY compared to the radios i build. With the boost regulator i'm considering efficiency for a 5v output will be like 90% so not much power will go to waist....but it can work for all radios not just the 3b, so i'm unsure if i want to make this a universal mod or a gt3b exclusive.

[Charlie-III]

I may be entertained......I have a 3PM-x that uses 8 "AA" batteries, it gets expensive after a while.
Would it be easier to do a 2S so the boost is smaller??
I have plenty of chargers, so a boost regulator & balance plugs plus some circuit would be what I am looking for.
Maybe a single circuit that has a small switch/jumper to switch from 1S input to 2S input thus varying the output?
Likely they need to be 2 seperate circuits though.

Oh, and it's "waste" not "waist", unless unless you mean you'll get fat. LOL

[losikid]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

I may be entertained......I have a 3PM-x that uses 8 "AA" batteries, it gets expensive after a while.
Would it be easier to do a 2S so the boost is smaller??
I have plenty of chargers, so a boost regulator & balance plugs plus some circuit would be what I am looking for.
Maybe a single circuit that has a small switch/jumper to switch from 1S input to 2S input thus varying the output?
Likely they need to be 2 seperate circuits though.

Oh, and it's "waste" not "waist", unless unless you mean you'll get fat. LOL

It'll only be boosting to 5v and bypass the regulators on the radios circuit board,

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by losikid

It'll only be boosting to 5v and bypass the regulators on the radios circuit board,

5VDC huh......not enough in my book, 8 "AA" is 12VDC, ~9VDC min.....unless you know something I don't (which IS possible).

[losikid]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

5VDC huh......not enough in my book, 8 "AA" is 12VDC, ~9VDC min.....unless you know something I don't (which IS possible).

Yes they use 12v's then regulate it down to a constant 5v (may be 3.3v) It is cheapper todo it this way, and mostly volts are lost, not current so it lasts longer.

A step up regulator will bring that low voltage up to a higher voltage and consume alitte extra power, so the same battery won't go as long.

But would you rather have 1 AA that last 4 hours, or 8 AA's that last 6 hours? (this is just a visual,)

So basically the circuitry will boost the 3s to 5v and will basically replace the regulator on the radio...now doing this may not allow the radio read the voltage coming from the battery...just depends

[ax-10 crazy]

Will it be able to boost the voltage to 5 volts constant even though the battery is losing voltage? Will this be plug and go? Say a receiver plug for plugging into the radio and a deans/micro deans for plugging the battery into.

Thanks and great idea

[Charlie-III]

I'll think a bit about it, but for now, I'm game.

[losikid]

Originally Posted by ax-10 crazy

Will it be able to boost the voltage to 5 volts constant even though the battery is losing voltage? Will this be plug and go? Say a receiver plug for plugging into the radio and a deans/micro deans for plugging the battery into.

Thanks and great idea

Yes it'll boost it to 5v even if the voltage drops...

No it won't plug into the radio, it'll require solder joints.

[ax-10 crazy]

Originally Posted by losikid

Yes it'll boost it to 5v even if the voltage drops...

No it won't plug into the radio, it'll require solder joints.

Can you make a version that can as my 4pl requires a receiver style plug to plug in?

Thanks

[Rok Krawl]

I don't really notice the weight of my transmitter. I too grew tired of replacing the 8 AA batts in my M11 every few weeks. So I just took one of my 900mah 3s lipo packs and put a connector on it and stuck in the bottom of my Tx. Saved me hundreds by not having to buy AA batts all of the time.

1s would be cool as it would be slim and I could stick in a much larger cell.

[rockhugger]

I'm in for this.
how reliable will it be?

Would it be easier to use a 2s and drop it down so those of us using 2s 1300mah crawler batteries could just use existing batteries? Eiteher way, I'm interested

[CrawlHer]

i would definitly be in for this mod for my gt3b also ar eyuo planngin on doing this for a nomadio react? aa batteries are freakin spendy

do you have an eta on this mod?

[losikid]

Originally Posted by CrawlHer

do you have an eta on this mod?

Well the problem is that the price it cost me to have 500 of these built and assembled is more that what i can just buy something similar...because they already make these for breadboard prototyping...so i'm looking into all my options, if i can't keep it with afew dollars from elsewhere i'll just do a diy

If i do make them, it'll be a direct replacement for the gt3b's regulator, i can't say if it will or won't work with others like it will with the 3b

[maxxflip]

I've been running 3s lipos in my TX's for a while now... never a problem.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by losikid

Well the problem is that the price it cost me to have 500 of these built and assembled is more that what i can just buy something similar...because they already make these for breadboard prototyping...so i'm looking into all my options, if i can't keep it with afew dollars from elsewhere i'll just do a diy

If i do make them, it'll be a direct replacement for the gt3b's regulator, i can't say if it will or won't work with others like it will with the 3b

Sounds inticing to me...I need a new radio and am considering this one.