Definitive 1:6 Battery Thread

[hotrodzach]

yeah 19.2 volts killed it...tried it today and it puffed the smoke of doom and stopped working completly, though i honestly don't know if it was just the voltage or the voltage going through the shorted part, but either way it killed it.
-Dalton

[romiir]

I am one of the people who bought a new crawler to find the charger defective, after the first charge my charger no longer gives a red light even without a battery on it, and puts out something like 1.6 volts, which clearly won't charge my battery... (It was red when I first got it, but quickly turned green, and no longer goes red since the first charge which had a 3 minute run-time :-()

Its a long weekend and I want to play with my new toy, so I decided to use my own charger

Now on to the point of my post...

I charged my (stock) battery up in 1 and a half hours using a 1000ma 12v ac adaptor.

If you decide to repeat what I did...

WARNING BE CAREFUL NOT TO SHORT ANYTHING WHEN YOU ARE PLAYING WITH WIRES, IT MAKES BIG SPARKS AND IS BAD FOR EVERYTHING.

Materials:
1. 1 - 1000ma Universal AC Adapter (Walmart, Target, Etc.. The BIG one, 1000ma is 1A don't get some 200ma or 350, stock charger is 500ma)
2. A few alligator jumper wires from radio shack, I had a pack laying around..
3. 2 Cheap digital multimeter's
4. A stopwatch
5. Your stock battery (duh)

Meter1 has a Fresh battery, and was power cycled for readings and is my accurate meter

Meter2 was left on the whole time, and is able to measure 1000 volts, its not exactly precise measuring up to 20v.. I used it to monitor the thing more precisely and to be able to see if something went bad wrong

Meter2 is wired straight to the battery, I took the terminals and stuck them into the plastic plug on the battery side

Meter1 is wired to the output of the AC adaptor

I took the alligator jumper wires and hooked black and red ones onto the battery's plastic clip, they fit inside nice and snug and clamped on there well, and the ones I have are coated with a plastic/rubber insulator so I didn't have to worry about shorting

I fitted the AC Adaptor with the type of plug that looks like a headphone jack and made the ends positive, AND VERIFYED THIS WITH THE MULTIMETER BEFORE HOOKING STUFF UP.

I put the positive clips from multimeter1 and the battery onto the tips of the 2 headphone jack looking plugs and moved the plastic/rubber insulator up so my negative clips cant touch the red one if they were to slide..

Then I hooked the negative clips up, the one from multimeter 1 first, had everything setup and both meters reading up to 20v dc, and hooked up the battery which made the meters nearly match up voltage wise and started the charging process...

I later learned its better to hook the battery negative wire to one of the other posts, AND BE CAREFUL WITH IT, I made two pretty arcs during this process which I don't recommend doing.. Handle the clip SLOWLY and CAREFULLY... and keep it away from the battery as possible, so if you do make a big spark, you don't blow your self up

I monitored the battery throughout the process, and power cycled meter 1 for fresh readings...

Data:

On battery label:

CONSTANT VOLTAGE CHARGE
VOLTAGE REGULATION:(20 C)

CYCLE USE: 14.4-15.0V
STANDBY USE: 13.5-13.8V
INITIAL CURRENT: LESS THEN 1.26A

My measurements:

My AC adapter is set at 12v however, it seems to put out a healthy 16.75 volts at this setting (under no load), which is around perfect for charging this battery (I think)

I like this table close together rather then spaced, and am leaving it that way..
The format is: Time on Adapter - Voltmeter1 - Voltmeter2

12 mins - 13.34-13.20
20 mins - 13.36-13.23
25 mins - 13.48-13.34
30 mins - 13.51-13.37
35 mins - 13.51-13.37
40 mins - 13.59-13.46
50 mins - 13.78-13.64
1:10 - 13.24-13.12
1:20 - 14.41-14.28
1:25 - 14.55-14.44
1:35 - 14.68 14.56
1:40 - 14.80-14.67
Check 1 - 13.40 off the charger*

1:45 - 14.83-14.72
1:50 - 14.81-14.69
Check 2 - 13.40 off the charger*

2:00
Check 3 - 12.88 volts, 10 minutes off the charger..

2:20-2:25
Check 4 - 12.80 volts, 20-25 mins off charger

Conclusion:
I think we finished charging around 1:30-1:35 Voltages topped around 14.55-14.65 Effective 13.4v fresh off the charger. Battery says its cycle range is 14.4v-15v, I don't see this happening, maby I am wrong.. I didn't want to fry my brand new battery (mine topped out at 14.83v)
*Off charger for 60 seconds, measured voltage

The checks were all performed using my cheap inaccurate multimeter, so the voltages should be about .12v higher.. But I posted actual measurements, you be the judge, and repeat this if you have equipment/time!!

Don't know how good of a charge I actually got yet... I will test tonight or tomorrow and let you know what run-time I get. I sure like the idea of 1 and a half hours compared to 8 though

Even if the charge isn't great, this table of data may prove useful..

Have fun, and be careful if you try this,
Romiir

[clod booster]

some time i feel really lucky having an electrician for a dad and alll this information at my disposal. lol hahahahaha.

so, right now tell me if there is a simple way to charge the stock battery quickly without the chance of blowing my self up or chatching anything on fire.

[hotrodzach]

I would reccomend just doing the 18 hour initial charge, and 12 hour charge after that, it's much better for the battery...I really like that long of a charge, i just charge it each night while im asleep, and run it in the morning, but i have 4 batteries so i can run mine almost all day every day if i wanted to.
-Dalton

[mikeescott]

the size is 4/3 A and they are a little longer than AA. I am going to make a custom pack that is 13.2V and 4500mAh and will fit great with my big tummy tuck. Now I just need to get those MoabXL's.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...385&strCompare=

[hotrodzach]

they cost more than the vehicle itself...
-Dalton

[clod booster]

well good for mr. i have four batteries. i do plan on getting some extra batteries and chargers from nylint, with how much it costs im sure my parent wouldnt object to getting it.

[OniTora]

Radio Shack has part 23-338, an old RC 6v, 1500mah NMH battery pack for $6 right now, on clearence.

They are tiny, and two together would be 12v @ 1500mah, right? about 30-45 minutes of run time for $12, with next to NO size or weight... I might try it, if I come up with a way to charge both at once... Ideas?

-=Nash

[wallyWebb]

Hi guys just became a member today and was wondering if I wanted to go with a smaller battery what would be the smallest and also had close to the life of the stock one??? also finished a tummy tuck and the stock batt wont fit:-(

[OniTora]

Welcome to the board. You just posted a question about a small battery, on page 6 of a thread ONLY intended to find the smallest, longest lasting battery. I'd suggest reading the first 5 pages of this thread, and if that doesn't help, type "battery" in the search bar. It'll come up with a lot of links to other people duscussing the same thing.

It'll save a lot of trouble for everyone. This way, instead of starting the whole discussion over, and trying to find an answer, you can find the answers that have already been worked out- It also keeps everyone from having to retype battery info that they've already gone to trouble to gather and post.

-=Nash

[curve]

Why couldn't you just buy a 6 cell and a 4 cell pack and link them together. I know that alot of rc carpet racers are only allowed 4 cells and those packs are sold all day long. You could put the 6 cell on the front axle and the 4 cell on the body. You probably could do a 7 cell and 4 cell to. I want to know how much juice the stock ekectronics can handle.

[curve]

Here's a pack to think about right here.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-x-12v-3700mAh-...QQcmdZViewItem

[smokinjoe187]

now how about a charger??

[curve]

You could use a great planes triton charger or a duratrx intellipeak ice charger. There are alot of chargers out there that will do 10 cells easy. the great planes will do 24 cells i think and it will even charger the stock nylint pack and the f&f batts.

[Olddude]

I'm using a Battery Tender Jr. charger. (www.batterytender.com). Its a smart charger that won't overcharge. Just make sure you get the new revision. You can tell the new ones because the red light blinks when there is no battery attached. The new Battery Tender Jr.s do a three stage charging process of initialization charging, bulk charging and then float charging. Works great with no problems. Rated at 12 Volts nominal and 750mA.

[kinggargantuan]

Originally Posted by Chuki

When my stock battery is off the carger it usually has a charge from anywhere from 13.8 to 14.2 volts or so.

The nylints I think have a regulator onboard, hence the reason these don't really slow down, they just start cutting out when the battery is getting low. I think they would handle 14.4 volts just fine and dandy.

i'm having that problem, i think.

i run it for about 20-30 minutes in low gear and then it just stops running.

if i let it sit for awhile, i can start it back up again for a few minutes.

is there something wrong with my truck / battery?

[mikeeh]

Tower hobbies now has direct replacementd for the stock 1/6 battery here!
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXSK06&P=7

[hotrodzach]

that's actually a little bit better than the stock battery
-Dalton

[Rock Star]

I just wired 2 Sub-C 3300 "matched" stick packs together and it seemed to run fine at 14.4v. Then started surging pretty quick, say 10 min. Seems like the batteries still had juice though....

[limegreentj]

can i use my stock charger with the battery listed above from tower hobbies?