Charging jack on a crawler?

[dont slow down]

I was in the hobby shop a few days ago and someone had brought their plane in for some work. They had it on the counter and had it hooked up to a charger but the charger plugged into the side of the plane. The guy at the shop said the battery was hard to get out of the plane and this was just an easy way to charge the battery. I'm assuming that it's just some sort of "Y" harness to the battery. I was wondering if this could be done on a crawler and wanted to know if it would damage the speed control at all by doing this. Any opinions?

 

[joe_and_jeep]

I don't know if it would harm the esc. But could you put something to break the circuit just to be safe? I charge my batteries in my crawler. I just reach under, disconnect the battery and charge. Takes 1 second to disco the battery connector and leave the battery in the truck.

 

[dont slow down]

I have charged the pack in the truck as well, I was just thinking of a way to charge the pack without removing the body and everything. Mount a battery plug on the side of the truck somewhere easy to get to and just plug it in.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

You could make a jack for charging, but I would never recommend charging in the vehicle. Something goes wrong and you can kiss your crawler goodbye.

 

[Flip]

Airplane batteries are located under the fuel tank behind the engine to get the plane to balance right. That's why they are hard to get to. The wires and connectors associated with airplanes are smaller and won't handle the amount of current pushed thru them. It would be like trying to push 5 amps thru a wire the size of a hair, somethings gonna smoke. The airplanes on/off switch is set up such that when off the charge jack is connected to the battery. If you are using LiPo batteries, NEVER, NEVER charge them in your model. Charge them in a fire proof container.

 

[dont slow down]

Thanks for the info Flip.

I did look at the charge jack harness and you are right, the wiring is very small and would not hold up to 4-5 amps. I still use the Ni-Mh packs and here is what I was thinking. On your basic pack you have a wire coming off the positive side of the pack and goes to a plug, the negative wire goes from the pack to the plug as well. I was thinking of just doubling that. One plug would be plugged into the ESC all the time while the other plug would be mounted to the side of the frame. It would be the same gauge wire as the regular leads on the pack. I just don't know if it would hurt the ESC at all.

 

[Jneves]

use a three position switch that you could find at the local auto parts store. Position one battery--->ESC, position 2 OFF, Position 3 battery---->charging jack

 

[JasonInAugusta]

Airplane batteries are located under the fuel tank behind the engine to get the plane to balance right. That's why they are hard to get to. The wires and connectors associated with airplanes are smaller and won't handle the amount of current pushed thru them. It would be like trying to push 5 amps thru a wire the size of a hair, somethings gonna smoke. The airplanes on/off switch is set up such that when off the charge jack is connected to the battery. If you are using LiPo batteries, NEVER, NEVER charge them in your model. Charge them in a fire proof container.

I've seen planes pull 5-7 amps by operating the servos on the workbench with the engine off...no airflow over the control surfaces.

One set of wires.