Battery upgrade advice please

[Girolad]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum.

I'm basically after advice about batteries, I have an old RC car I would like to get up an running for my neighbors kids, I was meant to do it for Christmas but have been too busy.
Its the one in my avatar, New Bright Ford Ranger make I got given in 2002 or so.

Anyway I have the 6.0v NiCD charger, but would like to replace the batteries for either more efficient ones or higher capacity.

Any recommendations? As I understand it, the new battery should be the same voltage to avoid frying the motor, but attention also has to be paid to the charging circuitry, if the capacity is raised if I'm not mistaken.

I might consider a new charging circuit al together, if it speeds things up. This one takes 4hours apparently.

No idea what the capacity is. I have a multimeter if thats of any help, and soldering skills.

Thanks in advance

 

[olds97_lss]

What's the size/voltage of the pack? Like a flat/square 6V deal?

Could probably build a pack out of LSD AA's that would double the run time and not have an overly bad time being charged by it's charger. 4 hours isn't a very high rate... especially if the pack was NiCAD as those held less mah than NiMH cells. What sucks is they usually sell in 4 packs and odds are, the pack is a 6V pack, so you use 5 cells. Suppose you could get 2x4 cell packs and a 2 cell packs to make 2 6V packs for it.

Just standard energizer "recharge" AA cells are around 2000mah if not a bit more. I've had good luck with those in my transmitter. Made little 4 cell aaa packs out of them for my micro-t before going lipo.

EDIT:
sorry, I was thinking those old Nicco RC's.

 

[Girolad]

Hi, I think its a 5 x 680mAh cell pack, judging from a youtube video where a pack is cracked open.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yeah, definitely just 5 crappy NiCd AA's stuffed in that thing.

LIke I said, just make some 6V NiMH packs, solder in some deans connectors and get a cheap 1A charger, or go nuts and get a cheap 2A charger. Then they can run it 4-5 times as long and charge it 4-5 times as fast!

You know what... just ship it to me so I can play with it.

These are what I used in my micro, but were the AAA versions. I use the AA versions in my transmitter:
https://www.amazon.com/Energizer-Recharge-Rechargeable-Batteries-Pre-Charged/dp/B00000J47L?th=1

I have some Tenergy 2300mah ones that I use in various push button lights around the house.

The pre-charge ones tend to not go dead as fast when not in use.

 

[Girolad]

I'll keep the existing charger, at sacrifice of time to charge.
Deans are nifty. I might fit all 8 cells in, how should I wire 8 up? 5 in series and the last 3 in parallel?

 

[olds97_lss]

I don't know that I'd try putting in all 8. I'd just make 2 5cell packs.

 

[Girolad]

I'm sure paralleling them won hurt, only longer to charge, as long as the emf aka potential difference is 6 volts shud be okey,
I wonder if I can modify the charger. I see some for 8$ might go down that route.
I'll post an update in due course
Thanks for the help buddy.

 

[jk6672]

I don't want to jack this thread, but I don't want to start a new one on the same subject. It's been a while since I've used my buggy since RC planes have taken over my hobby, but I recently bought my daughter a 2wd Slash with the Titan 12T 550 modified motor and it came with a NiMH 3000mah pack. What size equivalent lipo do I need to buy and does it need to be a 2s? Not sure if I could get away with 3s. What's a good brand to look at?

 

[Certified Mike]

The voltage of your packs should stay about the same... In this case I am guessing you have 7.2v? You'll want to stay with a 2s. A 3 s is 11.1v and is a HUGE jump!