New and seeking battery advice

[Twps]

Hey folks! New to the site and looking forward to being an active member.

I picked up a couple of 1/16th cars (buggy and truck) from nitrorcx.com These vehicles came with a 7.2v 1100mAh micad battery and brushed motor. I upgrade to a brushless motor after burning out the original. I also upgrade the ESC at the same time.

I believe these cars are able to run a lipo battery, but I cannot find one to fit anywhere. The original nicad’s take 4hrs to fully charge and get approx. 20 minutes of runtime. I have several batteries, but not enough to keep my son happy for long run times.

I’m looking for some guidance with battery upgrades, lipo, or nicad with more runtime would be great, or something that can charge faster!

The issue I’ve encountered is the battery plug is a mini-Tamiya style (I believe). The battery tray is also rather small, 4”x1-1/4”x3/4” (LxWxH) and no way to increase the space. I believe I can find connectors and solder them onto a battery, if I can find the right size battery. The manual suggests I can use a 2/3S lipo and switch the jumper on the ESC to accommodate.

I am open to your guidance and expertise on the best way forward and any options I may have.

I’m sure there are better cars on the market, but these do the trick and are well enjoyed by my 6 year old. Any help for a faster charger, larger capacity battery or lipo swap would be greatly appreciated.

Post automatically merged: Jul 10, 2021

Sorry these are not nicad batteries. They are NiMH batteries.

 

[Greywolf74]

Hobbyking.com is a good place to look for lipos. They have search parameters that include sizes. Buy the highest mAh 2S LiPo that will fit your batt tray.

While you're there Id pick up a good AC LiPo Charger too. At least a few folks here would recommend THIS charger

 

[Chubaka]

Welcome. First off, if lipo, you want high current connectors, not tamiya/molex.

I'm not familiar with nitro rcx, but I do have a couple 1/16s from another brand. My brand is traxxas, and they have a battery compartment with the demensions (lxwxh)103x20x36mm. I know thats 15mm too high, but a battery with less cells or capacity may fit. Max is a 3s around 2-2200 mah I want to say.

You battery box measure
101.6 x 31.75 x 19mm

If your running a tiny 380 motor, maybe upgrade to a bigger 540 550 brushed? I did that with my 1/16 and was inbetween factory and brushless speeds and price. The price part I'm compairing to castle creations esc's and motors, not some of the cheaper ones around.

 

[Greywolf74]

Chewy has a good point. I would consider replacing the Tamiya connectors with some Mini Deans, EC2, or XT30 connectors.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Welcome in @Twps . If this is your first experience with Lipo, I also recommend you do a bit of research on Lipo batteries. They can be your best friend or worst enemy. Not to frighten you but there is some protective measures you should take to keep them safe.
You will love Lipo...

 

[tntpoof]

lipo knowledge is best.. get a charging bag .. and read up on lipos.. Id keep it at 2 cell and not go to 3 cells.. a connector upgrade is also recommended grey talked about a ac charger then gives you a link to a dc only(puzzling) you will need a DC power supply to run that hota charger,,
http://www.tjinguytech.com/charging-how-tos

 

[WickedFog]

I just went and measured some of my smaller LiPos, and the closest one I found is a Turnigy Nano-Tech 950mah 3S 25C-50C. It only comes with a JST connector though I believe. It measures 72mm x 25mm x 20mm. Your measurements convert to 101.6 x 31.75 x 19.05. So the thickness is just a mm heavy (.039"). I have only used them in 1/16 crawlers, but they have been good batteries.

As far as a charger goes, I love my Hota D6 Pro. It costs a bit more than entry level chargers at $118, but it charges faster than any other charger I own because it has a better balance circuit. Plus it has a wireless phone charger, which has already come in really handy during an 8 hour power outage after a big storm. I just plugged in a LiPo and charged my phone with it. It is a feature I never thought I would use, and I was so glad it had it lol.

Edit - the Hobbymate D6 Duo Pro and Hota D6 Pro are the same charger, and both have a built-in power supply. So no extra power supply needed. The Hobbymate D6, while it looks the same, will need a power supply.

 

[Greywolf74]

lipo knowledge is best.. get a charging bag .. and read up on lipos.. Id keep it at 2 cell and not go to 3 cells.. a connector upgrade is also recommended grey talked about a ac charger then gives you a link to a dc only(puzzling) you will need a DC power supply to run that hota charger,,
http://www.tjinguytech.com/charging-how-tos

That is an AC/DC charger. Look at the title of the listing. If its not then thats on Hobbyking not me. lol

 

[WickedFog]

That is an AC/DC charger. Look at the title of the listing. If its not then thats on Hobbyking not me. lol

It is an AC/DC charger.

 

[Twps]

Thank you for the warm welcome and responses. I’ve been spending a bit of time at hobby king searching sir something that will fit. Looks like I have a few options.
I’m considering removing the hold down plate to give me more height allowing for larger battery packs.
I’ll admit the charging piece has me confused still. But I’m doing a lot of reading to ensure I get a decent value charger and can achieve my goals. Faster charging and longer run times.

 

[WickedFog]

Thank you for the warm welcome and responses. I’ve been spending a bit of time at hobby king searching sir something that will fit. Looks like I have a few options.
I’m considering removing the hold down plate to give me more height allowing for larger battery packs.
I’ll admit the charging piece has me confused still. But I’m doing a lot of reading to ensure I get a decent value charger and can achieve my goals. Faster charging and longer run times.

If you are saying you don't understand the charger, there are lots of YT vids on LiPo charging.

If you get a new charger and need help, feel free to PM me and I can give you my number and I can talk you through it.

 

[Greywolf74]

Yeah a lot of us in here can help you figure out how to charge thats np. You do want to get a good charger though so you arent potentially wasting money on something thats junk or youll outgrow in 12 months. Two of the better ones I can think of are the HOTA H6 that I linked before and the Hitec X2 AC Plus.

Both of these chargers can be run on AC power which is good for people just getting started as you dont have to shoulder the cost of a DC power supply right up front but once you're ready to take that step you just need to buy the DC power supply and the chargers become more powerful thus alleviating the need to buy another charger at the same time.

The HOTA is the more powerful of the two for a single battery but the Hitec isnt a slouch and can do 2 batteries independently. Additionally the Hitec can also read the IR of the individual cells which is how you monitor a LiPos "health" if you will. You will be able to see when the back is becoming weak and/or unstable and dispose of it before it becomes a potential fire hazard. I believe the HOTA can read IRs but only while charging where as the Hitec has an individual setting to just read IR. Either way though its going to be hard to go wrong with one of these chargers and even if you decide to go with another charger altogether these are some things you should take in to consideration when making your choice.

 

[WickedFog]

The HOTA is the more powerful of the two for a single battery but the Hitec isnt a slouch and can do 2 batteries independently.

The Hota D6 Pro has better specs than the Hitec whether charging 1 or 2 batteries. And it costs $10 less. And it has a wireless phone charger. It doesn't look as flashy though. But I looked at that Hitek charger awhile back and almost grabbed it til I saw a review on the Hota. Joshua Bardwell gave it a complete rundown.

Another really cool charger I would probably grab if I were out and about would be this one. It's just really cool...

 

[Greywolf74]

I was unaware there was a pro version. Thats cool.

 

[WickedFog]

I was unaware there was a pro version. Thats cool.

Yeah, it's actually a funny name for it because the pro just adds AC capability to it. You would think it would be the other way around.

But they use the ISDT interface, which is really cool. I need to get a power supply for it, but electronics isn't really my thing. And right now mine is fine on AC power since I don't have anything bigger than 3s. I was thinking of talking to you about getting a psu together, and I would design a nice housing to print for it. What else could we add to it? A servo tester? Battery checker, Motor test stand, etc. Imagine one box that does it all! We could market something like that! Plus, I need bigger stuff to put on my printer

 

[glynnc]

Hey folks! New to the site and looking forward to being an active member.

I picked up a couple of 1/16th cars (buggy and truck) from nitrorcx.com These vehicles came with a 7.2v 1100mAh micad battery and brushed motor. I upgrade to a brushless motor after burning out the original. I also upgrade the ESC at the same time.

I believe these cars are able to run a lipo battery, but I cannot find one to fit anywhere. The original nicad’s take 4hrs to fully charge and get approx. 20 minutes of runtime. I have several batteries, but not enough to keep my son happy for long run times.

I’m looking for some guidance with battery upgrades, lipo, or nicad with more runtime would be great, or something that can charge faster!

The issue I’ve encountered is the battery plug is a mini-Tamiya style (I believe). The battery tray is also rather small, 4”x1-1/4”x3/4” (LxWxH) and no way to increase the space. I believe I can find connectors and solder them onto a battery, if I can find the right size battery. The manual suggests I can use a 2/3S lipo and switch the jumper on the ESC to accommodate.

I am open to your guidance and expertise on the best way forward and any options I may have.

I’m sure there are better cars on the market, but these do the trick and are well enjoyed by my 6 year old. Any help for a faster charger, larger capacity battery or lipo swap would be greatly appreciated.

Post automatically merged: Jul 10, 2021

Sorry these are not nicad batteries. They are NiMH batteries.

Hi I'm new to rc try a 4200 mah battery, u get 30 mins+ if u take it steady, also a fast charger may help.

 

[WickedFog]

Hi I'm new to rc try a 4200 mah battery, u get 30 mins+ if u take it steady, also a fast charger may help.

His problem is space for the battery.

 

[Greywolf74]

Yeah, it's actually a funny name for it because the pro just adds AC capability to it. You would think it would be the other way around.

The non pro version is AC/DC also. The pro version is slightly different power on DC but it looks like the main difference is just the fact its a Dual Charger.

But they use the ISDT interface, which is really cool. I need to get a power supply for it, but electronics isn't really my thing. And right now mine is fine on AC power since I don't have anything bigger than 3s. I was thinking of talking to you about getting a psu together, and I would design a nice housing to print for it. What else could we add to it? A servo tester? Battery checker, Motor test stand, etc. Imagine one box that does it all! We could market something like that! Plus, I need bigger stuff to put on my printer

Sounds like instead of converting a Server PSU you want to convert a PC PSU so you can create 5V and 3.3V terminals as well as 12V. However if you want a 24V PSU youd have to go server PSU which dont have usable 5 or 3.3V rails.

So let me know if you want a 24V PSU for your lipo charger or if you want to go fancy and use a high power PC PSU. The PC PSU is going to be much more expensive if you want something high power or you can do what I did and create a 24V Server PSU for my chargers and I went with a semi inexpensive 550W PSU for my hobby bench power supply that I dont use for chargers. However you want to do it I can give you links on how to do it and if you have any questions just ask.