Lithium Ion or Lipo?

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redrustbucket
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Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

I'd like to run something other than the stock batteries in my latest zzmt build. I like the idea of a lipo except there's no voltage cutoff regulator on them. There is one on the lithium ions I've seen. I had a NIB bluetooth I bought about a year and a half ago that I tried taking the battery out of to use but i never got it to hold a charge.

I'm not sure if I should try finding another bluetooth or something similar or try a lipo. I have a lipo charger already too. Any advice or opinions would be appreciated.
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betty.k
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by betty.k »

i'd go lipo. in my experience you notice the drop in speed pretty quickly. so long as you switch off and recharge at that point you should be fine.
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

That's a good idea. May be a little different with a crawler but I'll probably notice the performance drop.

I found these so far but I'm not sure of the voltage on them. The size is perfect with 220mah.
http://www.atomicworkshop.co.uk/catalog ... cts_id=192
Here's a charger to go with it I'd probably pick up also. I have a larger lipo charger but I'm not sure it would charge this small of a cell. Plus, once I send it to my brother he'd need a charger anyway.
http://www.atomicworkshop.co.uk/catalog ... cts_id=212

Thanks for the input.
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

Here's another battery and charger I found. Voltage is 3.7. Not sure the electronics would hold up but I might try it.
http://www.microflight.com/Online-Catal ... 0mm-Bahoma
It attaches magnetically which is a little different but I guess it would work.
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

Here's my charger:
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Astro Flight Lithium Battery Charger/Discharger.
FEATURES: Charges 1-9 cell (4.2V-37.2V) Lithium Polymer battery packs Cell sizes can range from 140mAh to 8000mAh Charge current adjustable from 50mA for small packs to 8A for large packs

So I'm thinking a couple of these may be the way to go. :twisted:
Image
Image
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The 4.2 volts worries me a little bit but that's as low as my charger will go. Wiring two in parallel will give me 260mah. The mt/se battery combo I normally run only gives me 190mah for the same size and prob. about the same weight. I'm debating using a resistor to cut the voltage down some but maybe I'll wait till I fry a board first. :mrgreen:

Crap, rereading the specs for my charger and it will only go down to 140mah. Prob. won't work.

I'd love to throw the 300mah in but it's a little too big.
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

This one would be perfect but it's sold out and apparently exclusive to that site.
http://www.atomicworkshop.co.uk/catalog ... cts_id=192
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

Yay, found this.
http://www.rctoys.com/rc-toys-and-parts ... ONICS.html
It would be perfect but it's 3.7 volts! :x
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by betty.k »

all lipo cells regardless of size are 3.7v.

all lipo chargers charge at 4.2v (for a single cell).
Astro Flight Lithium Battery Charger/Discharger.
FEATURES: Charges 1-9 cell (4.2V-37.2V) Lithium Polymer battery packs Cell sizes can range from 140mAh to 8000mAh
basically any lipo cell you get that's 140mah and above will charge fine on your charger. you can charge lipos a little bit above 1c but they won't charge faster, you'll shorten their life and it's a potential fire hazard.

my charger doesn't charge below 100ma and i've charged 80mah lipos without a problem. so you could probably get away with charging a cell as low as 100mah lipo on your charger.

just never leave a charging lipo unattended.
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

Well, that's good news. Thanks for the quick reply. I've been driving myself nuts all day searching around. Pretty sure what I'll go with now.
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by redrustbucket »

Ordered one of these.
http://www.microflight.com/Online-Catal ... -bare-cell
2-4 weeks from Canada. :shock:
Thanks again for the help b.k.
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Re: Lithium Ion or Lipo?

Post by Nasphere »

Got a couple sites of interest for this sorta thing.

Batteries from Hobby City are cheap, and shipping in under a week from Hongkong.
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/stor ... sortlist=P

Also BatterySpace.com has some decent protection circuits so you don't have to worry about anything. My experiences were good from them, great customer support.
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... egory=1376
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