Anyone here mess with RC Heli's? I have a question...

[OmegaBunny 10+ year member]

I bought a Blade SR and it comes with a:

1000mAh 3S 11.1V 15C LiPo 20AWG JST Balancer battery

I want to buy a second battery and would like to get it from Amazon since I have a gift card there but they do not have that size. Can I go with a different brand? Do they have the same type of connectors?

Here is the battery that comes with it...

1000mAh 3S 11.1V 15C LiPo 20AWG JST Balancer (EFLB0997): E-flite - Advancing Electric Flight

Here is the battery I was thinking about picking up...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BC9XXG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=A2HUFQYBB8LM3

Thanks...

Click to read more...

 

[Wattser93 10+ year member]

Do you have a balancing LiPo charger? You'll need one that used the proper CC/CV charging algorithm and a balancing function to properly charge those batteries.

I run all Deans ultra plugs on my stuff, so whenever I buy any batteries I just solder on my own plugs.

 

[ThatChevyGuy 5,000+ posts]

Check out hobbypartz.com, SKY LIPO. If you need a charger, get the THUNDER AC6

Thats what i run, awesome batteries at an awesome price. Go with the 40c discharge.

 

[Patrock]

Hi OmegaBunny

The amazon battery may not fit in the blade due to physical size constraints.

The charger that comes with the blade might fit it, but I caution you, lipos that are overcharged will catch fire, and when they do, they can turn into little jumping jacks. I charge my lipos in a cinderblock with a brick base and lid, and urge you to do the same kind of thing.

Do a search on lipo battery fires

Watts speaks the truth here, If you’re goanna get into the electric helies you will want to look into a good (read $$$$) charger. That said, IIRC the blade BNF comes with a balanced charger, albeit a cheep one.

An important part of Lipo’s is that they have special charge and storage needs, I.e. stored batteries should have 75% of max charge if it will be stored for any length of time. In addition if they drop below a certain level they are toast so it will be important to be able to know how much charge is in each cell, if you want to get the max life out of them. The blade SR is a 3s = 3 cells. Great heli BTW.

Lipos are not as "plug and play" as I originally thought, you may want to do research on the heli forums.

That’s my 02 FWIW

Have you spent any time on a sim like phoenix?

 

[Wattser93 10+ year member]

LiPo fires are exciting. Even using a proper charger, we had a LiPo fire at the track. The charger failed to terminate properly, so it sat and fed current into the battery when it was full. It was sitting on a pit table, and then burst into flames.

Even using a proper charger, you should always either use a LiPo sack, charge in an ammo can, charge in a cinderblock, or some other fire retardent case. And ALWAYS monitor the battery visually, and do the touch test to see if it's getting hot. If anything goes wrong, you want to see it happen and be able to respond, charging in your garage or out of site isn't a good idea IMO.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

I have one of those little fuckers you can fly indoors...fun as shit but the tiny battery in the thing barely lasts 10 minutes. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[OmegaBunny 10+ year member]

Thanks for the replies. I bought a couple cheap batteries from eBay. I was skeptical when I found them but after reading some different threads on different forums I didn't see anyone saying anything bad about them. I didn't realize that the Lipo batteries were that dangerous so I will be sure to charge outside when I charge them or at least keep a close eye on them when charging indoors and will have a fire extinguisher handy or a fireproof setup.

Next question since I did not realize charging could be dangerous is, how do I charge the batteries? When charging is there a certain way to set the charger? I read some some posts where people talk about charging 1c, 2c, 5c etc. Is that something I set on my charger?

I went with the Blade Sr because I read good reviews and wanted a decent RTF helicopter. Something good for a beginner but something that I can grow with as I get more comfortable flying it. After all this charger talk it seems maybe I should have went with a gas powered //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[brodeisel 10+ year member]

I got a cheap 19.99 one does that count as messing with them.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

I got a cheap 19.99 one does that count as messing with them.

No, but then again when we crash them it doesn't cost us hundreds or thousands to replace. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

 

[Patrock]

The blade is IMO an excellent heli to start with. Here is some info to get you started with lipo’s

Complete Guide to Lithium Polymer Batteries and LiPo Failure Reports - RC Groups

I would also say that battery powered is a good place to start; nitro’s can get hella expensive.

 

[Wattser93 10+ year member]

Thanks for the replies. I bought a couple cheap batteries from eBay. I was skeptical when I found them but after reading some different threads on different forums I didn't see anyone saying anything bad about them. I didn't realize that the Lipo batteries were that dangerous so I will be sure to charge outside when I charge them or at least keep a close eye on them when charging indoors and will have a fire extinguisher handy or a fireproof setup.
Next question since I did not realize charging could be dangerous is, how do I charge the batteries? When charging is there a certain way to set the charger? I read some some posts where people talk about charging 1c, 2c, 5c etc. Is that something I set on my charger?

I went with the Blade Sr because I read good reviews and wanted a decent RTF helicopter. Something good for a beginner but something that I can grow with as I get more comfortable flying it. After all this charger talk it seems maybe I should have went with a gas powered //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

You need a balancing charger. The Thunder AC6 is a good charger. You're going to set it to the "LiPo batt" setting, 3S, and then 1.0A.

The 1C, 2C, 3C, etc... is just the rate of charger in relation to the capacity of the battery. "C" = (charger rate)/(capacity of battery), so 1C takes an hour to charge, 2C takes half an hour, 3C takes 20 minutes, 4C takes 15 minutes, etc... Charge at 1C to be safe. Most batteries will take more current without issues, but 1C is the rule of thumb for safety.

 

[OmegaBunny 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the info. It has really helped my figure figure out what I am getting into. I looked into the benefits of the different kinds of helis but I didn't know there was all this needed information for the batteries. I looked for ready to fly helis just to have something to play with in the back yard. I'm glad I decided to ask this question before I ended up burning my house down!