Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 12:32 pm GMT -6 Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 12:32 pm GMT -6Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 12:32 pm GMT -6
Is your transmitter battery dying? You might like this replacement.
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Just had a question how are you charging the battery? Are you charging it in the radio or plugging it directly into charger?
I unplug the battery from the transmitter first, but I believe that either way will work. I have an adapter that goes from banana plugs to the round transmitter jack that I could use but haven’t.
I used an adapter that goes from banana plugs to a servo connector, which the battery includes.
do you set the battery type lipo on your charger then? i think i might go this route if i ever gear up to go flying again. been out of the hobby over a year.
No! That will destroy the battery pack. You also cannot use the wall wart charger.
The only drawback of the battery pack is that it needs a specialized charger that is designed to handle LiFe batteries. My Junsi iCharger 306B has a mode just for the LiFe cells.
yikes i might be shopping for a charger too I have a triton from great planes i charge nimh and lipo with.
Yeah, the need for a special charger is the only drawback of the battery pack. That is why I gave it 4.5 stars. Otherwise, it is excellent.
If you decide to get a new charger, make sure it can handle LiFe or A123 cells, which are the same thing.
there is a cheap life/lipo batter on hobby kings site might be a good start. will look around for others.
If you can afford it, get a charger with a discharge cycle and a storage mode. I’ll be recording a video tip about this soon.
Hi Carlos!
Although the LiFePO4 batteries have very low self-discharge, they do (as you pointed out) require the proper charger. In most cases, this also requires balancing. A more straight forward approach might be to use a Sanyo Eneloop pack http://www.eneloop.info/. This newer NiMH technology has much lower self-discharge then conventional NiMH and so can be left for many months and still be ready to go. While it is more expensive, it can use the same charger that your old pack used and so can be charged right through the charging jack.
That’s not a bad idea. The main problem I had with the battery pack that the transmitter came with was the very high self discharge.
The cost of the Hobby King transmitter battery pack is very hard to beat. It also comes with a balancing connector.
Hyperion also makes LiFePo TX replacement batteries that have a PCB charge control built right into the pack so you can just plug your wall wart charger in and when the pack reaches peak voltage the charge is stopped. They cost more but are top quality and no need to remove the pack for charging. You can however if you need to fast charge them do so at 2C in about 30, 40 minutes if you have a LiFePO capable charger.
That sounds like a really interesting product. Thank you for mentioning it.
I have flown with the new LiFe pack for two hours and I’m still a long way from needing a recharge. I have a charging cable that goes from banana plugs to the round transmitter charging plug, so I guess I do not need to take them out, either.
Just a little bonus to your LiFe battery review. The main reason why LiFe is a better choice for transmitter radio is because their cutoff voltage (in 3S config) is more or less the same as NiCd or NiMh at 7.5V or 2.5V per cell. This cutoff voltage is preprogrammed on most radio and will trigger the low batt buzzer. This low voltage cutoff on radio will kill your lipo if you wait till the buzzer goes.
Of course. Thank you. I knew that and should have mentioned it in the review.