Upgrading from old batts to new lipos... Help pls...

Im looking for a 6 volt lipo or a 7.4 and regulator to go with it. I've been out of the loop for a few years and dont know who here sells them without going with Tower Hobbies, (which totally confused me)...

Putting them in a outboard kneeler and a B Tunnel...

Thanks,

Doug

i have be dealing with Maxxpacks and Hobby King with good results.mike.

Castile makes a voltage regulator that can be programed for 6 volts or 4.8 using the 7.4 volt lipos. It works great and lipo does not self discharge like the nimh batteries.

Brad

Best to just run a LiFe 6.6 volt pack and skip the added electronics. The LiFe's have a much flatter voltage loss during discharge than a Lipo pack so it ends up being about the same thing except less junk in the boat to burn up when it gets wet. Voltage regulators are very suceptible to frying in even a damp location and when they do it is often a dead short and burns everything up between it and the battery.

I have LiFe packs for sale in several mah ratings. 1300, 1800 and 2500 mah

Doug,

I would recommend going with LiFe 6.6v packs. No regulator and safer than LIPo's if that's a concern. Search them at valuehobby.com - batteries-life. Great price on 700 and 1100ma.

Mic

Daniel's Racing said:

Best to just run a LiFe 6.6 volt pack and skip the added electronics. The LiFe's have a much flatter voltage loss during discharge than a Lipo pack so it ends up being about the same thing except less junk in the boat to burn up when it gets wet. Voltage regulators are very suceptible to frying in even a damp location and when they do it is often a dead short and burns everything up between it and the battery.

I have LiFe packs for sale in several mah ratings. 1300, 1800 and 2500 mah

Click to expand...

HTV Boats said:

Doug,

I would recommend going with LiFe 6.6v packs. No regulator and safer than LIPo's if that's a concern. Search them at valuehobby.com - batteries-life. Great price on 700 and 1100ma.

Mic

Click to expand...

Doug, LiFe 6.6v for sure. Been using Daniel's with good success. Hope to see you at Charleston.

Life is the easiest to use. And have used Daniel's for years now. No issues.

Doug,

LiFe AND a regulator (castle 10)... you will need a LiFe charger but they are not much money..

Just that simple.

Grim

I have never seen someone running a regulator with Life packs because you usually wouldn't need to. If the servo's are old and/or only good for 4.8 volts it may be time to upgrade those also.

Life are fine with 99% of all servo's except the old 4.8 rated servos. Installing a diode in forward bias direction will drop the voltage .7 volts if you need with less chance of failure than a regulator.

Depending on the servos you have........... and Dougs are likey older.

YOU WANT to regulate the voltage to 5V...

I have yet.. in any and all instances, never have had a Regulator fail...

So...to sum it up..

If you have older lower voltage servos.. for 20 bucks you reg them.

If you have HV servos.. it does not matter.. 4.8 to 8.4V.. they just don't care.

Grim

IMO it would be a wiser to put the money towards new digital servo's. They do not need to be high dollar HV servo's to run LiFe packs. Get some real servo's in there and you would not believe the difference in the way the boats would drive.

Gang,

Those reading in..

IT IS BEST TO REGULATE servos that are not designed for high voltage packs like LIFE or LIPO..

Do you HAVE to do it.. NO.. but you are spinning the chamber.

Your call...

Grim

Mike, I understand the need to regulate for the older servos, but don't we need at least 6 volt for 2.4 receivers? Do we need to put the regulator between the receiver and each servo?

Thanks,

Steve Ball

Grimracer said:

Gang,

Those reading in..

IT IS BEST TO REGULATE servos that are not designed for high voltage packs like LIFE or LIPO..

Do you HAVE to do it.. NO.. but you are spinning the chamber.

Your call...

Grim

Click to expand...

No.. one regulator will do them all...

So..

Battery

Switch

Regulator

RX

Servos

In that order..

Does that help.. in other words.. the Reg goes between the Switch and the RX... then.. ALL is regulated.

Grim

So you're saying it's OK to run the 2.4 receivers at 5V?

Grimracer said:

No.. one regulator will do them all...

So..

Battery
Switch
Regulator
RX
Servos

In that order..

Does that help.. in other words.. the Reg goes between the Switch and the RX... then.. ALL is regulated.

Grim

Click to expand...

Yes.. usable... voltage range is 3.5 to 8.4V

Grim

Thanks Mike!

Steve

Grimracer said:

Yes.. usable... voltage range is 3.5 to 8.4V

Grim

Click to expand...

Grimracer said:

Gang,

Those reading in..

IT IS BEST TO REGULATE servos that are not designed for high voltage packs like LIFE or LIPO..

Do you HAVE to do it.. NO.. but you are spinning the chamber.

Your call...

Grim

Click to expand...

Grim,

If LiFe packs required the purchase of HV rated servo's or a regulator there would be very few people running LiFe packs but there is almost no one left that doesn't have their receiver/servo's powered directly by LiFe packs without the use of HV servos or going through a regulator.

Just don't want people reading your posts and thinking oh holy chit I gotta buy two $100 + dollar servo's to run a LiFe pack. That's crazy.

And just because a servo does burn up just blaming it on the extra voltage of a LiFe packs is probably not the case. I saw more servo's burnt up with NiMh than I see burning up today. Sometimes the extra voltage will prevent a servo from burning up. They burn up when they lock rotor and it frys the amplifier from over current well with the good strong battery it isn't nearly as likely to lock rotor like a weaker lower voltage pack will allow. Once they can't turn from the load the amperage draw goes through the roof and the magic smoke releases.

95% of even old standard analogue servo's are designed to handle 4 AA dry cells. 4 new AA dry cells are 6.40 volt. A LiFe pack is 6.66 -6.68 volt fully charged.

.28 volt more a LiFe pack has isn't much more than the 4 AA dry cells that the servo's were fine with.

They aren't like Lipo's where the voltage charged is higher than the packs stated voltage where 2S LiPo's are 7.4 volt and charged they are over 8 volts.

A 2S LiFe pack while charging takes the voltage to 7.20 but once they settle down that bleeds off because it wasn't really the packs voltage just the charging voltage. Once they come back down they are 6.68 volt tops.

I have sold probably 2000 or more LiFe packs and almost all are going in boats with servo's that are not HV rated because they do not need to be.

The only time you really need HV rated servo's is if you are going to run a Lipo unregulated.

Not talking about what servo's Doug may have but in general with todays current available servos you almost certainly can run a LiFe pack without risk of burning up the servo.

Are there any that will not take a LiFe pack ? No doubt there is but for 95% or better and 99% of anything currently being used it is perfectly fine. If it burns up your old junk I would consider it has done you a favor. Now you have a good reason to get current. Lol.

Depending on the servos you have........... and Dougs are likey older.

YOU WANT to regulate the voltage to 5V...

I have yet.. in any and all instances, never have had a Regulator fail...

So...to sum it up..

If you have older lower voltage servos.. for 20 bucks you reg them.

If you have HV servos.. it does not matter.. 4.8 to 8.4V.. they just don't care.

Grim

I run turngy lifPo pack on 2.4 they are 6.6 volts don't need anything else.they are a mix of Lipo battery and life,been using then for a long time last long and great life span. hobby king has them i run 1700 and 2100 milamps