Transmittor voltage ?

[Andy Greene]

What should a fully charger battery in a Futaba 3PKS read ? And whats the lowest operational voltage and still be safe??

I checked the manual but there is no reference,

Thanks, Andy

 

[tnrcboatracer]

Depends on what you use for a battery. 8 NiCds is 9.6V. 8 drycells is 12V. I use a 3S LiPo and runs 11.7~12 when fresh. I recharge at 9.6V due to LiPo chemistry.

 

[TimothyJones]

I think your Transmitter will start beeping around that recharge number Jon gave you,maybe a little less.

 

[Andy Greene]

Thank You John .

 

[tnrcboatracer]

Battery type determines the voltage drop curve. Dry cells are very linear; NiCd not so. LiPo is in between, but get fried if you go too low (below 3V/cell). As I recall xmitter starts beeping around 9.5V

 

[Andy Greene]

Its the pack that comes with the radio- Nicd . It will normally charge to 11.3 /11.5 range and I dont go below 9.6 , just making sure.

Thanks again.

 

[tnrcboatracer]

Nominal voltage on NiCd is 1.2V/cell x 8 cells = 9.6V (under load). Not sure of the true load that the Xmitter provides. 11.3-11.5V would be immediately after charging. Should drop into the 10V range pretty quickly. Be careful about recharging NiCd batteries too early. NiCd's should be cycled a few times/year.

 

[Daniel's Racing]

The low battery reminder will sound at 8.5 volt.

With todays battery technology available either a 9.9 volt LiFe or a 11.1 volt LiPo is the best power source. They will go about 3 months or more of every weekend of use compared to the facory NiCad that is lucky to go one day. Best thing is they hold their voltage during storage so if you charge today their is no need to even consider topping off if you don't use it again for several months even. They are almost unbelievable the run time they give the transmitter.

Jon those would be 8 cells of Nicad to make 9.6 or of dry cells to equal the 12 volts. I no you know that and just typed 4. Lol.

 

[tnrcboatracer]

Daniel, OOPS....yes, I meant 8 cells. I know that the holders all hold 8 cells......... :blink:

 

[jon harter]

This is only an info thing. The Tactic 4 ch 2.4ghz fhss tx only uses 4 AA batts. No range prob. The Futaba 4 ch 4YF fhss 2.4ghz tx also only uses 4 AA batts. Don't know about range. Jon Harter

 

[Robert Wake]

Hi Andy

I have just been changeing all my Futaba 3PKS transmitters (6) over to Hyperion 9.9V Life packs when they come off charge they read around 11v for a short period then drop back a little if this helps.

Bob.

 

[Tom Foley]

Standard Ni Cad packs work very well for these units , No need to re-invent the wheel here , just charge them up !

 

[Daniel's Racing]

That what they all say till they actually use one and it goes 3-4 months and your no longer a slave to the charger.

Any transmitter battery that is possible to drain in a single days use to the point it is almost dead needs to be reinvented.

Fortunetely this has already been done and you can just buy them cheap.

I promise if you ever tried it you would see just how convenient a LiPo or Life pack can be in the transmitter and you would throw away those prehistoric NiCad packs.

Nicads are like installing a trolling motor on a STV and saying it is fine if I keep it's battery charged.

It is 2012. Old dogs need a few new tricks.

That's what they used to say about FM radios. You don't need 2.4

FM works just fine. Tom probably stiiiilllll uses FM too.

 

[Andy Greene]

Nicads are like installing a trolling motor on a STV and saying it is fine if I keep it's battery charged.

It is 2012. Old dogs need a few new tricks.

Daniel has it all wrong Foley, the trolling motor is on the Allison :lol: :lol: :lol:

I just hate the expense of buying another charger and pack. At that point your rec pack might as well be the same also - So what kind of cost is involved for a charger and pack/packs ? I have no trouble covering a 2 day race with a charged pack now, but it would be nice if you ever forgot to recharge a pack

 

[Daniel's Racing]

A fairly decent charger for transmitter/receiver packs will run about $60. These new chargers will charge all chemistry packs.

Wall chargers just for the LiPo transmitter pack can be had for $20 but I don't recommend those as with Lithium chemistry it is good to see how many milliamps you have to put in the pack to full charge and overall have a way to look at the charge rate and voltages of individual cells. Not that any of that is required to use the packs in these low draw applications.

The transmitter packs run from $25 for a 1500mah LiPo generic which are good packs to $55 for a 2500 mah Lipo in Max Amps brand.

The receiver packs run about $20 each for the Life packs of 1300 mah which are 6.6 volt packs. The 1300 life will easily out perform a 2500 mah NiMh pack. Same with those you charge them and they can be stored with almost no voltage loss for a couple months.

 

[Tom Foley]

That what they all say till they actually use one and it goes 3-4 months and your no longer a slave to the charger.

Any transmitter battery that is possible to drain in a single days use to the point it is almost dead needs to be reinvented.

Fortunetely this has already been done and you can just buy them cheap.

I promise if you ever tried it you would see just how convenient a LiPo or Life pack can be in the transmitter and you would throw away those prehistoric NiCad packs.

Nicads are like installing a trolling motor on a STV and saying it is fine if I keep it's battery charged.

It is 2012. Old dogs need a few new tricks.

That's what they used to say about FM radios. You don't need 2.4

FM works just fine. Tom probably stiiiilllll uses FM too.

Yes Daniel , FM !! Still fly with FM also !! Seriously of course if the battery is bad it needs replacing ,but the Ni Cads-NiMH will serve for many years . I have 5- 3 PK radios and they all use Ni Cads- NiMH , and work well . I'm not saying the other newer batteries are bad but certainly not necessary .Voltage is voltage .

I've seen many 2.4 users having many prob;ems at the races and the flying field ....just sayin !

And how did you find out about the carbon fiber trolling motor on my STV ???? :lol:

 

[Jim Caldwell]

Another option a lot of racers use is to replace the AA nicads with AA sanyo enloop battery's 2000mah hold 80%of charge for 1 year.

I get mine from Thomas Distributors.

 

[mark voorhies]

A fairly decent charger for transmitter/receiver packs will run about $60. These new chargers will charge all chemistry packs.

Wall chargers just for the LiPo transmitter pack can be had for $20 but I don't recommend those as with Lithium chemistry it is good to see how many milliamps you have to put in the pack to full charge and overall have a way to look at the charge rate and voltages of individual cells. Not that any of that is required to use the packs in these low draw applications.

The transmitter packs run from $25 for a 1500mah LiPo generic which are good packs to $55 for a 2500 mah Lipo in Max Amps brand.

The receiver packs run about $20 each for the Life packs of 1300 mah which are 6.6 volt packs. The 1300 life will easily out perform a 2500 mah NiMh pack. Same with those you charge them and they can be stored with almost no voltage loss for a couple months.

I am very happy with my LIFE batts, made the change in charger, I'm in a new area now with capacity, these just don't

draw down like the NiCad's. Thanks Daniel ! My transmitter hasn't needed a charge for a couple months (1900mah).

Charge on Weds., race the wk end., still good on Mon.with my 4 Life reciever batts.in .21's thru 1.01's.

Tape these up at home, race a wk. end, still good on Mon.