Maxi Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 I have been using infrared and radio control for a few years. Started with Red Arrow and now I use Deltang. Until now I have used PP3 batteries which have proved to be ideal for my (7mm) needs. However I have a project at the moment (09..) and would like to use rc for this as well. No problem with the Deltang rx but the battery is a bit of a problem. I think I need a small Lipo battery, probably 1s but I am totally confused by all the options and warnings of a dire nature on every site I look at. Can anyone (actually I suspect most of you can) recommend a battery and charger combination. Maximum size is 28x17x 10 mm. I am sure this will have come up before so if someone can point me in the direction of the thread I will be grateful. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kada33 Posted July 9, 2016 Share Posted July 9, 2016 I have been using infrared and radio control for a few years. Started with Red Arrow and now I use Deltang. Until now I have used PP3 batteries which have proved to be ideal for my (7mm) needs. However I have a project at the moment (09..) and would like to use rc for this as well. No problem with the Deltang rx but the battery is a bit of a problem. I think I need a small Lipo battery, probably 1s but I am totally confused by all the options and warnings of a dire nature on every site I look at. Can anyone (actually I suspect most of you can) recommend a battery and charger combination. Maximum size is 28x17x 10 mm. I am sure this will have come up before so if someone can point me in the direction of the thread I will be grateful. John Hi john I can recommend the imax b6, I'm using the clone version bought from eBay. It has worked well for me with mAh and li-ion batteries. It can also charge lipo as well. The greatest benefit of the imax is that it discharges all types of batteries as well as charging them. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davetheroad Posted July 9, 2016 Share Posted July 9, 2016 Some things to consider are: How many volts would you need to run the motor? How many amps or fractions of an amp would the motor draw under normal operating conditions? How long do you want to run the loco for before battery needs recharging? Once you have these it will then be possible to suggest solutions. ps - a single 1s lipo battery has a nominal 3.7V output. It is actually 4.2V when freshly charged but with use it drops to about 3V. I use a 9V voltage booster with my 1S lipo batteries. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxi Posted July 10, 2016 Author Share Posted July 10, 2016 Thank you both for your help. Dave the imax b6 looks interesting and I will look at that more closely. davetheroad thank you as well. I am currently testing with a 3v lithium battery which seems to produce enough for this small project. A 1s lipo would certainly do, it is just finding one small enough to fit that is proving to be the problem. Thank you John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davetheroad Posted July 10, 2016 Share Posted July 10, 2016 Thank you both for your help. Dave the imax b6 looks interesting and I will look at that more closely. davetheroad thank you as well. I am currently testing with a 3v lithium battery which seems to produce enough for this small project. A 1s lipo would certainly do, it is just finding one small enough to fit that is proving to be the problem. Thank you John Those dimensions are really tight if you want lots of milliamp hours. You can get a Hyperion 70mAh single cell with e-flite style connector with stated dimensions of 25.1 x 10.7 x 5.5. I have cut these down in size by very carefully trimming plastic off the connector housing. You might be able to fit 2 of these in parallel giving 140mAh. that 140 mAh would give you 1 amp of output for 8.4 minutes. If your loco draws 250mA you would get about 32 minutes before recharge or replacing the batteries. The power requirements of the loco is important here. for recharging simple 1S batteries with an E-flite connector you can get a USB charger from E-flite for less than £10 ( EFLC1008) This limits the maximum charge to 4.2V and the Deltang Rx has a default low battery cut-off of 3V Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin2 Posted July 10, 2016 Share Posted July 10, 2016 From what I can see the LiPo batteries with standard connectors are very bulky compared to a battery with no connector. I have some 80mAh LiPos that I was using in N-Gauge locos and more recently I have some 240mAh cells for 00 gauge locos. I have decided to use 2 cells or 7.2v as the little motors I bought perform much better that way. For the single cells I had built a simple charger based on the design in this link. I'm planning to make a pair of them for the double-cells. The design is for a slow charger so a very low risk of fire. However I would not leave them charging unattended. My plan is to charge the batteries without removing them from the loco and to have a siding into which the loco can drive and auto-connect to the charger. I'm planning NOT to pick up current from the rails so I can occasionally run the locos on a regular club layout without interfering with it. ...R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fallen Posted July 10, 2016 Share Posted July 10, 2016 The widest range of LiPo sizes I know is Hobby King. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__86__85__Batteries_Accessories-Li_Poly_All_brands_.html I use a USB charger to chare the 1S batteries too. I use this one http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/batteries/usb-lipo-charger As Davetheroad says, the first thing to do is check the current required by the motor. Then you can work out what sort of capacity you need. I use 1S for most of my locos, they are 009 so basically n gauge chassis. I use 2S for OO locos and of course these need a balancing charger. Again, an inexpensive one will be fine. Locos, unlike model aircraft, do not take huge currents and so by recharging the batteries fairly slowly and similarly discharging them fairly slowly I,have had no problems with LiPos over three years now. I charge the batteries inside the locos with a small socket underneath the loco. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxi Posted July 11, 2016 Author Share Posted July 11, 2016 Thank you davetheroad , Robin2 and fallen. That has given me a lot of information and cleared some of the fog. I will experiment with a 1s battery and USB charger. Thanks to all who posted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxi Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share Posted July 12, 2016 davetheroad - I thought I had sort of closed this topic but I received (incredibly quickly) the hyperion battery and USB charger this morning. The battery size is just right but I have a very stupid question to ask! The battery has one connector which fits the charger. Is this also the output? I know that is pretty basic but I am an electrical novice since valves went out. I use Deltang and DavidT will confirm my ignorance! John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davetheroad Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 davetheroad - I thought I had sort of closed this topic but I received (incredibly quickly) the hyperion battery and USB charger this morning. The battery size is just right but I have a very stupid question to ask! The battery has one connector which fits the charger. Is this also the output? I know that is pretty basic but I am an electrical novice since valves went out. I use Deltang and DavidT will confirm my ignorance! John Oops, apologies, I forgot to mention you need a lead to plug the battery in. I buy mine from Hobbyking UK warehouse and you get 5 in a pack for £2. the product code is MINIJST-EXT5. Micron radio control sell them singly for £1.25 as 'UM' connectors. You just cut the lead in 2 and join the battery leads from the Rx, black to black and red to red. Don't forget to insulate the join!. thinks - do you live in the UK? I have some spares left over and could send you a couple by post, if there is anyway of private messaging on this forum (not a good idea to post addresses) Is the nominal 3.7V output sufficient for your loco? If you need more there are little voltage boosters from Pololu, they do 5V, 9V and 12V for a few pounds Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxi Posted July 13, 2016 Author Share Posted July 13, 2016 Oops, apologies, I forgot to mention you need a lead to plug the battery in. I buy mine from Hobbyking UK warehouse and you get 5 in a pack for £2. the product code is MINIJST-EXT5. Micron radio control sell them singly for £1.25 as 'UM' connectors. You just cut the lead in 2 and join the battery leads from the Rx, black to black and red to red. Don't forget to insulate the join!. thinks - do you live in the UK? I have some spares left over and could send you a couple by post, if there is anyway of private messaging on this forum (not a good idea to post addresses) Is the nominal 3.7V output sufficient for your loco? If you need more there are little voltage boosters from Pololu, they do 5V, 9V and 12V for a few pounds Thank you for your kind offer, however I have managed to get one for £1.50 but I see I can get 50 from China for not much more! I think the 3.7v will be ok for this little project but the voltage boosters are interesting and I will look at them in due course. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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