NiMH Battery to power receiver and servos? Pffffff!

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bildad

Member
Messages
34
Location
Hervey Bay QLD Australia
I am a power tool technician and have just got my first RC, HPI Savage xl. (obviously).
I can't believe that we are still powering our electrics with NiMH battery packs in this day and age.
NiMH is sufficient and cheap if you are constantly exercising the battery (charging & discharging) but the self discharge rate is terrible, Basically you have to plan ahead of time when you are going for a blat and charge your batteries just beforehand so they are nice and fresh. Pain if you just want to grab it and go whenever you feel like it
NiMH was the biggest flop in Electric Power Tools history!!! Then Lithium Ion came and revolutionised the mobile tool industry.
So I am going to make a battery pack out of 2 18650 Liion battery cells scabbed out of a dead tool battery pack.(when a tool battery dies usuallyonly 1 or 2 individual cells have failed which leaves 8 good cells just being chucked out)
18650 is the dimensions of the cell, 18mm diam 65mm long cylinder, Nominal voltage of these cells is 3.7 volts and fully charged 4.2 volts, most of these cells are 1500Mah if they came from a tool battery.
Now I am tempted to just put 2 of these in series as is which fully charged would be 8.4V but I don't know that my receiver and servos will handle it so I am going to add a little step down voltage circuit and output about 6.5 volts.
These batteries last forever, well nearly I have some old cells lying around here that are over 2 years old and still measure 4 volts!!! Amazing!
The nice part is that 2 of these cells fit perfectly where the hump pack goes, as far as charging is concerned I bought a 4 cell individual charger cheap from China $15 AU that works well although a little on the slow side, but with plenty of these cells laying around having a fresh set when I need them isn't a problem.
Anyway that's the idea and will keep you posted when I get around to doing it cos at the moment I am flogging my XL every chance I get.:)
LOVE this truck!!!
 
Thanx Big G and WoodiE, yeah the arcade machines look pretty schmick! Got sick of seeing the 1000s of standard mdf paneled arcade machines so I started tinkering with 44 Gallon Drums and this is what they turn out like, refitting the top of the drum after shortening the drum was the trick so it didn't ruin the aesthetics of the drum.
 

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