Who using A123 batteries?

[Stu_D]

Dr your figures are spot on . Thats almost exactly what I get .

[Hammbone]

Are you using a Power Box or Power Expander as well?

Jim

	Quote: Originally Posted by Stu_D
	Dr your figures are spot on . Thats almost exactly what I get .

[Dr. Yankem]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Hammbone
	Are you using a Power Box or Power Expander as well? Jim

Smartfly power expander pro. 5955s set up with the Hitec programmer

[Hammbone]

I saw in your first post that you were using a Power Expander. I was wondering if Stu_D was as well.

Jim

	Quote: Originally Posted by Dr. Yankem
	Smartfly power expander pro. 5955s set up with the Hitec programmer

[Bob S]

Is anyone using these on a DA ignition?


With 2 RX packs, do they have to be disconnected from the RX in order to field charge them?

[Pale Rider]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Bob S
	Is anyone using these on a DA ignition?

I am--per DA they are fine with their ignitions

	Quote: Originally Posted by Bob S
	With 2 RX packs, do they have to be disconnected from the RX in order to field charge them?

Depends on the charger being used..

[Zeeb]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Bob S
	Is anyone using these on a DA ignition? With 2 RX packs, do they have to be disconnected from the RX in order to field charge them?

I've not run my DA-100 yet but as Joe said DA okayed the use of unregulated A123's on the ignition when I called them.

As for charging dual packs. That's been a bit of a quandry for most of us. I've only got one model running dual packs through switches right now and those can be charged one at a time with the CellPro charger.

I must mention that my batteries are setup on that model with dual outputs. The one that powers the switch/rx has only the ground and positive leads coming out of the battery, while the other lead is a standard servo type connection with the signal wire run as a balance tap and that's what I charge through. So if you're going to fly enough in one day to need to charge, then you'll need a separate Ernst jack or something for that purpose. My charge leads are just left inside the hatch as I did with my Durlite Li-Ions because there just isn't any way I'd fly enough in one day for them to need charging. The three wire output is not hooked to the switches as that would put the balance tap power into the signal output of the rx. I also run three wires from the switch to the rx and that allows me outside the model access to the Batt/Bind and Batt/Data ports on my 2.4GHz rx's.

Now that does leave the common ground through the switches, but no balance tap power and unless you try to charge the two batteries at the same time with two chargers, you should be okay.

Word has it that one of the Fromeco chargers will do two batteries at the same time with a common ground, but the charge rate is limited to 2.5 amps. The CellPro puts out 4 amps, so for me already having the CellPro, it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy a new charger when it'll actually take longer to charge two batteries at the same time that it will to charge them one at a time...

[Pale Rider]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Zeeb
	Word has it that one of the Fromeco chargers will do two batteries at the same time with a common ground, but the charge rate is limited to 2.5 amps.

Yep--the Cube will works with the common ground..Been using it for the last few months.

[TazmanianDevil]

I am using 2 2300Mah for my 37.5% Yak and they work awesome, they are giving me 4 ten minutes flights.
Also using one for the ignition, well i dont even charge it till the next week.
As for the best thing i got for them it is the Kodiak switch that tells me the amount of Amps my plane is consuming and it turn on to be a very good purchase since on my first flights i lost allot of Mah and didnt know why, a check i did with my flying Buddies turn on to be that the rudder is too tight and for that reason the servos burned allot of Mha, well if i didnt have the Kodiak i wouldn't even noticed the loss.
Well done Fromeco!

[Stu_D]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Hammbone
	Are you using a Power Box or Power Expander as well? Jim

Sorry for the slow reply , Yes its the Power Expander .

I have put In some more gear being some Fromeco Weasel
gauges and also some Badger switches . I have found out
that both these things do consume some power on there own
(about 50 mah) but over the duration they dont effect things
to much .

I did one of the longest days flying I have done so far and the
whole package came through with flying colors . There was a
total of 50 min of air time and almost all was IMAC seq work .
Between the gauges and the actual charge there was 200mah
difference on one bettery and 100 mah on the other . Dont know
what the cause of this was but as long as i know how much
the gauges are going to be out after a day of flying then I wont
have a problem .

stu

[Hammbone]

Interesting..............
I have no proof of this, but I've noticed that guys that use Power Expanders and have systems with less restrictions on current flow, seem to consume less mah per flight than those guys that do not use Power Expanders.
I think this might be because when you have restrictions on current flow, the current has to work harder to pass through the system and current is wasted this way. If you have a better, more efficient system, with less restrictions on current flow, less current is wasted.
We are always taught in basic electrical courses that electricity is much like water. Well, we know that it is much easier to pass 50 gallons per minute of water through a 2" pipe than it is to pass the same amount through a 1/2 " pipe. It takes more force to pass the same amount of water through a smaller pipe.
I'm seeing that the systems using Power Expanders are using less mah's per flight. I'm assuming that this is because they are more efficient at passing current.
Again, I have no proof of this. I just noticed that several guys were reporting low mah consumption rates (not just in this thread, but in several other sources as well), and all of them are using Power Expanders in their systems.
There may be something to this, and there may not be. There may be a completely different reason for the low mah consumption rates. The similarity that I noticed though, was the use of some kind of Power Expander device.

Jim

[JimC-MD]

Hammbone, it makes sense.

You can use available energy to do work and be efficient. You can also use some of that energy to overcome resistance and it is transformed into heat. Where that choke point is located does not matter. I have been very happy with the performance. I was out again last weekend and after five flights of 12-15 minutes along with some time tuning on the ground for a prop and fuel change, I had not even reached the 50% range on my batteries. Each Kodiak showed .7