Who using A123 batteries?

[leepord geko]

I said in a 100cc AKA 35% on a 40% I wouldn't expect those batteries to hold up very well.

[rede2fly]

well all i can say is every plane i own uses the real A123 2300 cells. and the planes love em. i wont use anything else untill you cant get them anymore. and i charge in the am and dont have to recharge for the rest of the day. my flying bud gets 7 or 8 flights every day with out a charge.this was using a battery eliminator on ign... he flys imac and fly and gas fly and gas. for the whole day. he most of the time puts back around 1600 up to 2000 after a full day of flying. me after a day of flying i put back 700 to 800 mha. i wish i could get them for my radio

[rcbobp]

I have Fromeco A123's (2-cell 2300 mah) with JR leads. I went to charge them after flying, and it took over an hour. I called Fromeco, and they said not to charge them through the switch jacks, since there is some impedance there and it gives a false reading on the charger. So the other night I charged them straight from charger to battery. I charged at 8A, and almost immediately they went up to full voltage and the charge rate dropped. It took 53 minutes to put in almost 1,100 ma. I thought the beauty of these batteries was the short charge time. Any ideas what's going wrong here?

Thanks.

[rede2fly]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rcbobp
	I have Fromeco A123's (2-cell 2300 mah) with JR leads. I went to charge them after flying, and it took over an hour. I called Fromeco, and they said not to charge them through the switch jacks, since there is some impedance there and it gives a false reading on the charger. So the other night I charged them straight from charger to battery. I charged at 8A, and almost immediately they went up to full voltage and the charge rate dropped. It took 53 minutes to put in almost 1,100 ma. I thought the beauty of these batteries was the short charge time. Any ideas what's going wrong here? Thanks.

well without being able to see it, its very hard to say whats going on but, i would be willing to say its in the charger. like i have said over and over a standard plug wont charge at 8 amps. it wont let that much amperage through without melting. so something is not correct

[Howard Leigh]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rcbobp
	I have Fromeco A123's (2-cell 2300 mah) with JR leads. I went to charge them after flying, and it took over an hour. I called Fromeco, and they said not to charge them through the switch jacks, since there is some impedance there and it gives a false reading on the charger. So the other night I charged them straight from charger to battery. I charged at 8A, and almost immediately they went up to full voltage and the charge rate dropped. It took 53 minutes to put in almost 1,100 ma. I thought the beauty of these batteries was the short charge time. Any ideas what's going wrong here? Thanks.

If you are doing a balanced charge at 8 amps for 53 minutes that would be more than double the capacity of your 2300 mah battery - which of course is not possilbe if the charger is workng properly. What may be happening (if you are doing a balanced charge) is that the battery charges and then your charger goes into a balancing mode and that is what is taking the time. Do an unbalanced charge and see how long it takes. I did have one pack that took much longer to balance than it should and I was worried but, after several flying cycles it began acting normally during a balanced charge.

[geoflys]

what size batterieson that 40 % er?

[rcbobp]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Howard Leigh
	If you are doing a balanced charge at 8 amps for 53 minutes that would be more than double the capacity of your 2300 mah battery - which of course is not possilbe if the charger is workng properly. What may be happening (if you are doing a balanced charge) is that the battery charges and then your charger goes into a balancing mode and that is what is taking the time. Do an unbalanced charge and see how long it takes. I did have one pack that took much longer to balance than it should and I was worried but, after several flying cycles it began acting normally during a balanced charge.

These Fromeco's have the built-in balancer, so every charge is a balance charge. Bear in mind that even though I start at 8 amps, as soon as the voltage maxes out (which took about 10 seconds), the charge rate dropped.

[poprlite]

I am useing duralite and love them!

[rede2fly]

if the actual battery dosent look like this ( see below) then its NOT a real A123. i know they come with shrink wrap. but you can take a peek to see what you have

[WrongWayRC]

Not true Rich. In the beginning of 2009 the manufacturer switched over to the green sleeve ones. They now spec out at 70 amps continuous and when I build my packs they also have 23-2500 capacity as opposed to 21-2200 of the white sleeve packs.

Cells: 26650



http://www.a123systems.com/a123/products

[rede2fly]

the ones i have are not 2100 to 2200. they are 2300. these cells you are showing me must be new to the game?? i went to that site and did some reading, and it seems that more are on the band wagon now which is a good thing. well i guess i stand corrected i knew that the 1100 series went from yellow to green. i had some of those, but have never seen any other type, that are a true nano phosphate. these cells are fs300001. they are great cells and all i use. yep as with these you can weld with these cells hey rich have you tryed a amp load test on those cells yet??

[WrongWayRC]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rede2fly
	the ones i have are not 2100 to 2200. they are 2300. these cells you are showing me must be new to the game?? i went to that site and did some reading, and it seems that more are on the band wagon now which is a good thing. well i guess i stand corrected i knew that the 1100 series went from yellow to green. i had some of those, but have never seen any other type, that are a true nano phosphate. these cells are fs300001. they are great cells and all i use. yep as with these you can weld with these cells hey rich have you tryed a amp load test on those cells yet??

They are 2300 rated but the number I quoted are what I saw from the white packs (made up dozens and dozens of the two cell packs) and the green cell packs. Numbers quoted are when I run them down to 6v on a cycle which is in reality less than 100 mAh from the bottom at 4v. The green cell packs exceed their rate capacity more than the white cell packs which typically would come up short of rated. Just like the 1100's which from 4v flat to full will only take 1060 mAh consistently. From 6.4 to full, a normal range I see mid to high 900 mah.

We did an amp load test at 1, 2, and 3 amps but I will have to look back because I would be guessing to say any numbers at the moment. I recall no noticeable difference in the new vs old cells. Really 3 amps out of a rated 70 is a small percent.

WW

[crazyjoe]

	Quote: Originally Posted by geoflys
	what size batterieson that 40 % er?

I use 2 -2300 in my 40% . I charge every 4 flights through deans at 10 amps and it takes about 10 minuets per pack balanced.

[lowwpass]

I just got my New pack installed and flown this week and im quite impressed. I take it to the field put 4 flights on my plane and dont have to worry about the battery. I have one 7955 two 5645 two 645 and a 3004 running off this pack. The added performance over a 6v regulated lipo is quite noticable. Also it saves a bit of weight. After trying this new technology i dont think i will ever put a lipo in a giant scale plane again. Also they dont explode like the lipo did in a friends 30% edge. That is what sealed the deal on buying one.

[Stu_D]

	Quote: Originally Posted by crazyjoe
	I use 2 -2300 in my 40% . I charge every 4 flights

Exact same procedure as mine , at four flights I like to give them a charge but it pretty rare fo me to do more than that in one day . while I know the batts will handle six 10 min flights I like to keep
the margin to around 50% then even if one batt fails on the first flight I am still fully powered
for all flights .

I even forgot to plug in one of the flight packs one day , flew off the single pack for three 10 min flights.

Must say some of the original packs did not have balance leads and they did not like it , got out bal
pretty quick .

Stu