Oh btw is the,,,,,,Ed-Nano Hitec X2 AC plus black edition AC/DC Battery Charger/Discharger
A good choice for the lifeA123 batteries.

My first modern day charger.

Originally Posted by rpw612

Thank You Hinckley
2Walla,,,what about the Futaba 9303 servo with the life batteries, did understand they can handle a 5c pack, just not sure about A123. Thanks

Also read you can charge life A123 batteries having a single plug coming out of the battery to the switch and then take out the signal wire from the switch connector that plugs into the receiver. Supposedly automatic balancing. Hopefully I understood this correctly.

The 9303 is an odd duck I have seen guys run them on 6v for years. And I have seen 4 brand new ones strip out on the maiden flight of a 1/5 scale plane running on 6v while flying straight and level at 1/2 throttle... futaba used to say 6v was fine but later changed their tune . The airplane was well built by an excellent modeler and They should not have failed the way it was flown. I bet they changed something during the production run and the results were not good.. to be honest I would throw them away.. not worth the trouble to run 4.8. And not worth the chance..
As a side note I have seen lots of failures on the newer $50 futaba Hv sbus servos so I am lean8ng away from futaba and back to jr, and the newer line of hitecs

Ummm I don’t know what you are talking about the signal wire... The signal wire had better not be hooked to anything as if you plugged it into a receiver you would make smoke... balance through balance plugs only.. I slow charge mine at 1/2c every 5-6 cycles to balance them and the rest of the time I fast charge them at 3-4c without balancing.

Signal wire thing was so you could charge the A123 life’s from a regular giant scale switch.

You pull the signal wire out of the plug that plugs into your receiver from the switch and use electrical tape to tape and hold the wire away from anything.

This is found at the Hangtime Hobbies battery site under Life A123 battery setup and or faq.

Btw I thought one can balance and charge A123 from a special switch from electro dynamics?

Doing the signal wire thing was only if one was going to use a regular giant scale switch
Would think the safest thing would be to buy the special switch from Elec. Dyn.

Originally Posted by rpw612

Hello,
Honestly haven’t read this whole thread thinking of changing for the first time to Life A123batteries in a giant scale bipe.
With the higher voltage of these batteries being 6.6v will it be a problem for a Futaba 6014HS receiver and six servos all digital (5) one regular? Assume regulator not necessary?

Also believe it or not thinking of using an IBEC with the system.

Also any suggestions on a charger for all this.
Understand A123 life’s are much safer in charging than lipos.
Yes trying to come into the 20th century ��

Thank You all for the much needed advice.

http://www.usastore.revolectrix.com/...llpro-Multi4_3
Best and most economical option for A123 charging in my opinion.

DaleD

Originally Posted by rpw612

Signal wire thing was so you could charge the A123 life’s from a regular giant scale switch.

You pull the signal wire out of the plug that plugs into your receiver from the switch and use electrical tape to tape and hold the wire away from anything.

This is found at the Hangtime Hobbies battery site under Life A123 battery setup and or faq.

Btw I thought one can balance and charge A123 from a special switch from electro dynamics?

Doing the signal wire thing was only if one was going to use a regular giant scale switch
Would think the safest thing would be to buy the special switch from Elec. Dyn.

What you might be referring to as the "signal wire" could be a JR style connector. The "signal wire" is actually the white(or brown(light color)) wire in the 3-wire connections. So if you're talking about plugs, that's quite a bit different then a wire.

Yes, smaller pack LiFe's can charge from the standard J-style connectors found on most packs... whether that connector goes to a switch, or direct is up to the user, and some packs have dual/triple output connectors installed, sometimes with both Deans and JR. With the JR style connectors, they'll charge just like the old conventional NiCads, with exception to the balance plug if it's required of the charger.

Be aware that some chargers won't charge without a balance plug hooked up, and those that will charge without a balance plug might have a setting within to allow it.

I haven't bought anything as far as "special switch" for any of my Lithium(LiFe or LiPo), and just use either the JR style plug for my smaller LiFe packs, or the Deans plug on my larger LiFe's, and all LiPo's. ... EC-3 connectors are also used... and I actually like those better then Deans.. but I've got a few or more types I've used.

I charge my smaller 700mah-1500mah through the JR style connectors, with the balance plug attached, and anything above that(2000mah-4000mah+), I use the Deans lead... as the higher capacity packs can charge at a higher rate(I charge everything at 1C).

Point there is, if I charge a 4000mah pack at 1C, that's 4amps... which is fine for the Deans plugs, but too much in my opinion for the JR style connectors.

JR style connectors(most likely what you're calling "signal wire") are fine for a few amps(probably up to about a 2000mah pack at 1C rate), but if you're planning on charging a 3000mah pack or bigger, use the Deans connectors and go direct to the battery, and always balance charge everything if you can.

I balance charge every time, and haven't had any problems at all in over 5yrs of using these types of batteries exclusively... but that's just my experience... I don't cut corners, or play games trying to figure it out, or do anything to "trick" my chargers... there's just too much at stake.

After re-reading your post, I see that you're saying to pull the signal wire out of the "plug"... So I apologize for misreading, and somewhat understand better of what you're saying.

As for pulling the signal wire though, in a charging situation, that signal wire isn't ever connected to anything... what's going in from the charger always uses 2 wires, regardless if the plug is equipped for 3, the power only comes from the pos./neg. going in from the charger.

Anyway... good luck with it. It's just best to get the correct equipment you're comfortable with.... whatever that might be.

You can find the Electro Dyanmic switches with 'built in' A123 balancing port here:
http://www.electrodynam.com/store/Switches.html

Thank You to all.
Don’t know why the 9303 Futaba servo would pose a problem with use as a throttle servo considering it is coreless and has metal gears? 98oz torque +-at 4.8,,,,running it right now on 6v.
Do understand there’s no guarantees, it’s a big shame that flyer had a problem with it on his maiden flight. see threads 40, 42, and 47

And it’s BB (ball bearing).