[NSRCA-discussion] A123 Batteries?

[John Konneker]

Hi Keith,
I bought one of the WalMart VPX packs to experiment with.
I followed the instructions on Bob Pastorello's website for it's disassembly and adaptation.
It handled the high, 4C, charge and discharge rates as advertised but there were two things that made me hesitate to 
use the pack in a plane...might have been just my pack or how I originally handled it.
1- When discharging the pack in cycle mode on my BC-6 the two cells would go way out of balance.  The BC-6 and my CellPro 4s would 
always bring them back in to balance when balance charging, I had wired a balance plug in to it, but this concerned me.  Like I said it could have been my particular pack.
2- When they say the capacity is 1,000 or 1,100 mah, whatever, they aren't kidding.  As the BC-6 would near this value when cycling the
pack voltage would drop so fast you could hardly read the numbers.  It was like it hit the wall and fell off a cliff.  This also concerned me.
 
I would be interested if other folks have had similar experience with the VPX packs.  Like I said it could have been something I did or the 
individual pack I got.  I know the A123's offer great potential.  In fact there was a Sportsman pilot here in D5 at the St Louis contest that
flew an A123 powered Fliton plane.  I plane to write it up in my next column but you can see and read about him now on Chris Moon's new
electric webpage.
JLK



Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 21:22:15 -0500From: khoard at gmail.comTo: nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.orgSubject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] A123 Batteries?
I love 'em.  I buy the 2-cell 1100 Mah VPX packs from Wal-Mart and strip out the cells.  Then I wire them up with 20-gauge Futaba connector, using the white wire for the Node-1 tap.  I charge them after every flight with the FMA CellPro charger.On my 50cc airplane, I'm using two packs unregulated in parallel plugged directly into the 6014 receiver, and another pack unregulated on the igntion.  On my pattern plane, I'm using one pack unregulated - no problems whatsoever.
On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 8:13 PM, Joe Dunnaway <dunnaway at hbcomm.net> wrote:
  Anyone using A123 cells for your receiver batteries?   Any problems,  advice or hints?  What chargers?  ThanksJoe Dunnaway_______________________________________________NSRCA-discussion mailing listNSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.orghttp://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion-- Keith HoardCollierville, TNkhoard at gmail.com
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