Upgrading to Lipo - need advise on a charger, connectors and so on

[Cesco 187]

Now I know. There is load of info here on getting into lipo. Still I am left with loads of questions. So hopefully you can help me.

I read about the difference between NiHM and Lipo. Untill now I am running on NiHm. But like to see longer running times. 

As for the batteries I read this topic and I will get me the Core RC or Yuki 2S batteries. I like the Venom options due to the different connectors offered with them. But they do not seem to be available in Europe.

Recommendations to where to get things needed will be most helpfull. I am based in the Netherlands. Ordering from the UK or German shops or Ebays is no problem.

Now these are my questions.

- What are the best connector options? Can I stick with the Tamiya connectors so I can still use the NiMH batteries? Or do I need to upgrade everything to other connectors? What is you advise? I am using the Hobbywing Quickrun 60A 1060 ECU with Tamiya connectors on all my Tamiya and Traxxas cars.

- What charger is recommended that offers Lipo and Nihm, gives a good quality and is affordable? I get confused by too many choises. I do not mind to buy several if that is cheaper as 1 multicharger.

- What other things do I need?

 

[Jonathon Gillham 4606]

Like you I have run NiMH until recently adding lipo as well. I still find NiMH easier for just bashing, but there is a noticable speed difference between the car with and without lipo.

Run time - this is determined by the mAh rating and the bigger the better. A lipo won't necessarily give longer run time, I get over 30mins out of 3800 NiMH batteries which I think is plenty, so if its just run time you could buy better NiMH and not bother with the rest.

Connectors - I went with XT60 but I know a lot of people use deans. The reason for choosing XT60 is a mate of mine is an electrical engineer and they were his recommendation as they can handle more current than deans. I also know most racers use deans without any issues. I haven't converted everything yet, so cut the cables from the batteries with enough wire to make a little adaptor, so I can use it on stuff that isn't converted yet. 

Charger - yes you can get one to do everything. Its best to invest in a good one rather than bug a cheaper lipo one IMO as you want one that can balance, store etc and won't ruin your batteries. As for recommendations, I would ask your LHS as they will provide the support, or at your local club to see what people there use, but others will have other ideas. I bought one secondhand from a guy at the local club who had upgraded to a dual charger, so got a much better quality one for the price of a cheap one. I don't think that they wear out in the same way that motors or batteries do so secondhand is a good option. Be careful if you order online as they don't all come with power supplies, leads, balance boards etc so you may think you got a bargain and then need to spend more and wait a while for everything else to arrive.

 

Think thats everything, it won't be cheap to buy everything but I found a big gain in speed, particularly when the esc had some boost dialed in and its a must have if you plan to go racing

[drcarlos 57]

I upgraded a couple of years ago and don't really look back, apart from thinking how bad nicd and nimh were.

I found that lipo gives a good performance all through the run of the pack, not like nimh and nicd where it's quick for the first 2 mins and then tails off, lipo hits hard all the time until cut off.

I had some 3600mah nimh packs and they used to last about 15 mins, changed to a 5000mah lipo on the same car and it's lasting easily 30 mins.

Basically you wont look back.

Connectors are a personal choice, Deans carry enough current for racing 1/10th and a 8.5t motor on 2S lipo without any problems at all so for bashing a Tamiya they are more than capable, but if you like XT60 and you are just starting out fine, but I'd make a deans to XT60 convertor cable to carry round too as most people I know of use Deans and it's easy to swap, borrow, beg etc in the field if you are compatible.

Charger wise, get a Turnigy Accucell 6, these are epic for the cash (you'll need an IBM type laptop PSU for mains operation too, but these are £5 a go), far better than the default imax b6 and I've had both.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-accucell-6-50w-6a-balancer-charger-lihv-capable.html

Lipo safety sack too, for £4 delivered it's stupid not to.

Remember to charge at 1C too, then you'll never go wrong it's just common sense and fast enough to keep you topped up even when racing and cycling 2 packs.

Above all it's a great system when looked after and treated with respect.

Carl.

[Cesco 187]

Thanks Jonathan and Carlos. Very helpfull.

Been reading a lot about Lipo, connectors and so on.

As for Lipo choise I think the Yuki Brainery LiPo 2s/7,4V 4.000mAh 45C http://tamico.de/Yuki-Model-LiPo-2s-74V-4000mAh-45C-T-Stecker-Racing-Pack will be my choice at the moment. It will fit all my Tamiya models and it is cheaper als the Core RC 4000mAHr 7.4v 30/60C 2s LiPo CR293 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=388538&CID=EUR with the same specs and measurements.
The Yuki is € 29,99 at this moment at Tamico, the Core RC is € 38.43 at Modelsport.

Connectors, the batteries above have Deans, the chargers I'm currently looking at have XT60. I guess I have to chose one of those and chose one of those as standard for all my batteries, including the ones I already have with Tamiya or Traxxas connectors. Based on Jonathans advise and looking at YouTube I'm leaning towards XT60 as they seem to be easier to solder. Are the ones Hobbyking selles any good?

As for the charger. Thanks for the tip Carlos. I see there is also a 80W/10W version. Is that better as the 50W/6W version? It is almost the same price, only around 3 euros more fore the 80W/10A one. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-accucel-6-80w-10a-balancer-charger-lihv-capable.html . Do I understand correctly that you do not need a balance bord with both of these as that is already a build in option?
I was also looking at the SkyRC S60 as someone recommended in another topic. It is pretty decent priced at Tamico. If you ad up the IBM type laptop PSU for the Turnigy it almost the same in price and the S60 already comes with a AC adaptor.
Jonathan your advice to go to a club or my LHS is a good one, problem for me is there is no RC car club near by and that is the same for a LHS. The nearest LHS is also quite expensive. What do you use at this moment brand and model wise?

Any advise on lipo sacks. Saw some test on YouTube showing that some work, others don't. Which one are good ones?

[Jonathon Gillham 4606]

Check out banggood for cables, connectors, lipo safe bags etc, really cheap and shipping included. I got 10 pairs of XT60s with the covers so you don't need heatshrink for about nzd$10 from memory, also stocked up on extra cable etc.

 

My charger is a Hyperion EOS0606i and does the trick nicely. Runs off both mains power or 12volt battery. I have been lucky as Darat76 has been helping me put with advise, he messages me when good gear is for sale on the local forum so grabbed the charger and Sanwa MT4S that way.

My batteries take banana plugs for the discharge leads and the leads for about USD$3 each so you can change easily. I actually have a spare deans lead for battery and charger in case i need to borrow or lend gear. Can you find batteries like that rather than those that have the leads attached and plugs already connected?

I bought the lipo bag from banggood as i have seen a lot of people at clubs use them, which was all the research that I did...I haven't had a fire so don't know how well they work.

 

[Cesco 187]

Thanks Jonathan. The Hyperion sounds like a good one, but I can not find it out there without it getting really expensive with the shipping costs. I will check out Banggood, ordered there before. Got all my Flysky stuff from there.

Did a lot of research yesterday. Thanks to the videos of a Joshua Bardwell on YouTube learned a lot: Youtube link to LiPo Battery Charging / Chargers .
It will take some time to watch, but very instructive when you look through all the videos. He eventually compares a lot of chargers Hobby King because they are reasonably priced, there is too much choice in brands and models and so you kinda limit the choice. If you understand how he did it in terms of comparison you can compare other chargers for yourself. Certainly interesting is that you can not always rely on the specs in terms of watts, because they depend on how many volts you get in the charger. So often the given Watts are just maximum posibilities if you are supplying it with the right amount of Volts. He compares 12V from a situation which is usually the situation with external power supply / power supply for this type of chargers.

I think money wise I skip the combo options and start with 2 single chargers. 

Well for me at this point I'm thinking of getting the Turnigy Accucel-6 80W 10A 6-Balancer / Charger LiHV Capable . This is not the fastest charger from his test, actually even the slowest at 12V. Charging takes up to double the time of some of the more powerfull Watts options. But he, I do not mind for that. Furthermore, this one has a lot of options, can even do LiHV batteries. I do not know whether I'll ever use those, but since you buy such a charger for a long time I might as well see the benefit of it. I might some time gonna use those batteries. If so, a new charger is not needed. 
The newest The Turnigy Reaktor 250W 10A 1-6S Balance Charger can be an alternative for only a little bit more money.  No option for LiHV (not sure if that is a plus or negative), some other possible handy options, but much faster in loading. When input is 12V it will charge roughly three times as fast as the Accucel-6 80W.
However, for the price of two Turnigy Reaktor 250W 10A 1-6S Balance Charger I can buy three Turnigy Accucel-6 80W 10A Balancer/Charger LiHV Capable. Or two of Battery cell-6 and have more money left for the power supplys. Both can be used in the field by for instance connecting them to a car battery. Do not know now whether I will ever use that option, but it is nice to have. Both get good reviews, so that you can not go wrong with either of them I guess.

So for the chargers I think I know what I'm gonna order, the Accucel-6 80W. 

Now for the required power supply(s). That's the next one to delve into as the Accucel-6 80W version uses a XT60 input (and output). So a laptop power supply that you can use with the Accucell-6 50W version, you are gonna need some sort of adapter from DC jack to the XT60 input of the 80W version. Like this one for instance at Ebay . There are a lot of other options out there like a server or pc power supply, but I think I like something more enclosed. That sounds more safe to me.  

Tips for this are more than welcome. I'm thinking of 2 of these right now, HobbyKing 105W 7A Compact Power Supply . It is very small and it features a 15VDC output at up to 7A. It can operate on 100~240VAC and features an internal cooling fan. So, 15V instead of 12V means improvement in charging times if I understood everything correctly. RC Mojo reviewed this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT8_qAalbJA in combination with the Accucel-6 80W.
I'm looking at other power supply options right now, so any tips are welcome.

 

[Cesco 187]

A tip from @Wooders28 :

More reading

[Cesco 187]

To update this. I bought these from Hobbyking:

2x Turnigy Accucel-6 80W 10A Balancer/Charger LiHV Capable

2x HobbyKing 105W 7A Compact Power Supply (100V~240V) (EU Plug)

1x Cellmaster 7 Digital Battery Health Checker

2x Turnigy Temperature Sensor for Battery Charger

1x 4.0mm Banana Safety Plug Kit (4pc)

And this I ordered from Banggood:

1x GT Power Capacity Lipo Battery Tester Checker With Balance Function For RC Models

2x Multifunctional Charger 4.0mm Banana Adapter Connector T Tamiya Futaba TRX XT60 EC3 JST Wire

2x 2 in 1 Lipo Battery Low Voltage Tester 1S-8S Buzzer Alarm

 

And on a local Ebay site I found these for a fraction of the new price:
2x Turnigy Lipo Bunker - Lipoly Safety Charge Box

 

On my next Tamico order I will order some Yuki Model LiPo 2s/7,4V 4.000mAh 45C T-Stecker Racing-Packs.