Sub-C NIMH battery cells for RC
Discussion
Want to get my old 1/10th RC touring cars back up and running. Might treat myself to some new radio gear and batteries.
Both my cars use 7.2v saddle pack battery packs (3 cells each side of the chassis with a link cable between them. All my old battery packs are 20 year old NiCad packs and wont hold a charge so want to get hold of a couple of sets of 3000mah nimh cells.
back in the day you could buy boxes of 6 cells to make up into the right shape but this doesn't seem to be a thing any more- all the non-lipo batteries come as Tamiya shape stick packs.
Any ideas for sourcing bare cells?
Both my cars use 7.2v saddle pack battery packs (3 cells each side of the chassis with a link cable between them. All my old battery packs are 20 year old NiCad packs and wont hold a charge so want to get hold of a couple of sets of 3000mah nimh cells.
back in the day you could buy boxes of 6 cells to make up into the right shape but this doesn't seem to be a thing any more- all the non-lipo batteries come as Tamiya shape stick packs.
Any ideas for sourcing bare cells?
Just put a similar post about using NiMH packs for my 1983 Frog.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
How about these:
https://www.overlander.co.uk/2-3-af-1600mah-7-2v-s...
Same make as what I've got for my son's MAd Bull, but NiMH rather than NiCd. Same voltage but 3x the capacity. Apparently they'll work fine.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
How about these:
https://www.overlander.co.uk/2-3-af-1600mah-7-2v-s...
Same make as what I've got for my son's MAd Bull, but NiMH rather than NiCd. Same voltage but 3x the capacity. Apparently they'll work fine.
lufbramatt said:
Want to get my old 1/10th RC touring cars back up and running. Might treat myself to some new radio gear and batteries.
Both my cars use 7.2v saddle pack battery packs (3 cells each side of the chassis with a link cable between them. All my old battery packs are 20 year old NiCad packs and wont hold a charge so want to get hold of a couple of sets of 3000mah nimh cells.
back in the day you could buy boxes of 6 cells to make up into the right shape but this doesn't seem to be a thing any more- all the non-lipo batteries come as Tamiya shape stick packs.
Any ideas for sourcing bare cells?
I think you can go up to 5000mAh on NiMh. Our very own Russy would be a decent place to start, he has some listed https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/overlander-5000...Both my cars use 7.2v saddle pack battery packs (3 cells each side of the chassis with a link cable between them. All my old battery packs are 20 year old NiCad packs and wont hold a charge so want to get hold of a couple of sets of 3000mah nimh cells.
back in the day you could buy boxes of 6 cells to make up into the right shape but this doesn't seem to be a thing any more- all the non-lipo batteries come as Tamiya shape stick packs.
Any ideas for sourcing bare cells?
It's not hard to convert stick packs to saddles with a few of the necessary tabs and a few minutes with a soldering iron (once back in the day I did get a pack in which the tabs between the cells were long enough to form the saddles with no soldering).
Yes I remember converting sticks to saddles years ago, remember occasionally the tab wouldn’t come off cleanly where it was spot welded to the cell and you’d have to clean up the terminal. Just wanted minimum faff really! I can re use all the old connectors from my old packs I think.
One of the links above has yuasa 3300 cells at a good price so might go for them.
One of the links above has yuasa 3300 cells at a good price so might go for them.
LiPo chargers are quite cheap, and the fire risk is negligible if you charge them at the recommended rate.
The packs designed for RC cars have a hard shell, so no risk of physical damage.
The only difference between LiPo and non-LiPo ESCs is the low voltage cutoff. You can buy plugin low voltage alarms for a couple of quid
The packs designed for RC cars have a hard shell, so no risk of physical damage.
The only difference between LiPo and non-LiPo ESCs is the low voltage cutoff. You can buy plugin low voltage alarms for a couple of quid
I use these chargers:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/iMAX-B6AC-80W-LiFe-Lipo...
They make 2 different versions, one that needs an external power supply, and one that has the power supply built in.
Decent chargers, programmable for pretty much every type of rechargeable battery. There are other models on sale that use the same electronics in different cases.
Hard cased 1s LiPo, BRCA approved apparently, so should be safe:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-7V-4800mAh-6700mAh-1s...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/iMAX-B6AC-80W-LiFe-Lipo...
They make 2 different versions, one that needs an external power supply, and one that has the power supply built in.
Decent chargers, programmable for pretty much every type of rechargeable battery. There are other models on sale that use the same electronics in different cases.
Hard cased 1s LiPo, BRCA approved apparently, so should be safe:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-7V-4800mAh-6700mAh-1s...
Thanks that’s really useful.
Sadly would appear that all the local rc clubs that I used to race at have disappeared so not even sure where I’d run them now :-/
Best track was one that a farmer made in one of his fields near Canterbury but can’t even see where it used to be on google earth now.
Sadly would appear that all the local rc clubs that I used to race at have disappeared so not even sure where I’d run them now :-/
Best track was one that a farmer made in one of his fields near Canterbury but can’t even see where it used to be on google earth now.
Well after having thought about it and realised how much money I'm saving on fuel I decided to shelve the touring car idea (can't find any clubs locally to race them without investing heavily in stock motors and tyres) and just buy myself an offroad buggy instead 
Will report back with a build thread....
Will report back with a build thread....
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