Test

I need more lipo and wanted to try something lighter weight to see how the HCP100S will do. The Hobby King Nano-Tech 330mAh made for the Trex 150 touts 45-90c. Let’s see how it matches up to the HiSky HCP100S stock 450mAh 25c pack.

I have two of the HiSky 450mAh and three of the Nano-Tech 330mAh.

Click to view the larger graph…

I was only able to pull 2A from my iCharger 106B+. And I estimated that the HCP100S pulls about 2.8A or so. But the graph above gives us a good basis for comparision.

The NanoTech claims 40-90C. And it does gives an ok discharge the first minute or so. The HiSky 25c does keep the voltage up longer.

I get about 6mins with the 330mAh pack. And about roughly 8mins with the HiSky 450mAh.

The HiSky’s ability to maintain a higher voltage through the flight makes up for the fact that it’s a heavier pack. My skill level doesn’t allow me to feel the weight on the HCP100S. The brushless motor sill makes it super power and peppy to me. And the weight makes it feel more stable in the breeze.

But the Nano-Tech are about half the cost, factoring HobbyKing shipping. And 5-6mins is a good amount of time for flying. You just need to install a balance plug to use the Trex 150 compatible lipo.

Just thought I’d share.

update 2015-07-01: I currently like the  Nano-tech 300mah 2S 45~90C. The measured IR is about 20ohm versus the 50-60ohms of the Trex 330 version. And it seems the Trex 330 version is already slightly puffy even though I haven’t flown it much.

I purchase some nicely priced SunnySky x2204s 2300kv from BangGood for < $16. However, I believe they are fakes.

Here’s a photo comparison against the x2204s purchased from SunnySky’s official US distributor: BuddyRC.com SunnySky x2204s CW version

I see that the one from BuddyRC uses thicker motor wires. And are generally neater wound versus the one from BangGood. The BangGood one has a thicker bell cross section, so you can’t see the magnets like you could with the original from BuddyRC. It also seem to use more glue to keep the magnets in place. I am not sure if this is in response to reports of magnets coming loose…especially those who are running these motors on 4s lipo.

The BuddyRC motor has a slight sheen to it. With crisp lines and a reflective, copper/light gold logo. While the BangGood motor has the SunnySky logo in a matte white, with a slightly different font. The motor bell is painted a more matte black. And the line noted in the picture below wasn’t as refine.

I also noticed that the BangGood motor has a shorter threaded motor shaft. This is interesting because SunnySky x2204s motors are known to already have a slightly shorter shaft than comparable motors. i.e. Cobra 2204.

At the bottom of the motors, the BangGood version has very obvious concentric rings.

Another obvious change between the motors is the use of a metal washer in the BangGood motor. Compared to the plastic one.

Another top view of the motor windings, looking into the stator/magnets.

And the same thing from the bottom of the motor.

In either case…my own opinion is the older SunnySky has a more premium look to them than the one from BangGood. On that merit alone, I would consider some of the other competing 2204 2300kv motors at the moment to ensure you don’t get a fake. Or purchase from official retailer such as BuddyRC.com.

*update June 29, 2015: I got a SunnySky x2204s 2300kv from ReadyMade RC and it looks more like my first edition. With the only updated change being the CW or CCW label on the bell, since SunnySky now produce reverse threaded prop shafts. So this gives me more reason to think the ones sold by BangGood are copies rather than the real deal. I have yet to use my BangGood version of the SS2204s. 

I needed some 250mAh 1S LiPo that will fit in the battery cage of some of the micro quad that has found it’s home in my growing fleet. On the forum, many suggest the cell BangGood listed for 5@ $12 is the best performing lipo for their micro quad. I purchased them to check them out for myself.

They just arrived and I noticed that they were labeled FullyMax 250mAh. I know from the FBL80 that HiSky do use FullyMax lipo with their label on top. So I compared it to the 250mAh 25c lipo that came with my Hobby King Qbot Micro (A HiSky FF120 rebrand).

Here are the results.

Both 1s 250mAh weighs ~7.90g.
Both lipo has the same dimensions and looks exactly the same.

And here are their discharge curve for comparision:

Just sharing a discharge curve I just grabbed while cycling the new Hyperion 550mAh and Glacier 600mAh cells. Interesting result.

I’ll discharge at 2A to 3.7v at a later time to see how well the cells really stack up.

Preliminary results.

Got brand new cells and starting to wake them up from slumber. So cycling them a few times at a gentle .6A discharge. Here are the graph so far…

I heard some brands such as Hyperion, if properly cared for, takes 40+ cycle to break in. Wow. I think I have been killing mine in less cycles than that. :)

Will test pulling 1A discharge to 3.8v next.

I remember when a good, computerized charger cost hundreds of dollars. New hobbyist now has a mired of options. Here’s a inexpensive one from Hobby King that many people already know. It’s based on the Imax B6 design, which there are many clones of.

Currently charging a v929 500mAh LiPo

I’ve used to to charge Lead Acid battery, NiCad and NiMH packs. LiION for my camera and LiPo packs for my RC stuff. It’s pretty verstile.

I was delighted to find that you can get a TTL-serial USB adapter and hook it up to the computer to log a battery’s discharge curve like I was able to in this post.

With a parallel charging leads, you can charge many 1s cells, like the ones used with the Xieda 9958, mSR, v911, Solo Pro, v929, etc…

Anyways, this is what you need to buy:

• Accucel-6 Charger
• AC Adapter (You can use an old laptop AC adapter. I am currently using a IBM T20 power adapter)
• Charging Leads:
  • If you have a v929, Blade mQX, Blade 120SR, etc… They use JST connectors and here’s the parallel charging harness: JST Parallel Charging Harness
    
  • For Eflite/Parkzone type such as mSR, Xieda 9958, mCX/mCX2, etc… The UM pico plug parallel charging harness is what you need: Pico Plug Set
    
  • The mCPX uses this charging harness: Ultra Micro Charging Harness
    

There’s debates on the safety of charging cells in parallel. Hyperion is a reputable LiPo manufacturer and they have a 1S Parallel Adapter for sale. You can purchase this for charging 6 Eflite style 1s in parallel instead of the Hobby King harness above: Hyperion Micro 1S Battery Parallel Adapter (HP-LGUM6PADAP)

Another charger that caught my eye is the Gens Ace iMars.

I think it function similar to the Accucel-6, but it has a nicer updated casing IMHO. Plus, it can do internal resistance reading. Some newer model Accucel-6 with a IR sticker on the box has this ability too…but getting it is a hit an miss currently. Remember, there are tons of other chargers out there.

More reading on parallel charging:
About parallel charging of Lixx/PB packs

And since I am playing with the WL Toys v929 Quad most of the time nowadays…here’s the battery I have tried for it so far.

I like the stock v929 battery for it’s weight, size and relative performance. But at roughly $5-$6, I rather buy the Turnigy Nanotech 600mAH @$2.58. It actually works really well. I got a bunch more in so I’ll take a closer look, but for the price, I think it’s a good solution for the v929, mQX, Solo Pro 328, Blade 120SR.

Ever want to use the popular Eflite/Parkzone style batteries with your v911? Here’s a mod that uses the Hobby King mini extension plugs (Only $0.52 using BuddyCode) and fit it nicely into the V911 charger to enable you to charge both types of batteries.

Simply cut the dividing bars. Easily done with an xacto knife. I cut one bar from the front and two bars underneath. It’s obvious when you open it up.

Then the connector fits in really tightly. Just perfect. If you find it too tight a fit, just sand/file off a little bit of plastic off the charger.

Then I glued down the plug and wires from underneath to ensure it won’t move.

As for wiring, just solder the wires up appropriately. Red to + terminal and Black to – terminal.

If you’ve read the datasheet put out by some of the battery manufacturers, you are aware of the break-in procedure for new LiPo. Basically, this amounts to being gentler on the new LiPo for 5 cycles or so.

I call it nicely waking the new cells from slumber. Because nobody likes a rude awakening. Proper LiPo care dictates that it should not be put away for storage in a fully discharge state, nor a fully charge state. Thus new LiPo will come from the manufacturer, resting at about ~3.8v.

So the first five cycles, I generally keep the discharge current at 3C or below. With 180mAh cells, this amounts not pulling more than 0.54A during the first five cycles.

Currently, I like to use my LiPo charger to break in the new cells. That way, I can see the discharge curve. and it also helps me determine the grade A cells from the lot.

Here’s a graph and you can see the chemistry working and waking up from storage. I used the same Miniaviation cell (MA1), charged and then discharged to storage (DS1 through DS5)* at 0.5A            *I accidentally overwrote my 3rd cycle (DS3), so I don’t have have the curve for that.

You can see that the cell performed better and better with each cycle. I included the first few discharge curves for the Hyperion 160mAh to illustrate this phenomenon happening with other LiPo cells as well.

Got a good deal on the 15c Miniaviation cells. These await connectors to be soldered on.

I finally got a hold of the new EFlite 150mAh 25c LiPo. I was curious about this cell because a Horizon Hobby employee said that the chemistry is better than their prior 1s cells. One person on the forum noticed that the head speed of their mSR X has a higher pitch, which suggest it was turning at a higher RPM than their Hyperion 160. That with the MSRP of $5.99 and Horizon Hobby listing it for a reasonable $3.99, it made me want to get one to put to the test. This proved to be difficult to find as it’s out of stock everywhere. The times when it came in stock at my local hobby shop, they marked it up at $9.99. This is the Hobbytown in Escondido. They also marked up the Hyperion 160mAh to $9.99 that can usually be found for $6.95 elsewhere.

New E-flite 150mAh LiPo

Anyways, finally found one at Discount Hobby Warehouse for $5.99. My curiousity got the best of me and I grab a single cell for testing. Now, bare in mind that the performance can vary from cell to cell. And I like to have at least three cells to give a better representation of it’s performance. But it’s interesting to see the result nonetheless.

It was nicely packaged. Weighs in at 4.4g. You can reduce that slightly if you remove the sticker because it wraps around the entire cell, with a little tab on one end. Anyways, make sure to click on the graph below to view it full size.

I need to grab a new order of Turnigy 160 and Turnigy Nano-Tech 160 from HobbyKing to see if those cells are really that bad or the ones I have are just worn. I also have some MiniAviation 180mAh coming from the UK. Will put that to the test once they arrive.