LiPo in a Hobby King 6ch Tx?
- Thread starter rcspaceflight
- Start date
I only have some because of Chad...he always manages to find a way to spend my money!
lonewolf7717
Senior Member
I am a little late too the game but seeing as the thread will last on into perpetuity and may help others.....i just have to drop a selfish plug. Made a vid about 3 yrs ago and moved from vimeo to youtube last year.....walks through this very process with lipo conversion on that exact radio. With what I have learned in the interim, LiFe is the ticket.....but 3 years ago LiFe TX packs were a bit hard to come across.
http://youtu.be/abqhjXOc7ik
http://youtu.be/abqhjXOc7ik
excellent vid- I bought one of these radios late in the curve and set it up for one of my trainers. I didn't even buy a second set of AA's before I did the conversion...
@lonewolf- Can I link your vid to my article?
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Either the battery I was using for my Tx didn't last as long as I thought it would, or I've been flying a sim more in a few weeks than I have been actually flying in the past 8 months.
Long story short, I need a new battery. I killed it. Oops. Luckily I was using a battery that I almost threw away before because of a very hard crash. I thought the crash puffed it, but I couldn't tell for sure, so it was probably fine so I started using the battery again. Anyway, now that battery is for sure dead and I think I'll update the system with a low voltage alarm. I still like the idea of a LiPo because I already have a charger for it and they're cheap.
I'm thinking of going with a nice big battery, reasonably priced of course, and a low voltage alarm of sorts.
Long story short, I need a new battery. I killed it. Oops. Luckily I was using a battery that I almost threw away before because of a very hard crash. I thought the crash puffed it, but I couldn't tell for sure, so it was probably fine so I started using the battery again. Anyway, now that battery is for sure dead and I think I'll update the system with a low voltage alarm. I still like the idea of a LiPo because I already have a charger for it and they're cheap.
I'm thinking of going with a nice big battery, reasonably priced of course, and a low voltage alarm of sorts.
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
I'm going with an LED Voltage Display. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...rd_LED_RX_Voltage_Display_USA_warehouse_.html It's only a nickle more than the cheapest voltage alarm and I've heard enough people complain about how the voltage alarm waits too long before going off.
I'll probably plan on recharging my Tx battery whenever the voltage drops below 12v. I think I could wait until it was almost 11v, but I figure after a few charges I should figure out just what the actual voltage would be to follow the 80% rule with batteries. Each battery is a little different, so I think first hand experience will tell more than a rule of thumb on voltage.
This battery sounds like a high amp at a reasonable price. Plus it's meant for a Tx. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...mAh_1_5C_Transmitter_Pack_USA_warehouse_.html
Mistakes made. Lessons learned. No one got hurt. I'm just out a battery that I bought for a plane I destroyed months ago. I didn't really like that battery anyways.
I'll probably plan on recharging my Tx battery whenever the voltage drops below 12v. I think I could wait until it was almost 11v, but I figure after a few charges I should figure out just what the actual voltage would be to follow the 80% rule with batteries. Each battery is a little different, so I think first hand experience will tell more than a rule of thumb on voltage.
This battery sounds like a high amp at a reasonable price. Plus it's meant for a Tx. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...mAh_1_5C_Transmitter_Pack_USA_warehouse_.html
Mistakes made. Lessons learned. No one got hurt. I'm just out a battery that I bought for a plane I destroyed months ago. I didn't really like that battery anyways.
I ordered an HK6s T/R for my neighbors start up kit (long story as to why I was doing all the ordering) and it came with a short in the battery pack. He got a different transmitter and for those that have tried an HK return, lets just say I ended up with the broken HK Tx.
I took it apart and found the leads of the AA battery pack were glued to the board and one wasn't connecting. I simply scraped the glue off and soldered a JST plug to the board. I have a dozen 3S 850 Turnigy nanos and use one of those without any issues.
On the plus side of the deal I prefer it for elevons over my Spektrum which, even with rates maxed, feels weak on the controls.
I took it apart and found the leads of the AA battery pack were glued to the board and one wasn't connecting. I simply scraped the glue off and soldered a JST plug to the board. I have a dozen 3S 850 Turnigy nanos and use one of those without any issues.
On the plus side of the deal I prefer it for elevons over my Spektrum which, even with rates maxed, feels weak on the controls.
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Today I got my Hobby King order so I modded my Tx to have an LED display to show me the volts left in the battery. I had a couple of 9volt battery clips laying around so I decided to use those to connect my new battery to my Tx. Before I soldered everything together I thought it would be a great idea to test out the LED display voltmeter first. Because of the way the 9volt battery clips are put together, I wasn't sure which was + and which was -. I guessed and maybe I guessed wrong because the magic smoke poured out of the LED display. Oops. Supposedly the LED display is supposed to be plugged into an Rx, but people on the site said that according to tech support it can handle/read out 3-33volts.
I don't know for sure why the magic smoke came out of the LED display, but I think I need to find something else now. The main mod I wanted to make was some sort of way to know for sure how much battery I have left.
This looks better because it's meant to be plugged straight into a battery. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...oltage_and_Amperage_Meter_USA_warehouse_.html
I'll update when I get the part and get it all modded out.
I don't know for sure why the magic smoke came out of the LED display, but I think I need to find something else now. The main mod I wanted to make was some sort of way to know for sure how much battery I have left.
This looks better because it's meant to be plugged straight into a battery. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...oltage_and_Amperage_Meter_USA_warehouse_.html
I'll update when I get the part and get it all modded out.
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
I got that new battery tester today and I modded my Tx out.
I ended up wiring it rather unusually. With the voltmeter having "in" wires and "out" wires, I was going to straight forward connect the "in" wires to the battery and the "out" wires to the Tx, but then I'd have to disconnect it after every use. I tried wiring the "in" wires in series with the Tx power input, but then it would show the volts at 8 instead of 12.3; Which isn't bad, I could still tell when the battery was getting low.
Anyways, I ended up mounting the battery checker into the Tx. The "out" wires don't go anywhere, and I have two sets of wires for "in" wires. Basically, I have two loose wires sticking out of my Tx so I can plug in any of my batteries to check their voltage and I have a 9volt battery clip that I can plug straight into my Tx battery to check it's voltage. Unusual set up, but this allows me to use my voltage checker on any of my batteries and it's right there inside of my Tx.
I want to point out that the battery checker I bought http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...oltage_and_Amperage_Meter_USA_warehouse_.html shows both volts and amps, but it will say "0.0" for the amps. I'm guessing that it keeps track of amps used, it can't tell how many amps are left. This checker is meant to be installed into a plane and used during flight. At only $5.15, I'm tempted to buy a second one and actually use it for it's intended purpose.
I ended up wiring it rather unusually. With the voltmeter having "in" wires and "out" wires, I was going to straight forward connect the "in" wires to the battery and the "out" wires to the Tx, but then I'd have to disconnect it after every use. I tried wiring the "in" wires in series with the Tx power input, but then it would show the volts at 8 instead of 12.3; Which isn't bad, I could still tell when the battery was getting low.
Anyways, I ended up mounting the battery checker into the Tx. The "out" wires don't go anywhere, and I have two sets of wires for "in" wires. Basically, I have two loose wires sticking out of my Tx so I can plug in any of my batteries to check their voltage and I have a 9volt battery clip that I can plug straight into my Tx battery to check it's voltage. Unusual set up, but this allows me to use my voltage checker on any of my batteries and it's right there inside of my Tx.
I want to point out that the battery checker I bought http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...oltage_and_Amperage_Meter_USA_warehouse_.html shows both volts and amps, but it will say "0.0" for the amps. I'm guessing that it keeps track of amps used, it can't tell how many amps are left. This checker is meant to be installed into a plane and used during flight. At only $5.15, I'm tempted to buy a second one and actually use it for it's intended purpose.
