7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

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SimonCornes
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7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by SimonCornes »

I have a question about charging. I have just acquired a second hand Heng Long Panzer III with one of these batteries. My question is can I charge it with a standard Heng Long 7.2volt charger?
My belief is that I can’t because the 7.2 v pack is made up of 6 x 1.2v cells and the 7.4v is made up of 2 x 3.7v cells so like chalk and cheese. The chap I bought it from thinks that a standard 7.2v Ni-Mh charger will be fine!
I’d be grateful for a few second opinions please!!
Thanks
Simon
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jarndice
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by jarndice »

There are two Heng Long/ Taigen/Torro parts that should be taken out of the box and sent to the nearest waste bin,
The Decals and the Charger,
Li-ions/ Li-fes and Li-po batteries are the way to go and a decent charger will accommodate them,
Hobby King is as good a supplier of decent chargers as any out there.
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
Sub
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by Sub »

Hi,
As above, you are quite correct.
You need a specific LION charger, i use a Turnigy Accucell 6 its excellent, works for lion, life, lipo, nimh, lead acid.
If you buy one you also need the mains cable too.
Hope its of use.
Sub.
SimonCornes
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by SimonCornes »

Thanks guys. To be fair the 7.2v Ni-Mh chargers supplied with HL work perfectly well in my book although a good slow charger would help as 2 hours or so is a bit quick if you’re trying to keep cell charge states roughly balanced.
As for a charger for this Li-ion battery, I assume the chargers you mention are quite expensive? The battery pack is a Heng Long branded pack so I assume it would have been supplied with the tank and come complete with a charger? I thought all HL tanks used standard 7.2v packs as that’s what all of mine have had although I have seen adverts mentioning 7.4v batteries. It might be cheaper to get a 7.2v pack made up from 2000Mah AA cells?
Sub
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by Sub »

Hi,
About £25 quid, its the only charger you will ever need in my book, and you can keep an eye on every cell whilst charging.
Just make sure you buy from a reputable dealer.
Sub.
SimonCornes
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by SimonCornes »

Bearing in mind that Haya want around £20 inc postage for a HL 7.4v Li-Ion charger then I've just found the identical charger care of a company called jtpro17 on ebay for £11 posted!
I'm no great fan of lots of chargers but I also like to keep it simple so whilst theres a lot to be said for a multi charger that does it all, for £11 I'm happy if it charges this battery properly!

It occurs to me that the Stug III will also have this battery then ? The compartment is long enough for a C cell pack but not deep enough. I didn't fancy having a rummage around to see if I could hack it about to fit a standard pack but I see that the turret is full of BB unit so imagine its a bit tight!
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Herr Dr. Professor
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by Herr Dr. Professor »

I join the others in recommending an aftermarket charger. Years ago I bought a NiMH/NiCad charger, and it still is well worthwhile. The other thing I do for my peace of mind is, whenever possible, I change from LiPO to NiMH batteries in tanks. Weight is not a problem and you can get "tall" (as much as 5000 MAH) NiMH batteries. I join the others in recommending an aftermarket charger.
SimonCornes
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by SimonCornes »

Herr Dr. Professor wrote:I join the others in recommending an aftermarket charger. Years ago I bought a NiMH/NiCad charger, and it still is well worthwhile. The other thing I do for my peace of mind is, whenever possible, I change from LiPO to NiMH batteries in tanks. Weight is not a problem and you can get "tall" (as much as 5000 MAH) NiMH batteries. I join the others in recommending an aftermarket charger.
I can understand your rationale. I also have NiCd/NiMh chargers from years ago and I have a thing called a 'Versatile Power Supply Unit' for charging lead acids, amongst other things. The thing with specific chargers is that I get a 'free' one with every Heng Long tank I buy so I have quite a few Ni-Mh chargers already and I only need to use one at a time so I have quite a lot of chargers to get through until they are all u/s ! The Lithium-Ion one is different - I don't have any batteries of that type already so I need at least one charger now. My logic is that the HL Ni-Mh chargers work fine so I would hope that the HL Li-Ion charger would work equally well. If it dies after 5 minutes then I will revise my decision but, right now, I have a reasonably priced charger on order, if it does what it says it will do!
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Herr Dr. Professor
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by Herr Dr. Professor »

You're right: I am actually in much the same situation. I just bought two HengLong Shermans with the TK6.0 (I overdid it a bit), and they have those LiPO batteries. I dug out a LiPO charger I had from a Mato M10, and it works better. But I guess I am a bit nervous about LiPO batteries. An acquaintance of mine, a (now retired) airline pilot, flew the latest and greatest Boeing "Dreamliner." Early on, those jets had problems with LiPO batteries. Fortunately, she had no fires while in flight. Whew!
SimonCornes
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Re: 7.4volt 1800 Li-ion battery

Post by SimonCornes »

Herr Dr. Professor wrote:You're right: I am actually in much the same situation. I just bought two HengLong Shermans with the TK6.0 (I overdid it a bit), and they have those LiPO batteries. I dug out a LiPO charger I had from a Mato M10, and it works better. But I guess I am a bit nervous about LiPO batteries. An acquaintance of mine, a (now retired) airline pilot, flew the latest and greatest Boeing "Dreamliner." Early on, those jets had problems with LiPO batteries. Fortunately, she had no fires while in flight. Whew!
So is a Lithium Ion battery a Li-Po then? I must say that it occurred to me to get hold of a 7.2V Ni-Mh pack made from 2000MaH AA cells instead as I'm sure they'd fit the space in the reduced size battery box. The only issue is that they would have to be vented cells to fast charge. I used to make up NiCd packs using tagged cells but the World has moved on! Its funny, I to recently bought a pair of Shermans (one for a Firefly conversion, the other for an M3 Grant) but they both have the Ni-Mh batteries. I suppose it depends on what your local market imports?
But I recall the Dreamliner grounding due to LiPo fires - very worrying to be sure!
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