Heng long tiger batteries

[UkJonathan]

Hi I got my first heng long tigers today, and I also got a vector nx85 charger. I put the battery on charge on this new charger at 2.0 A and it charged quite quick. Can anyone tell me do I run the tiger until battery's go flat, and will they have to be discharged before charging? If so how do I do this. New to this so sorry if it sounds a bit of a stupid question.

[Tankbear]

You should be fine just running until battery is flat and recharge.

Personnelly I charge at no more than 1A as the batteries are cheap so any excessive heat from rapid charging probably wont do it any good in the long run.

And congratulations on your first heng long.

Ian.

[UkJonathan]

Hi Tankbear, thanks for quick reply and is there a better battery I could get?

[Tankbear]

I presume your Tiger has the 1700mAh NiCd battery. This is okay and should give you about 20-40 minutes run time. Next step up is a MiMH battery anything over 2000mAh. Larger the capacity the longer the run time.

MiMH batteries aren't suppose to have memory and therefore don't have to discharged before charging up again. But some people will argue that you should still discharge first, personally I don't bother and haven't noticed any problems.

After that is LiPo batteries, these require special chargers and some caution in use but can get some big capacities quite easily (I use 5000mAh in my tanks) these batteries although about same size won't quite fit in the battery box with out some minor cutting away plastic.

It all depends what you want from your tank. If your keeping your tank with the plastic tracks and wheels it be quite light and the standard battery will be okay, if you add metal tracks the weight goes up so you may want something like a 3000mAh MiMH battery. I often go to tank meetings so I want my battery to last all day so I use LiPo 7.4v 5000mAh batteries.

Ian.

[Dietrich]

Hi UkJonathan,
Welcome to the Forum...
.
Some good advice there from Tankbear..... Personally I just run the Metal Hydride batteries.... simply because I bought a fast charger for them ( My son has a few other R/C toys that take the 7.2 Volt batteries as well ) ..........and do not want to spend out the extra money on the LiPo batteries and its charger. A battery 'monitor' is also needed with the LiPo because Its important that the batteries are NOT discharged below a certain voltage or they can be damaged ...
I have a 3300 Mah and a 5000 Mah ( I find that last figure a bit difficult to believe.. although it does seem to last well..)

[scalawag]

Hi Jonathan,

I use NiMh batteries from this supplier.

http://www.componentshop.co.uk/batterie ... -8-4v.html

Their prices seem reasonable and the service is good too. If you buy 3 the price drops. I usually go for the 3300mAh ones.

[MichaelC]

I have NiMH that are as high as 6800 Mah. Most of my tanks only get played once in a while, and what I find is that it is great to have high capacity batteries as you don't ahave to worry about them not having charge when you pull them from the shelf. I don't run them for long either so can't really verify the "real" number, but 6800/5000 definitely last longer than 2000/3000's.

MichaelC

[ALPHA]

I have NiMH that are as high as 6800 Mah. Most of my tanks only get played once in a while, and what I find is that it is great to have high capacity batteries as you don't ahave to worry about them not having charge when you pull them from the shelf. I don't run them for long either so can't really verify the "real" number, but 6800/5000 definitely last longer than 2000/3000's.

MichaelC

Hello Micheal C....the benefit of using NICDs or NiMHs is the storage qualities... as they will discharge with time... a good thing when it comes to those two types of batteries
With that said... Lipos have more benefits when you run your tanks...sure you need another charger... but they really aren't that costly... I purchased mine for 25 dollars.. probably less where you might be



I use this speed charger for my NiCDs and NiMHs after charging with the stock drip charger this is important... as the method maintains the battery's life span ... I have some batteries that are a year old... and still hold and put out power...I overpaid for mine... at 70 dollars it is twice the price I could have gotten it online...but it was a local purchase so I didn't mind
One of the good things about this charger is there are alligator clips... which can be attached to a 12v car battery... so you can quick charge you batteries in the field


I use this version of the IMEX brand of chargers for the lipos...it's smart... balanced ..will not stop charging till all cells register proper current...unlike normal smart chargers for NiCDs and MHs .. which will just cut power at two hours
The cost is just as good as it's performance ... under 30 dollars

I don't recommend "dual" chargers.... sometime they fail and get confused ... which is a bad thing...as if in the Lipo mode... will kill a NiCD or MH...the opposite is worse... as it might cause a Lipo to ignite ...and will shorten the life of a Lipo as well....as the general rule of thumb for LIpos is... NEVER SPEED CHARGE A LIPO

The downside to Lipos are they don't store well... as you must keep some kind of charge in them at all times...but as Tankbear has already stated ... you can't beat the performance ... and endurance during play

GOOD LUCK

ALPHA

[UkJonathan]

Hi thanks for ideas and answering my questions I think I'll use the one I have for now and see how it goes with the extra weight of metal tracks. If it causes probs I'll have to get better batteries. Thanx again

[whjohnson]

Guys, just found these and was going to order until I checked the dimensions.

http://www.componentshop.co.uk/7-2v-430 ... 2-x-3.html

These packs measure out at 136.4 x 47.8 mm x 24.6 mm

They look to be bigger than the standard HL packs which measure out roughly as being 130mm x 46mm x 15mm, and I was wondering if anyone had successfully managed to shoehorn one of these big babies into the standard HL tank battery box?

Sadly it looks like all the other batteries are out of stock.