nmh to lipo with 2.4gz tiagen panther

[jeff]

hello fella's, have anyone converted tiagen from nmh to lipo? i understand it is very easy.needs low battery ? cut-off or warning? if you have tackeled this let me know what your expirience was like. as always, thanx, jeff.

[Tankbear]

Hello Jeff,

Converting to LiPo is quite straight forward. You'll find that not many LiPo come with Tamiya style battle plug so your option is a) stick with tamiya style plug and limited battery selection or b) change the battery connector to some thing common to the LiPo (I use Deans style)

Next issue is fitting the battery in the battery box, because generally you can fit a LiPo in the battery box but a lot of LiPo batteries have the leads coming off the top rather than end of the battery. So I had to cut a little bit of the battery box to allow the wires to pop out into the tank.

Low voltage alarm. I don't use them. When I moved to LiPo batteries I got 5000mah batteries so these gave me a couple of hours run time, so for me I just recharged the battery after each use so I never got to a flat battery. However I did leave a tank turned on and put back on shelf for storage which did lead to the battery over discharging and thrown away a low voltage alarm in this case would of saved the battery.

Hope that helps you.

Ian.

[MichaelC]

Second what Ian said......... I was apprehensive about going to Lipo as I have no idea beforehand but it has been an easy move. If you don't want to change plugs, you can always get adapters from HobbyKing (great place for lipo batteries BTW if you live in the US) that will take whichever kind to Tamiya pretty well. That way you can just swap battery into different tanks without worrying about plug compatibility.

In terms of space, I actually find that for the same mAh battery, Lipo in general is actually smaller so you shouldn't have any issues. Also, on the Hobbyking website it gives you the exact dimensions so you can find the right size for the battery box.

Lastly, I drained out one of my lipo as well but I unplugged it and after half a day, it gain back enough to be charge again, so it was even less traumatic than I have thought (Rule One about Lipo, don't drain it. Rule 2 about Lipo, don't drain it, and you know what Rule 3 is.)

Just to give you an idea, here is a 2,200 mAh lipo compared to the standard HL NiCd form factor. The Lipo has XT-60 but you can get Tamiya adapters for them.

MichaelC.

[jarndice]

I am with Michael and Ian here, because I build and fly 1/10 scale r/c rather than mess about, A long time ago I started collecting adaptors, so now I have a cardboard box full of them which means if I see a battery for sale at a discount I do not have to think twice, just take note of Michael's comment on battery size vis a vie space available. If you have a charger that covers both NI-CD, NI-CH and LI-PO then you are all set, do not be afraid of LI-PO, properly handled it is a positive move forward (excuse the pun) and as pointed out they are much smaller than the equivilent NI-CD/NI-CH. shaun