LIPO Batteries

I was at the hobby shop today & someone let me use a lipo battery in my slash 4x4 .... WOW... I couldnt believe the power & speed !!! The only thing stopping me from going lipo is, i know nothing about them....i checked a few sites & most of the info about them were just peoples opinions...

If anyone could give me a little knowledge about lipo's i'd appreciate it !!


Thanks.... Josh

All I can say is due it and don't look back. Here are some links. The charger I use http://www.hobbypartz.com/skychb6chdup.html some good battery links
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10301&Product_Name=Turnigy_4000mAh_2S_40C_Lipo_Pack

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=9956&Product_Name=ZIPPY_Flightmax_4000mAh_2S1P_40C

I have the onyx 230 charger so i should be able to charge them. I'm still in shock how much of a burst they have. I juiced it a few times & the thing was doing wheelies !!! sick !!

Thanks for the links i'm going to go check them out now...

hobby king is the best for batts. i just got 2 5000 2 cells for 50 dollers shipped

make sure you take the time to buy a Lipo charging bag and an ammo can... you will also NEED a balancer that will work on your battery... the Onyx230 is a good charger but does not come with a balancer... plan on balancing EVERY charge cycle...

lipos unlike nimh should never get hot to the touch... and if they do you are using the wrong lipo as it does not have the discharge rate to handle the vehicle or driving style... for a slash a 25c-30c discharge should be plenty... let the battery cool also before charging...

the main thing that happens with lipos and the reason people are worried so much about them is that they CAN and DO cause fires when old or used improperly... what I said above should save you from all that... but also the big thing is that if the battery puffs.. AT ALL... discontinue its use... people have a tendency of "one more time"ing its use once puffed and the end result can easily be a crispy critter for a car or truck... or a burned down house...

jrich4x4 wrote:I was at the hobby shop today & someone let me use a lipo battery in my slash 4x4 .... WOW... I couldnt believe the power & speed !!! The only thing stopping me from going lipo is, i know nothing about them....i checked a few sites & most of the info about them were just peoples opinions...

If anyone could give me a little knowledge about lipo's i'd appreciate it !!

Thanks.... Josh

I've been thinking the same thing. Thanks to all who posted and provided the links. I'll certainly be checking them out too. Does anyone know off hand what the average lifespan is of a lipo compared to a nimh? Does the extra power upgrade typically break the drivetrain components? I've experienced that just recently with a nitro engine upgrade. Do people typically upgrade their drivetrains when upgrading to lipo?
If Jrich4x4 upgrades to lipo, I guess I have to as well...just to keep up. :)

Most of the modern kits should be able to handle Lipo. They all seem to have metal gears in the tranny and such. One more important note is the speed control, If it does not have a "lipo cutoff", or "low voltage cutoff" you will need to add a way to monitor the battery why you are running. If you discharge too far kiss the battery goodbye.

Livingston RC wrote:Does anyone know off hand what the average lifespan is of a lipo compared to a nimh? Does the extra power upgrade typically break the drivetrain components? I've experienced that just recently with a nitro engine upgrade. Do people typically upgrade their drivetrains when upgrading to lipo?
If Jrich4x4 upgrades to lipo, I guess I have to as well...just to keep up. :)

Brett also brought up a VERY good point... the good thing is that "us" slash owners have lipo cut off on the VXL systems... and also so does Castle...

Average lifespan on any battery really depends on how you use and abuse it... but there are also "friday" batteries and "monday" batteries out there that crash fast or last forever... basically the amount of heat and strain that a battery goes through generally will denote its lifecycle... the more heat the less overall time...

Lipo batteries generally dont have "more power" than their nimh counterparts... its just different power per-say... a nimh battery after a peak charge has a heavy first punch... and then after the spike goes down in a fairly straight downward angle of power... till it hits its bottom voltage... a lipo on the other hand has a very linear power curve that drops off drastically once you have overdrained a battery (typically +/- 3v per cell) so while you can watch a car get slower over time with a nimh as it drains the lipo will "seem" fairly even till the car hits cutoff...

Lipo is generally a more sought after type of running but carries a much higher percentage of issues if you abuse it or dont charge/discharge properly.