Quick Question about discharging Lipo

[NativePaul]

Brittain is quite an expensive place to live and quite often electrical goods are the same in dollars as they are in pounds despite the exchange rate. It would not surprise me if you could get a $10 9.6v drill at walmart for conversion, or get a Matkia drill and battery for $122on the bay. When I ran A123 LiFePo4 cells I used to buy the dewalt packs from Amrica as it was cheaper than here even after the postage costs and import duty.

Paul,
It's all good, you were well intentioned that's what counts. I live on a stipend of 1000USD/month, that's why I made the comment about being a "broke bitch".

Just means I have to watch out for good deals / wait for sales, and often times settle for tools that are up not to the standards of Makita - I think that's what you chaps meant, not Matika. I know that for the longest time Makita was the only way to go for battery operated tools. Everything else was junk.

For those lacking monentary conversion skills... £1.00-GBP (Great British Pound) = 1.52380 US Dollars -- in plain english the Matika (Makita ?) LiIon drill Paul referred to would cost $217.848 here in the states. Hope that helps to put things into perspective.

You can find an excellent currency converter here... http://www.xe.com/pca/ - click on this link... "Click here to launch the XE Personal Currency Assistant".

Sorry JW, I was assuming you had a cordless drill already. I have not seen that pack myself but it is likely that you can replace the cells in it with yours, I know several modellers other than myself that have done it with various NiCd/NiMh drills. Go to a shop that has one and measure it then take off 2mm all round for the plastic shell's thickness, measure your cells and work out if they will fit.

SloHD, whether it is a waste of time and money depends on your budget and how much you earn I guess, the cheapest I could find a Matika LiIon drill for is £143 for the kit or £57 for the drill, £65 for the battery and £40 for the charger (if you need it, I don't know if the battery has electronics built in preventing us using our RC chargers or not), however I am sure for the £122 Minimum you get a very good bit of kit, that has all the power you need, lasts quite a while and has no self discharge so is ready when you need it, I spent £10 on an unbranded 9.6v cordless drill, and about an hour replacing its 8 crappy cells with 10 IB4200 less crappy cells (the part that sticks up into the drill handle has space for 2 cells if you cut a few ribs out which is empty stock) and modifying an old frequency peg into a charge lead which cost me nothing as I had cells, bettery bars, peg wire and connectors unused in the spares box, and resulted in a drill with as much power as I need, that lasts quite a while, and while it does have self discharge I can hit it with 10A from my RC charger so it is full in under half an hour. It transforms a barely useable cordless drill into all the hand drill I need and saved me at least £112, I earn a LOT less than £112 an hour so it was well worth it to me.

[NativePaul]

Sorry JW, I was assuming you had a cordless drill already. I have not seen that pack myself but it is likely that you can replace the cells in it with yours, I know several modellers other than myself that have done it with various NiCd/NiMh drills. Go to a shop that has one and measure it then take off 2mm all round for the plastic shell's thickness, measure your cells and work out if they will fit.

SloHD, whether it is a waste of time and money depends on your budget and how much you earn I guess, the cheapest I could find a Matika LiIon drill for is £143 for the kit or £57 for the drill, £65 for the battery and £40 for the charger (if you need it, I don't know if the battery has electronics built in preventing us using our RC chargers or not), however I am sure for the £122 Minimum you get a very good bit of kit, that has all the power you need, lasts quite a while and has no self discharge so is ready when you need it, I spent £10 on an unbranded 9.6v cordless drill, and about an hour replacing its 8 crappy cells with 10 IB4200 less crappy cells (the part that sticks up into the drill handle has space for 2 cells if you cut a few ribs out which is empty stock) and modifying an old frequency peg into a charge lead which cost me nothing as I had cells, bettery bars, peg wire and connectors unused in the spares box, and resulted in a drill with as much power as I need, that lasts quite a while, and while it does have self discharge I can hit it with 10A from my RC charger so it is full in under half an hour. It transforms a barely useable cordless drill into all the hand drill I need and saved me at least £112, I earn a LOT less than £112 an hour so it was well worth it to me.

[tlandauer]

I'm sorry but I really can't believe what I'm reading here about cordless drills. Are you seriously willing to waste your time and money to upgrade to Nimh packs in your cordless drill? Cordless drills have been using 18v+ lithium ions for years now. Heck, you'd be better off buying a 12v li-ion mini cordless. I'm sure you could find a decent deal on a modern cordless drill online/eBay, ect. I suggest Makita...

Come to think of it, I was very fond of of Makita, my first cordless drill, 12v. Battery packs didn't last long, cost $68 each!
I am willing to waste my time to upgrade, but there is just one glitch: last time I used it was at my ex's house...

[SloHD]

I'm sorry but I really can't believe what I'm reading here about cordless drills. Are you seriously willing to waste your time and money to upgrade to Nimh packs in your cordless drill? Cordless drills have been using 18v+ lithium ions for years now. Heck, you'd be better off buying a 12v li-ion mini cordless. I'm sure you could find a decent deal on a modern cordless drill online/eBay, ect. I suggest Makita...

Hey Paul,
THANK YOU for that suggestion!!

I still have a corded drill, but have been wanting the convenience of cordless for quite awhile. What's kept me away is the poor ratings of the batteries. I'm a broke bitch, so been checking Harbor Freight. Seems like most all they're cordless offerings getting banged on in the reviews for crappy batteries and / or the charger(s).

You can find all they're cordless offerings here... http://www.harborfreight.com/power-t...Sort+Price%2Ct - if you check out the reviews you'll see what I'm talking about with the batts & chargers.

So your basically telling that I can take this dude... http://www.harborfreight.com/18-volt-battery-67029.html - apart and replace the cells in it with the NiMH cells from my hobby packs??

I have 2 of these... http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...ssing%20Data** - and 2 of these... http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...ssing%20Data** all four have trax connectors, they charge to precisely 3900mAh & 4600mAh (respectifully) each & everytime, nothing more, nothing less.

These dudes and the Wolfpacks above would be perfect for a starter box if I could find a nitro guy in need... http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...ssing%20Data** - have two, came with my Trax Blast boat, cycled them a couple times like I do with all new packs, otherwise no use.

Also have 2 of these... http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...ssing%20Data** - only one's that could keep my pede happy after the BL upgrade. These LiPo's... http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...ssing%20Data** - make it REALLY HAPPY

Last but not least, 6x of these... http://www.hobbypartz.com/98p-5000-8...flat-hump.html - for the AQ WC I had last summer. Boats gone but not the batts.

So if you know people with cordless power tools that are looking to upgrade their industrial NiCad / NiMH batt packs with hobby grade NiMH cells, LMK, I'm ready to wheel & deal. USPS flat rate box will keep ship costs low, if it fits, it ships, and they WILL fit :-))

No don't throw them away, they may be crap compared to LiPo but they are fab compared to the industrial NiMh in your cordless drill, swap the cells over and turbocharge your drill, you get more torque, more speed and more runtime with hobby grade cells in your drill battery case.

[tlandauer]

I don't have one of these but I'm thinking of getting one. Sounds like a handy little unit. There is also a 50W discharge version available.
But, read the reviews at the bottom of the page.

http://www.himodel.com/electric/3_IN...Discharge.html

Thanks for the link! Most interesting!

[NativePaul]

[COLOR="#0000CD"]But now that I gone to LiPo's i don't need them, and not having much luck selling them either. What, am I supposed to just throw them away?

No don't throw them away, they may be crap compared to LiPo but they are fab compared to the industrial NiMh in your cordless drill, swap the cells over and turbocharge your drill, you get more torque, more speed and more runtime with hobby grade cells in your drill battery case.

[785boats]

I don't have one of these but I'm thinking of getting one. Sounds like a handy little unit. There is also a 50W discharge version available.
But, read the reviews at the bottom of the page.

http://www.himodel.com/electric/3_IN_1_Battery_Meter_Balancer_Discharger_LCD_Display_150W_Discharge.html

[tlandauer]

Yeah, I agree: It should be on my agenda. My Duratrax ICE have proven to be really good ones and I like the manual, straight forward, not like some of the more recent ones that you have a looped manual---keep pressing one button till you get it right. In fact that is why I bought four of them for a song when they were discontinued. But the Storage Setting is very useful and I have many more packs of batteries to deal with now.
Thanks! Any brand you would suggest?

[Cooper]

Personally I would get a quality lipo charger that has storage setting (discharge). For what it's worth the money spent on quality batteries is gone to waste if not using a quality charger that will stop or let you know if there is a problem, will prevent lipo damage.

[tlandauer]

h4 is a halogen headlight bulb, good for see the road at night!

I need that in my brain!!!!

[Peter A]

H4 is a halogen headlight bulb, good for see the road at night!

please don't laugh: what is h4? I feel very stupid at this moment, any chance you can post a picture?
One thing I realized was that my charger was really hot, both fans were working over time and I ended up using cold-wet towel to chill the heat sink! , I was discharging 4s, 5000mah lipo at 1C .
about the heat issue on the chargers.

I see that you discharge your NiMH packs before re-charging...
For a couple days till there's nothing left in them

With new packs, I discharge all the way, then charge up all the way a couple times before using them. You'de be amazed at how much of a diff it makes for conditioning the pack to take a proper charge consistanly & long life too.

And only charge at 1.5A, no safety timer, no trickle, I don't care if it takes longer. It's safer & charges the batteries better. That's why all my packs are still in perfect condition.

I've got 4x associated packs, the 3600's goto precisely 3900mAh & 4200's that goto 4600mAh each & everytime. I got 'em for a DuraTrax Evader EXT2 that I used to own - first R/C truck. Sold that rig long time ago, tried selling them to the buyer but no luck.

I used them with my Trax Blast boat when I first got it, but after the BL upgrade (3000Kv BLM) + the weight of the batts, only got bout 5~6mins runtime before performance fell off. That's when I finally made the decision to goto LiPo's.

While back I got a pair of Traxxas 5000mAh humps for my pede because they're the only one's I could find that would handle the BL setup that I put in it. With Onyx 5700mAh 2S it's faster than 8.4v and will do wheelie's all day no prob, go figure.

Add a Duratrax 8.4v 4600mAh DTX series hump pack to that collection.

But now that I gone to LiPo's i don't need them, and not having much luck selling them either. What, am I supposed to just throw them away??

Worst of all, last summer I bought 6x Gens Ace 5000mAh hump packs for the AQ WC I had - that's when I should have got my 1st 3S's. At least I can still use them with the Rio till I come up with an effective 3S LiPo solution.

I personally store my lipo between 3.7-3.8v/cell. I also use this lipo monitoring device. It's just that I have not used the discharge feature on my charger and was wondering how much I should set. I see that you discharge your NiMH packs before re-charging, I wish I were as meticulous as you are with my NiMH.

[tlandauer]

I just use jumper wire with alligator clips with a h4 12v to discharge. Works great and much faster than the charger will do.

please don't laugh: what is h4? I feel very stupid at this moment, any chance you can post a picture?
One thing I realized was that my charger was really hot, both fans were working over time and I ended up using cold-wet towel to chill the heat sink! , I was discharging 4s, 5000mah lipo at 1C .
about the heat issue on the chargers.