New Roboteer!

[BeligerAnt]

Hi Andrew

The Hyperion batteries are fine (also available from RobotBirds).
They do generally come with the JST connectors. I don't think there's a significant different in current-carrying capacity compared to the Futaba servo connectors, certainly not in antweight applications.
Since the pitch of the connectors is the same, and the pin size is similar if not identical, you could mix & match but I don't see why, since you need to regulate the LiPo to 6V max before connecting it to your receiver!
You can buy JST connectors pre-wired to connect to your regulator, or you can buy the pins and housings to wire your own connectors.

Don't forget you do need an accessible switch or means of disconnecting the battery power.

[ajw]

Thanks Gary, that clears a lot of my questions up! I haven't come across Robotbirds before either so I appreciate you posting that.

If anyone else has experience of using specific brands of chargers & batteries I'd be interested in hearing your opinions.

Cheers

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

I swap all my connectors on my lipos for Futaba ones and have never had an issue

[BeligerAnt]

There's no electrical performance reason not to use Futaba connectors, but by using JST you are less likely to accidentally connect the battery directly to the receiver

Also, the plastic moulding of the JST is slightly smaller, so it must save a few tenths of a gram!

[ajw]

Thanks for the help Dave and Gary. Cleared a lot of things up

[ajw]

I think I'm going to go with the combination I listed above of Zippy lipo and turnigy charger. Does anyone have any experience buying from hobbykings USA warehouse, since the batteries I'm looking at are out of stock elsewhere? I read on the hobbyking site that the USA wahrehouse is only for USA customers.....is this the case in practice? I think the new import las to the UK allow an order up to thevalue of £15 inc shipping so that shouldn't be a problem for a few lipos. Thanks

[ajw]

I've been fiddling around with my ants again tonight and noticed one of the sg90 9g servos used for drive was constantly spinning approximately half speed in one direction. I tried trimming it out, but failed, and also checked that the pot hadn't become dislodged from its neutral position, which it hadn't. I then tried fitting a spare battery, which caused the problem to disappear. However, reverting back to the original battery the problem came back again. I also tried another spare servo, however, this did not show the same dual nature depending on which battery was plugged in.

Anyone got any ideas what this could be? Both batteries were 6V nimhs both measuring approximately 6.2V on my DVM. Cheers

On the plus side the nylon gears were still in good shape after a good few hours of driving and a few bouts at AWS36!

[ajw]

I've been having a browse for some lipos and was wondering if anyone has any experience of wiring two 1s lipos up into 2s configuration. I came across the following lipos on ebay that sem to have good performance:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3x-Three-30C- ... 1c21ac3f2d

I guess it would be important to balance charge the lipos once they are constructed, but was wondering if anyone knows how easy it is on these batteries in particular to expose the battery contact tabs as they appear to have a plastic cap on them judging from the photos. Cheers!

[daliad100]

Tried it for a 4s lipo, blew up 3/4 of the cells in the process.

If you do want to solder them together then it's easy to pull of the plastic cap but be careful about shorting out the connections (Fried one cell that way).

I cut off the micro jst connectors and soldered the remaining wire to the correct tab on the other cells to make a 3s lipo (+ wire to - tab) and then soldered the negative wires and the last positive wire to some pin header so I could balance the battery. It worked fine so I covered the connections in hot glue to insulate them. It still worked and accepted charging and balancing but then 2 of the cells decided to go bang for no reason.

[ajw]

Thanks for sharing your experience Daliad, I might give them a miss in that case!

Looks like I'll have to cough up the $15 delivery from Hobbyking Germany as it still works out cheaper when buying 4-5 zippy packs compared to what I've seen in the UK.