Is it Time to replace my Battery

My battery last me only 15mins of non stop driving up and down a small gradient slope with lots of tree root to climb over. It is a 3300 amh and purchase more than 2 years ago but seldom charge and use.(less than 10 times). Would like to find out if this is normal or I my battery going up the lorry liao(dying). Still looking at Nimh usage for now. As I'm going into my second build, I want to have a better feel if I should re-invest to get Lipo and charger which I hope can be avoided.

Most bros at yesterday trail was still running their landy with lots of spare power left after the video shoot. Mine died on me when i went for the rock climb.(found out last night on the battery 15mins run time) I noe Lipo is better but is it over for NiMH? Or is it that my NiMH need to be replace with new one? Any inputs is welcome. Does ESC play a part in this fast battery drain?

when i 1st started in SGC, im using nimh batts. and also have the thinking of avoiding lipo batts cos its like troublesome. but after few trails of nimh batts, came recommendations of lipos from the bros here. so i decided to get just 1 to test it out. indeed there is difference between nimh and lipo. it has much more power than a nimh.
downside is u cannot juice out the lipo, if the lipo is totally flat, it can't or difficult to charge it back to life. and also the settings of the charger if u have different cells of lipo batts. and now i have 4 lipos.

Hi Babyboy,

Lipo is safe if you always follow the instruction and safety regulation of not over charging. Also never leave your charging lipo out of your sight.

Nowadays, the price for it is quite cheap, you might seriously consider. If safety is your main concern, you can get a fire protection bag for lipo or place it outside your house during charging as i myself are doing it.

Lastly, just be safe and have fun. Cheers

oceanic wrote:when i 1st started in SGC, im using nimh batts. and also have the thinking of avoiding lipo batts cos its like troublesome. but after few trails of nimh batts, came recommendations of lipos from the bros here. so i decided to get just 1 to test it out. indeed there is difference between nimh and lipo. it has much more power than a nimh.
downside is u cannot juice out the lipo, if the lipo is totally flat, it can't or difficult to charge it back to life. and also the settings of the charger if u have different cells of lipo batts. and now i have 4 lipos.

If u play boat with boss they all, u will not just have 4 lipo. Think u will have 10 lipo at least.

yala towkay, dats y i dnt play boat

i run both lipos and nimh.... nimh for swimming and lipos for dry land...

In our Dingo a 3300 mAh NiMH lasts about 2.5 hours of trailing. If your electronics would be the cause of draining the battery in 15 minutes, than you should have some very hot parts after the 15 minutes. If things are cool and your battery is empty after such a short time, then it simply does not hold charge any more.
Actually if you only charged it 10 times in 2 years, most likely it died because self-discharge discharged it too deep. NiMH should also not be stored empty, nor totally full.

I found it actually quite hard to get new NiMH -- and when you find one in a LHS than it's more expensive than a more powerful LiPo from HobbyKing...
LiPo are really great in terms of performance. They have a very flat discharge curve, so your truck runs full speed until the battery is empty.
If you balance charge them properly, and storage charge them after use they will last a long time. The only advantage I see in NiMH is that they are heavier, providing more traction when mounted over the front wheels

oceanic wrote:when i 1st started in SGC, im using nimh batts. and also have the thinking of avoiding lipo batts cos its like troublesome. but after few trails of nimh batts, came recommendations of lipos from the bros here. so i decided to get just 1 to test it out. indeed there is difference between nimh and lipo. it has much more power than a nimh.
downside is u cannot juice out the lipo, if the lipo is totally flat, it can't or difficult to charge it back to life. and also the settings of the charger if u have different cells of lipo batts. and now i have 4 lipos.

I will consider once I ran out of option. I noe Lipo is better in term of power. Thanks.

RJNG wrote:Hi Babyboy,

Lipo is safe if you always follow the instruction and safety regulation of not over charging. Also never leave your charging lipo out of your sight.

Nowadays, the price for it is quite cheap, you might seriously consider. If safety is your main concern, you can get a fire protection bag for lipo or place it outside your house during charging as i myself are doing it.

Lastly, just be safe and have fun. Cheers

Lipo...NiMH...Lipo...NiMH...Lipo...NiMH. My option is still open. Wah you can charge outside your house. In my case if I do, people will complaint. Yes Safety is also one of my consideration. Thanks.

boolean21 wrote:i run both lipos and nimh.... nimh for swimming and lipos for dry land...

Sometimes dry land also have mud/water puddle and most dun siam it (in the video). They love going in and out of them. I dun think I will want to siam forever but not to the extreme of going swimming as my Landy and (next Project) need to be water resistance only.

laneboysrc wrote:In our Dingo a 3300 mAh NiMH lasts about 2.5 hours of trailing. If your electronics would be the cause of draining the battery in 15 minutes, than you should have some very hot parts after the 15 minutes. If things are cool and your battery is empty after such a short time, then it simply does not hold charge any more.
Actually if you only charged it 10 times in 2 years, most likely it died because self-discharge discharged it too deep. NiMH should also not be stored empty, nor totally full.

I found it actually quite hard to get new NiMH -- and when you find one in a LHS than it's more expensive than a more powerful LiPo from HobbyKing...
LiPo are really great in terms of performance. They have a very flat discharge curve, so your truck runs full speed until the battery is empty.
If you balance charge them properly, and storage charge them after use they will last a long time. The only advantage I see in NiMH is that they are heavier, providing more traction when mounted over the front wheels

Hi. With your explanation than my NiMH is ored dead. The battery feels warm but ESC cool. Just called a LHS. $58 for a 4500 mah is still OK with me lah. Just a small investment for now. So weight is an added advantage. Thanks for the info.

Did you try to charge the nimh again? What charger are you using?

Sometimes, for my nimh, after fully depleted, charges up within 15mins (shows full) but when I checked the charger, it shows only charged 1000+mA....

So i'll charge them again and add up the charged till I get nearer to 3000mA.... Which is my nimh capacity...

Try it... I once thought my nimhs were dead too... after checking then realised they are not properly charged...

Cheap charger. No indicator only red LED light. I charged it more than 4 hours before going for the beach scale run. The charger reads "Quick Charge 30mins to 90 mins". This is my fourth charge on the Landy, each lasting more than 1 hour. I was dissapointed when my landy could not climb up that small rock formation at the beach. I only found out that the battery flat when I was preparing the landy for the final drive by... I will try again tonite but I still need an extra one for the New Build (my 2nd SCX Kit is calling me). I need a 55T motor for that project.

55t will be "crawling" leh...

if you getting lipos, you'll need a better charger anyway... so don't throw the nimh... when you get the better charger, you'll be able to see how much the nimh are charged...

boolean21 wrote:55t will be "crawling" leh...

if you getting lipos, you'll need a better charger anyway... so don't throw the nimh... when you get the better charger, you'll be able to see how much the nimh are charged...

Hmm 55T really crawling ah... OK than still stay with 35T. Its a Truck. But I guess if I need the torque I can always change the Pinion gear or whatever that is right?. (correct me If I'm wrong)

I'll see if the LHS has a better charger when I go down later that can have a reading. Thanks.

I second what bro Boo said: invest in a decent charger -- its a one-time investment that will be necessary eventually anyway if you change to LiPo anyway. If you look on rctech.net there are often 2nd hand deals available. The modern charger show you voltage during charging, which can tell you whether one of the cells died or not.

We run 55T in our SCX10 and it is just a bit faster than walking pace. It has drive-shaft-twisting-power as my young one found out. For the next truck I would go for a lower turn motor to have a bit more top speed.

You can indeed change the pinion to increase torque and reduce speed, but given how cheap brushed motors are it may be cheaper to change the motor

I think the battery is gone. I used another Hitec charger it shows 10.1V at starting. While the new battery shows 8v.

If you are comfortable using Nimh and not lipo, just stay with it. But it is the true fact that good charger makes a different whether it help to maintain your batt or killing it.

Don't think too much, this hobby is poisoning, like one of the master here always said, you will eventually keeps buy buy buy. Just go with the flow.........

laneboysrc wrote:I second what bro Boo said: invest in a decent charger -- its a one-time investment that will be necessary eventually anyway if you change to LiPo anyway. If you look on rctech.net there are often 2nd hand deals available. The modern charger show you voltage during charging, which can tell you whether one of the cells died or not.

We run 55T in our SCX10 and it is just a bit faster than walking pace. It has drive-shaft-twisting-power as my young one found out. For the next truck I would go for a lower turn motor to have a bit more top speed.

You can indeed change the pinion to increase torque and reduce speed, but given how cheap brushed motors are it may be cheaper to change the motor

Will look out at RCTech for preown charger. Not cheap to get a new one which can charge both Nimh and Lipo.

Was thinking I need torque more than speed as it will be a old truck used during WWII that was used in Singapore and Malaya. Thanks for the info. Think will stick with 35T. Thanks.

Can consider the chargers from hobbyking... Quite affordable...

RJNG wrote:If you are comfortable using Nimh and not lipo, just stay with it. But it is the true fact that good charger makes a different whether it help to maintain your batt or killing it.

Don't think too much, this hobby is poisoning, like one of the master here always said, you will eventually keeps buy buy buy. Just go with the flow.........

Ha ha. Thanks. Yes it's really difficult to stay away once you have started. Was thinking of getting another SCX... but than a again my second is still NIB and waiting for me.

boolean21 wrote:Can consider the chargers from hobbyking... Quite affordable...

Thanlks Boo.Will keep my option open.

MH and Ni-cd are difficult to charge due to the internal high resistance. Different make of batteries different peak voltage. Charging these type of batteries not only need to monitor the delta peak voltage, but also the temperature. So it is not easy to fully charge these types of batteries.

The MH and Ni-cd bats. need to fully discharge before you charge it because of the memory effect. When store for a long time , need to cycle charge it before it can fully restored to its maximum capacity.

As for lipo, easy to charge, no memory effect, no need cycle charge, no need discharge, low internal resistance, more power, more capacity, most important now the price is cheaper .

ok, how do u waterproof a lipo?

ironman wrote:ok, how do u waterproof a lipo?

I use epoxy to cover the wires outlet and tape up the seams for those using hard case lipo.
Lipo does not get wet easily otherwise it wouldn't bloat. It is sealed.

thx rtech!

bro if u don't mind, i can try reviving your battery for you..

RTECH wrote: MH and Ni-cd are difficult to charge due to the internal high resistance. Different make of batteries different peak voltage. Charging these type of batteries not only need to monitor the delta peak voltage, but also the temperature. So it is not easy to fully charge these types of batteries.

The MH and Ni-cd bats. need to fully discharge before you charge it because of the memory effect. When store for a long time , need to cycle charge it before it can fully restored to its maximum capacity.

As for lipo, easy to charge, no memory effect, no need cycle charge, no need discharge, low internal resistance, more power, more capacity, most important now the price is cheaper .

When you say fully discharge before I can recharge, thot nowdays the newer battery do no have this problem. I never dicharge my Nimh or Nicad before charging. So I'm doing it wrong all this while? Used to fly plane. The reciever battery has never been discharge fully before charging. Same goes for the TX batt. So far no problem for these. Maybe for higher amp battery I will start this discharge process.

RTECH wrote:

ironman wrote:ok, how do u waterproof a lipo?

I use epoxy to cover the wires outlet and tape up the seams for those using hard case lipo.
Lipo does not get wet easily otherwise it wouldn't bloat. It is sealed.

Thot Lipo once wet will burn and not bloat. Cos have seen what happen when the inside of a lipo got wet. Fire ignite almost immediately.

qks57 wrote:bro if u don't mind, i can try reviving your battery for you..

Thanks qks57. I got new battery and new charger. Trying out the run time tonite. The old battery I will retire it. Now its my TX battery that need to be change. Seems nowdays "Li-Fe" battery is used for TX. I'm really out of touch with RC for very long. Thanks anyway for your offer.