Posted: 11/24/2016 1:28:28 AM EDT
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Hey guys,
I am starting to look into portable power options. I know about sealed lead acid batteries, but should I be looking at LiPo, or LiFe batteries? LiPo 3s batteries would work but the safety aspect concerns me. What does everyone use? I would like to buy for this holiday season, I might even buy Friday if amazon has a deal. |
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Think the lifepo3 chemestry is a little safer, might be more expensive. I run rc cars with the kids and never had a problem with lipo. But can be dangerous if punctured. If your not going to have to carry the battery up a mountain I would look at SLA batteries. I have a 150ah battery in the garage for the bench. Works real good and is solar charged. Darn thing will run all darn day without issues on ssb.. A bit overkill but use it for other things too...
Good luck Prosise |
TLDR Easy Answer Bioenno 1208LB as shown above Amazon has them here |
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Quoted:
...If your not going to have to carry the battery up a mountain I would look at SLA batteries.... Prosise To add on to this - I carried a 35aH SLA (along with all the fixings for a nice crossband) up a 4 mile, 2,000 foot gain trail a few months back. I had a good backpack, and it was still miserable. A LiFePo4 setup could have reduced my weight by a third and doubled my run time (for the same sticker rating). So yeah, my vote's for LiFePo4 and a nice charging setup, unless it's for a purely stationary installation that you won't be using for anything else. |
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Quoted:
Think the lifepo3 chemestry is a little safer, might be more expensive. I run rc cars with the kids and never had a problem with lipo. But can be dangerous if punctured. If your not going to have to carry the battery up a mountain I would look at SLA batteries. I have a 150ah battery in the garage for the bench. Works real good and is solar charged. Darn thing will run all darn day without issues on ssb.. A bit overkill but use it for other things too... Good luck Prosise LiPo's only worked for you in your car hobby because you had speed controls that had low voltage protection. Get a LiPo cell below 2v a cell and it goes chemical inert. I'd me looking at LiFe cells myself. |
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Quoted:
LiPo's only worked for you in your car hobby because you had speed controls that had low voltage protection. Get a LiPo cell below 2v a cell and it goes chemical inert. I'd me looking at LiFe cells myself. LiPo:Really you don't want to go below 3v per cell... also if you running a 3 cell, 12.4v, your radio isn't going to run on 9v anyway when your cutoff would kick in on the speed control. Been running these for years in my RC's and you just need to keep an eye on them, if they get puffy, get rid of them. |
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Yeah I went from lipo 4s to 3s to get away from the need for a voltage dropping device. I run the 3s from full charge to just below 11V on TX (100W) and I can get about an hour of air time. This pretty much puts the used battery at storage voltage so I only have to storage charge any I didn't use. But I would probably go with the lifes if starting now. |
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As a follow up:
I ended up getting a free SLA 5aH battery from a family member so I didn't end up buying. I am using a small noco genius 1.1 amp charger and it seems to work alright. I know SLAs are heavy but the price of free was a fair trade. Thanks for the info, I will keep my eye on the LiPoFe batteries and when the price comes down a little I may pick one up. |
| I use 3s LiPo's for my FT-817 & KX2 because they're perfectly happy running at 11 volts. They're lightweight, power dense and inexpensive. As long as you use the correct charger and aren't throwing them off of cliffs they're perfectly safe. I use a $3 cell moniter to prevent over-discharging. |
