Quote:
Originally Posted by bryan
So, who does determine the quality of a battery other than the one setting a high msrp..
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That certainly is the tricky question. I'm always searching for the next best bang for the buck combination so I did a little purchasing for a not so experiment, experiment. :) Bought a pair of Turnigy 20C 4S 3600mAh packs ($45 each) and a pair of Hyperion G3 35C 2S 6500mAh pack ($97 each). I believe these to be the opposite ends of the spectrum from my readings. One is continually called cheap and the other the cat's meow. Now, the included "Do the math" sheet would indicate that I take 80% of the rated continuous draw. OK, so my Turnigy packs will yield 115.2A continuous draw which is certainly above the cutoff on that insert. The problem is most people will say these packs are insufficient "cheap" so where exactly is this boundary line crossed? I'm just looking for some kind of conclusion that says any battery (within reason) can be good as long as it's used in the correct setup. Granted, I'm pretty sure I know which will perform better (love my G3's but looking forward to running these new 6500's :) )
I'm going to take a slightly lightened (via aluminum upgrades) ERBE geared for approximately 40mph on 4S which I believe to be fairly modest for the setup being used. Now, does this general setup make my Turnigy batteries insufficient or would it need me to try for a 50mph gearing to be insufficient? It is feasible to think a user couple pick up a pair of cheap batteries and only wish to run 30mph. I would then tend to believe low rated batteries are sufficient yet a lot of people will discredit them instantly without knowing the details. It's then possible to say that cheap batteries of a certain brand will be great at 30mph, ok at 40mph, and not such a good idea at 50mph. Is this a better way of yielding information to new users? I guess my point is doesn't it greatly depend on how far a user is pushing the setup that dictates the battery's usefulness?
I did take notice to what Bernie had mentioned which I believe was somewhat related to my point. "The other issue with cheap batteries is that if they do work without damaging the ESC you will get short cycle life out of them, perhaps 50 - 75 cycles." I completely agree with this statement but does this still mean the "cheap" batteries are not sufficient? They won't last as long but they do work so once again that boundary creeps up.
I also took note of what suicidneil wrote: "Castle doesnt recommend the biggest and baddeest batts to use with the MMM, they just say dont go buying crappy chinese batts or naff ebay items that cost $20 each, yet claim 40c like proper lipos in the ~$200 range can actually manage." Also a statement I agree with but where is the data for the masses to determine which chinese packs are the overrated packs? What's a crappy chinese battery mean or does this mean any chinese battery? Not really looking for a response on this but you can hopefully see what I'm trying to say.
I guess an underlying theme for my post is I fully understand where newcomers have difficulty piecing together a quality setup for their uses. I think it's awesome that some will share their data with everyone to help decision making and weed out the bad products but it's still extremely difficult because everyone's driving style etc. is so different. WOW....I rambled on enough! :)