Anyone Seen the A123 Racing Ad in Rc Car Action?

Anyone Seen the A123 Racing Ad in Rc Car Action? Is says they have their hypersonic lithium-Ion a true 30c continous and 60c pulse... 1000 cycles and charges as fast as 15min.....how do these compare to lipoly ?
www.a123racing.com

[ilpufxit]

I saw it, but I've just spent lots of money on lipos. If someone has tried these, I'd like to hear whether it's worth switching.

[BrianG]

There are numerous threads on these A123 cells.

Briefly, the consensus is that they are much safer than lipos (case is a metal can rather than a foil wrap), can stand overcharging/discharging much better, and can charge at much higher than the standard 1C rate that lipos do.

However, they are heavier, have relatively low mAh rating, are sometimes hard to mount due to their size/shape, and use a non-standard per-cell voltage or 3.3v nominal and 3.6v max (compared to 3.7v nominal and 4.2v max for lipos).

2.3Ah @ 30C is 69A. To get higher max current, a 2p arrangment is commonly used.

They use a standard CC/CV charge profile, but due to the different votlage rating, you need a special charger that has a setting for a CC/CV threshold of 3.6v/cell. Many chargers now do have this though...

And that turbo module is not really recommended IMO. It is basically just a switching power supply that boosts the voltage. However, it has a power limit, and to get higher voltage output, it pulls more current from the battery. And then, there is efficiency loss. So, let's say you are using a 3s A123 pack (9.9v) with the module to get the standard 11.1v output of a standard 3s lipo, and want 50A output. The current the battery pack has to put out to the module is around 70A.

[zeropointbug]

Yes, I use A123 cells in my trucks for 1 1/2 years now, and I love them. Those packs are still going strong with over 98% of their original capacity after roughly ~250 cycles.

The most notable factors for purchasing A123's is:

-very durable
-very safe chemistry like Brian said
-cycle life
-and charging capabilities (can be charged in as little as 5 mins)