Anybody know how to make 9.6V battery packs for R/C car?

[Gutter Ball]

I've been to every search engine looking for instructions on how to make 9.6V battery packs for a R/C car! I have a bunch of Dynacharge rechargables as well as regular AA's lying around and some of the connector ends. I wanna make some packs that last longer than 15 minutes! Anybody know how or where I can go to find instructions? Thanks!

Frank

[Eli]

It's easy as long as you're comfortable with a soldering iron. Just wire the eight cells (1.2 volts x 8 cells gives 9.6 volts) in series (positive from one cell to negative on the adjacent cell, then positive from the second cell to negative on the third, etc.. Leave the first negative and the last positive apart for the connector though), stacked in any configuration you want (usually flat, 4cells x 2rows), and solder the connector onto the end positive and negative terminals. It's very important that you work quickly, since holding the iron to a cell for too long WILL damage it. You'll also have to clean and tin the ends of the cells first. I wouldn't waste my time solder up regular 1.5 volt alkalines though. 8 of those will give you 12 volts (too much) and when they die you've wasted the soldering time.

By the way, the Dynacharge cells probably won't increase your run-time over a store-made pack. Good luck.

[Richard_Cranium72]

Eli's exactly right, I have an easier way. Use "tabbed" ni-cad batteries, they each have a male tab on one end and a female on the other. Panasonic makes several such batteries=>>
p/n p-70AAS/FT is their Super High Capacity and Rapid Charge AA. It is rated at 1.2vdc @ 700mah, charge rate is 700mh for 1.5 hr each. The 1990 price is $3.13ea. per Allied Electronics =>> www.allied.anvet.com (http://www.allied.avnet.com) , DrVette

[This message has been edited by Richard_Cranium72 (edited 07-27-2000).]

[Gutter Ball]

Cool, thanks guys! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif I have seen some of those Duracell 1.2's on Ebay, but they cost big $$$ and you're not supposed to solder them! I have some tin pieces lying around as well. I might try to make one out of 1.5's, just to practice before I make one that's rechargable. They're Rayovac and Duracell industrial batteries, so they should last a bit longer http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif Thanks again for the quick tips! Oh, and how would I seal them together? I was thinking of just using electric tape to tape 'em all up! That should work okay right?

[bdog]

I think you could add some extra batteries in there in parallel if you have room in order to keep the voltage at 9.6 but increase the battery life.

[Richard_Cranium72]

Here's a direct link to the Panasonic battery page, MAN, SLOW LOAD! =>> http://www.alliedelec.com/catalog/pf.asp?fn=13.pdf Bdog has me thinking there,, instead of AA's use sub-c's, the amp rating is 1800mah that's a munch more than 700. The price reflects it too @$5.50ea. The dimensions of a sub-C Tabbed battery is 22.2(dia)x42.2(high) mm. So clearance may be a problem if not you can get a bunch of juice with this combo. Or, if you have access to a lot of replacement motors for the car, use a 12v battery from a fixture used for emergency lighting, most are 12v.. DrVette

[thekingofpain]

Hehehe...switch to nitro power silly...electric RC is so..."underpowered"...im an 1/8 scale on/off road enthusiast and also 1/10 scale gas parking lot racer...
"I love the smell of 40% nitro in the morning, its like...victory"...

[thekingofpain]

Well we do run 24+ cell Cobalt motored etc electrics on our local velodrome just for fun once a year, 100+ "real" mph oval racing is pretty exciting... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Eli]

lol thekingofpain. Too bad nitro is so messy... And electrics underpowered? Ha! My dual motor TA02 can just about keep up with my Kyosho Rampage that I shoe-horned a Tamiya .15 into in place of a rotting GS-11. 1/8th would be the way to go, if it wasn't so expensive.

40% nitro!?! I haven't heard of anything that high off of the water. I'll stick with 20%, thank you very much. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Ah, my kind of discussion... lol

[Gutter Ball]

Argh! Okay, the pieces of tin I'm using are like curling up and melting when I put the solder on it! :/ Can I use speaker type wires instead? Or will that overload them? I have about 3 meters of that wire left over from my car alarm installation. Thanks!

[Gutter Ball]

Whoa! I see you guys are talking about "REAL" R/C cars http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif I'm just talking about those "buy-off-the-shelf-and-run-them-till
-they-die" Nikko ones http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif When I first looked into R/C cars 4 years ago, my godkid was only 9 years old and not a good R/C car drive, so I passed on those build yourself ones. I wasn't going to shell out the hundreds to get 2 and then shell out hundreds more when we crash them up http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif So I bought a few Nikko cars for us to practice on. Let me tell you, he still sucks http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif However, maybe next year I'll start going "professional" and look into gas/nitrous cars http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif I'll be asking you folks again for sure! Until then...Nikko's will have to do http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif Besides, all the neighbourhood kids all have Nikko/Tyco/Radio Shack/no names and it's hard to set up races cause not everyone has changeable frequency chips http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif But it's still fun...I need to get my hands on a 7.2V one...man, how can those suckers go so much faster than a 9.6V?? http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Eli]

Na, tin foil is no good. Far too thin. Pieces of wire will work, although they will add up and make the pack a little larger overall. Just make sure that the battery compartment is large enough.

I figured it was a Nikko. Everyone starts somewhere... I started with a Tyco/Nikko, then moved up to an old Tamiya Hornet, then up from there. These things can go as fast as you can build them to go. Speed costs money though. I don't have a prayer of keeping up to some of my hobby store buddies. Here's my sample:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=416385&a=4975123

More pics coming in a few days. And will someone please sign that guestbook? lol