I have a battery pack that came with my Hitec ranger 2, it is the kind where you put in your own rechargable batteries. I went to radio shack and they had a single battery clip that I added to the four pack, After using this twice with 5 AA 2500mh nicmh? I would sail for just over a hour and would run out of power for my 815 sail arm, there was still power for steering. When I took the batteries out only one (the one in the single holder) was very low all the others were still good. Is ther somthing I should change?
Test your set up and make sure you are drawing 6.0VDC or more when they are all charged up, if you have a DC tester. They should give more than 6.0V when fully charged. If not, I suspect the add-on holder does not have a good connection or it’s resistance is much greater than the original 4 battery holder. I don’t know of a 5 battery holder for AA.
Typically unless battery packs are the kind that are soldered together (pre-made packs), they will draw down very unevenly. Those clip in packs tend to loose a lot of juice thru the connections, since those are not good connections.
If the draw is demanding, the batteries will draw down uneven. In your case the add on single clip in battery holder, probably has a much different resistance and the single battery gets drawn down quiclky. The best option for 6V would be to buy a pre-made pack, like one here http://www.all-battery.com/6vnimhbatterypackseries.aspx
or from any reputable seller. Most of the ones here in the “double hump” packs are 2/3 A battereis, where you will probably want AA batteries. If you go to a pack, of course you will need a charger too.
If you want and if you know enough about it, you can try soldering the add on single holder, but if it’s radio shack and the holder is plastic, forget that idea…
Other than that, I don’t have more answers for you at the moment. I don’t know boats, but I play a lot with DC…
Also I believe the 815 will run on 4.8V If you use MAHA 2700mah AA batteries, you might get by with the four batteries, unless you need the extra torque from 6 volt.
Can you use a “wall-wart” charger to recharge the 5 cell battery packs or will that type of charger take too long or not charge at all?
I’m still convinced that NiCds are the best alternative as they quit “quietly” - rather than going dead suddenly. I have been using 2300 MHaH NiMh batteries and still find them disgustingly “surprising” - whether sailing or in the digital camera.
Just personal experience - I honestly believe my old Sanyo 700 mah NiCds lasted longer than these new NiMh formula ones. :mad:
NiCad batteres are no longer sold, so it’s a moot point. The fact is though that NiMh batteries typically have at least twice the capacity of their NiCad equivalents and have no memory effect. They do need to be freshly charged before use as they can loose up to 10% per day of charge and on a specific NiMH charger if being charged at high current; NiCad chargers must not be used for this.
The wall-wart chargers are unlikely to have a high enough ouput voltage to charge 5 cell packs.
I use a 7.2v NiMH 1100mAH pack with my RMG winch ion my IOM and have sailed/raced for over 4 hours in good winds without getting to the low battery alarm. I have a second pack and usually do a swap in the afternoon just be be safe.
Of course you can always do series & parallel together, which ups the voltage and amperage. 4.8 volt - 4 AA batteries with like 5000-6000mah out of them…
I don’t know the range of an 815 as far as acceptable voltage…
Martin -
We can still find them via mail order over here. Most stores however aren’t carrying the NiCads - only the NiMh batteries.
Justin -
I would have to look to be sure. They do highly recommend, and I use a “Y” harness that allows direct battery power to the 815 without running through the receiver.
John -
thanks for your response and recommendation. I believe I’ll have to get an order out to them this week as prices look decent, and the ratings also look good.
Does not affect how they would be hooked up to the servo. Just the way the batteries are wired themselves. Just a way to get more power out of the same amount of batteries.
I use “Nuon” brand NiMH AAs from a franchise outfit called Batteries Plus that has a store in town. 2500 MaH. “Wall wart” recharger, takes all night. Made up my own 5 cell removable battery pack using Tamiya kits – pricey but good, lets me replace a single cell if it goes bad. Anyhow, prior to sailing Saturday the pack test 6.15 v under a half amp load. After three hours of sailing a Soling 1M with an 815BB servo the pack tested 5.85 v under load. FWIW.
So what size battery pack should I be looking at to drive my hitec 815 and my hitec sail winch. 6 volt I guess would be max but what size batteries? hump pack? this is all new to me as I am using the pack that comes with the radio. I see some 6volt packs that look like they have C cells in them? One other thing the little 9v square batteries, are they used to power servos?
I don’t use the switch. Like I said, pricey but I’ve had one assembly I’ve used for over five years without a problem. I stack and wire them to suit the application. I fly a lot with my boats and prefer not to check the boat with batteries in place, so these enable me to fly “dry” and then buy batteries at my destination.
