Alternative batteries for a Heliguy Atom?

[SupraJames]

Bought my first model last week, it's a Heliguy Atom FP. I love it so far, but I do keep crashing it. Gone through 3 set of blades already - whoops!

One thing I find annoying the 30 minute charge for 10 mins of play, and with that in mind I'd like a new battery. Heliguy are unfortunately out of stock, so I'm wondering if there alternatives. It's a re-branded Xieda 9958 and batteries seem to be rare for some reason. eBay hasn't helped.

So, does anyone know if I can use another type of LiPo battery, one perhaps meant for a different machine but works OK?

[Mike Sanders]

When you look it up you will need to know:-
1. How many cells it has (3.7volts per cell)
2. Its capacity in milliamp hours (mah)
3. the type of connector on it.
4. the maximum dimensions that will fit on the heli.

Many of the sites post pictures of the batteries that they sell. This should help.

[mole hunter]

Hi James,

I guess not many folk know what kind of battery your Atom uses, post a piccie if you can.

Cheers, Marty

[SupraJames]

Hi guys - thanks - pic attached. It's 3.7v single cell and 150mah. I am not sure what the connector is called, or if it's standard. Any ideas?

[cjcj1949]

Lipos don't last long if you fly until they are flat.

[tomatwalden]

Lipos don't normally run for 10 mins. 6 to 7 mins tops for fixed pitch. Run your batteries for less time but buy several to maximise flying time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Mark_T]

This the one? - GW Xieda 9958 Parts GW-9958-022 Battery - HeliPal

Not suggesting you buy from there just checking if it is the right battery.

[Mark_T]

If so there is a lot of info here on this heli :The great wall xieda 9958 reference list of everything we know so far - RC Groups

Search the thread for various alternative batteries, but do pay close attention to the warning at the start of the thread, do not use the charge cable that ships with the heli, is depends on the charge limited built into the original batteries so must never be used with an alternative battery.

[SupraJames]

Mark. thanks- yes it is that one. I will have a look at the batteries mentioned in the thread. Thanks!

On haitus at the moment since I crashed the copter today - landing skid damaged but it left some material up inside the main frame of the copter. So that all needs stripping down and rebuilding. I knew I should have bought 2

[mole hunter]

I've run these in my Nano - they are OK for a quid a pop Turnigy nano-tech 160mah 1S 25~40C Lipo Pack (Kyosho, E-flite Nano CP X, Parkzone Etc)

Cheers, Marty

[SupraJames]

I've run these in my Nano - they are OK for a quid a pop Turnigy nano-tech 160mah 1S 25~40C Lipo Pack (Kyosho, E-flite Nano CP X, Parkzone Etc)

Cheers, Marty

Hi Marty

They are not available on that site however there are some on eBay. May I ask which charger would you recommend for charging these? As an earlier poster said, the stock charger is no good.

USB would be ideal as I have a 12000mah battery back with USB outputs that I already use to change the stock battery.

[SupraJames]

Hi Guys, well I have ordered these 6 X Turnigy 160mAh 40C Lipo Battery & Charge Lead Blade MCX/2 MSR/X Eflite Heli | eBay

My next step was to order a charger. Holy crap! LiPo charging looks like a bit of a minefield!

Rather then spending £40 on an all singing intelligent LiPo charger for my little single cell machine, I have ordered one of these: 5V Mini USB 1A Lithium Battery Charging Charger Module Lipo Pi | eBay

What I will do is hack off one of the connectors that I'll get with my set of 6 batteries and solder that onto the board, and then continue to use USB charging. Happy days!

The only concern I have is charging a 160mah cell with 1A. I could lower the charging current by replacing a resistor on the board, but as it's all surface mount then I don't really fancy that. Reading around, the cells SHOULD be OK to charged at 10-15C. If I understand correctly, 1000 milliamps divided by 160 (mah) is 6.25C. Fingers crossed...

If any of the Pro's see this and tell me I've made a huge mistake, please let me know...

[SupraJames]

Just to add to the above - all arrived and it's working fine. I had thought that maybe charging one cell at a time at 6.5C might be a bit aggressive, so I decided to charge 3 at a time with the above setup and it's all good. Took 25 mins to charge 3 x 160mah cells, which is about what I'd expect.

[Mark_T]

All sounds fine.

Try to make sure the 3 batteries you charge together are reasonably close in terns of their discharge level before you connect them to your charge lead.

If for example you accidentally connected a fully charge battery along with two empty ones the full one would try to rapidly dump voltage into the other two which could damage them.

Aside from that, all looks good, they should handle the roughly 2C charge rate OK and using a very simple charger for single cell batteries shouldn't be a problem.

[SupraJames]

Mark, thanks for that tip, I shall keep that in mind. I will number each of my 6 new cells and try and keep them as two set of 3 in rotation.