DS650 servos and Li-Fe packs

[J-S-Q]

I've decided to ditch the regulator on my Beast X 700N and run direct from a 2s Li-Fe pack (which outputs 7.2v at full charge:

2s 2300mAh A123 Battery Pack - Craft

I know lots of people have been running DS610's directly from a 2s Li-po so I'm going to run my DS610's on cyclic directly from the 7.2v Li-Fe but I'm wondering about the 2 DS650's on the tail and throttle (and also the Align governor). Will these be ok or would I be wise to get a separate regulator for these two servos, such as this one:

Spektrum VR5203 Dual Output Regulator SPMVR5203

[Rctintin]

They will be just fine mate.

The voltages of LiFe and A123 are akin to Nimh and Nicad, so all will be fine. Also, all the IMAC (30-40% Planks) use A123 as it is such a great cell, without the need for a regulator.

You cannot however use a battery monitor for seeing how much charge is left. You need to fully charge your battery, then fly say 2 flights, and then fully charge your pack again. Look how much Mah you have put back into the battery, and then you can work out how much you use per flight. This will tell you how many flights you can safely have per battery.

I have been using LiFe on my 700 for over a year now with zero problems.

I use these Robot Birds

and these Robot Birds

[J-S-Q]

They will be just fine mate.

The voltages of LiFe and A123 are akin to Nimh and Nicad, so all will be fine. Also, all the IMAC (30-40% Planks) use A123 as it is such a great cell, without the need for a regulator.

You cannot however use a battery monitor for seeing how much charge is left. You need to fully charge your battery, then fly say 2 flights, and then fully charge your pack again. Look how much Mah you have put back into the battery, and then you can work out how much you use per flight. This will tell you how many flights you can safely have per battery.

I have been using LiFe on my 700 for over a year now with zero problems.

I use these Robot Birds

and these Robot Birds

Ok that's good news -one less thing to buy!

A couple of questions... Are you using Align servos yourself and if so, how many mAh do you use roughly per flight? Is your 700 flybarless?

RE: the battery monitor. Are they not appropriate because of the very steep/fast voltage dropoff of Li-Fe's when they are about to run out of juice i.e. the voltage monitor looks fine, you take off and then before you know it there's no power left? I do have rx pack voltage telemetry with my DX8 but I guess this is maybe not going to be workable as a guide to how much flight time I have left?

[J-S-Q]

One more question.... is there a similar rule as with Li-po's that you are safe to discharge up to 80% of the batteries capacity or is it different?

[Nick B]

I swear blind my 2 life packs are 6.6 when charged?

One more question.... is there a similar rule as with Li-po's that you are safe to discharge up to 80% of the batteries capacity or is it different?

Dont go on percent with a checker/charger,do what rctintin said,monitor what goes back in.I have a 2300mah on my 700,after one flight the checker goes down to 75%,second flight 50%,third flight 40% and fourth flight 30%.

im using between 300-400mah on an 8minute flight so after 4 flights theres about 600mah left,i rarely fly it for 4 flights a day as the 550e is just soooooooo gooooooooood

The pack in your original post is the life i use.

[Chris Boughton]

Hey guys im also thinking of using a life pack from overlander on my 600n to replace my very heavy nimh 3300mah pack, i would just like to know if its safe to use 2cel life on align ds 610/620??!!??!! Nick are you still using your life packs??

[Nick B]

Yes Chris.I have the hyperion from my 600 for sale,only 2 cycles....its this one Robot Birds

Yours for £30 as i have sold the heli.works great with the ar7100.

[Chris Boughton]

did ya sell the 600?n So um its fine with all of the align electrics? You just plug straight into the rx. Btw if i can persaude my parents to get it do you have a balance lead for it?

[LipolyGone]

Im running a 750 gyro & 650 tail servo on my fusion on a hyperion 6.6v life pack. Have had zero issues all is tickety boo

[Nick B]

Yes sold,looking to get a 600 size leccy,fusion 50 maybe.The battery is Perfect for getting good cog on the 600...Fine on cyclics direct at 6.6v but im using the ar7100 which has ports regualted(5.2v) for sensitive stuff ie gyro/gov

Im using the only adapter i have but im sure you can put your own balance lead on from an old 2s lipo pack or a 3s if you cut some of the plug off.

[trillian]

On a related subject, how are you guys powering the swash servos? I wouldn't think having all the power going through the Beast X is a good idea.

I wasn't concerned on the 450 but I just moved the Beast X to the Ely.Q with three AceRC DS1015 servos on the swash capable of 14kg of torque, so they
are able to draw quite a bit power.

[Rctintin]

Align 610 on cyclic, and 650 on both throttle and tail with a 750 gyro. I pull aprox 350 mah but flybarred per flight.

Battery monitor is out because of the very flat curve on discharge. As said, one minuite you have good % then nothing! Just do a few flights and see what you pull. Align servos and FBL are power hungry. Futaba BLS is much kinder on current draw.

They don't have to be treated like lipos, eg 80% etc. You will not damage the chemistry by over discharging. They also can easily take 20C charge current!! I have seen them zip charged directly off a car battery, no charger, and work fine for 100's of cycles! They were designed by A123 for DeWalt for the power tool industry, so are bullet proof. Only prob I see is that I read that DeWalt has now dropped them, so I wonder how many more will be made?

[J-S-Q]

On a related subject, how are you guys powering the swash servos? I wouldn't think having all the power going through the Beast X is a good idea.

My initial plan is to just power it through the Beast X (using a Y cable so the battery has one lead going to the Rx and one to the Beast X) although I'm still looking into it. I've been running my Align 2-in-1 straight into the Rx prior to this so all the power was going through the Beast X anyway.

[Chris Boughton]

Yes sold,looking to get a 600 size leccy,fusion 50 maybe.The battery is Perfect for getting good cog on the 600...Fine on cyclics direct at 6.6v but im using the ar7100 which has ports regualted(5.2v) for sensitive stuff ie gyro/gov

Im using the only adapter i have but im sure you can put your own balance lead on from an old 2s lipo pack or a 3s if you cut some of the plug off.

Thanks i will av to get back to ya bout this, the fusion 50 is prob the best 50 size on the market. i whish i had one!!

[trillian]

My initial plan is to just power it through the Beast X (using a Y cable so the battery has one lead going to the Rx and one to the Beast X) although I'm still looking into it. I've been running my Align 2-in-1 straight into the Rx prior to this so all the power was going through the Beast X anyway.

Yeah from what I have been reading it seems I could probably get away with running everything through the Beast, especially as this is only a .50 size
heli. But they do recommend powering cyclic servos separately for high current / HV servos. I'm just running everything at 5 volts for now so I don't
need to separate the tail or throttle servo power. I have an un-used SM Services opto isolator that functions as a separate power bus so I might see
about using that for the swash servos.