Magic Powder. New Wonder Batteries again.

[cjcj1949]

This time it's Silicon Anodes and 300+ cycles. They've raised the money to expand, but will it work?

Perhaps nitro is finally doomed? Or is it cold fusion again?

Benefits of Nexeon technology | Nexeon | Silicon anode Li-ion battery technology

Chris

[LaurenceGough]

Sounds amazing, I hope they bring it to market real soon!

[dani_r]

Sounds good! Will it make a viable option for our helis?

[pgkevet]

If I read that correctly they claim first generation reduction in weight for capacity to a quarter and potentially 15x ??
I heard rumours a couple of years ago that that potential for lipo type cell technology was 100X capacity then for the weight - all driven by the leccy car market. Even at a 'mere' thirty times current capability one starts looking at 90 size helis losing almost a kilo in weight and flying for 45 mins!!!

[sam cooper s]

Very interesting, if they are truely cost effective this could be great.......

[LaurenceGough]

It's going to happen - it's just as matter of when which is what I keep telling the nitro boys...

[danch]

Wonder how long it will take to cone to market as the flight times is the only thing stopping me selling my nitro

[LaurenceGough]

Wonder how long it will take to cone to market as the flight times is the only thing stopping me selling my nitro

Flight times are the same if geared to have the same power...

[danch]

Ahh cheers Laurence, keep the nitro it is then for the meanwhile.

[Nige321]

And this is lithium ION, not lithium POLYMER - heavier batteries...

[LaurenceGough]

Yeah, but I would imagine you could use a pretty small battery if the capacity is high, hopefully the discharge rate is good.

To be honest I wouldn't mind some extra weight, as long as it provides the power and high cycle life!

[alioth]

And this is lithium ION, not lithium POLYMER - heavier batteries...

Lithium polymer is lithium ion (the full name for a LiPoly is Lithium Ion Polymer, we just for some reason drop the "ion" bit).

[alioth]

I heard rumours a couple of years ago that that potential for lipo type cell technology was 100X capacity then for the weight -

Be very skeptical of anyone claiming much more than a 10x increase (compared to today) of energy density for lithium ion technologies, because you're sort of having to break the laws of physics to do that! A claim of 100x would peg my BS meter.

[cjcj1949]

Reading a bit more, they are talking about increases in the anode efficiency. That won't do much unless they can sort out the cathode as well, and the bit in the middle. They are getting better all the time though. Good 450 sport batteries are now cheap and hopefully 500s will be next. There is a difference though between the annoucements to potential investors and what the engineers can make work. Electric flight has happened, think back a few years to how it was. We don't necessarily have to be limited by batteries, we can transmit the power to the helis. Might be a few years off that.

Chris

[steve_b]

Wonder how long it will take to cone to market as the flight times is the only thing stopping me selling my nitro

It's not flight times that stopping me switching, it's charge times. Until the time comes that I can charge a 12S pack in the same time it takes me fill the tank of one of my 90's, without any long term loss of performance or needing a power station just to charge at that rate, then I'll be stopping with nitro.