Anyone upgraded their DX7 Battery?

[jboweruk]

So do the DX7's not take ordinary NiMH batteries then?

[robgt]

Ordinary in the sense of NiMh transmitter packs, yes. That's what it comes with, and you can buy larger capacity replacements.
You can also fit LiPo Tx packs, as per the discussion above, if you choose.

It doesn't allow you to plug in 8 "pencil" batteries, like some of the cheap Tx's do (usually found with PicooZ and the like).

Cheers,
Rob

[SRH990]

It's all about balance...

Mobile phone, PDA, etc LiPos are sinlge cells, 3.6V.

So, there's just one cell to charge, and it can be charged through the one pair of leads without any balance issues.

If you have a 7.2V, etc, LiPo, it has 2 or more cells in parallel. These really ought to be balanced. (Otherwise, one can end up over charged/discharged with bad effects.)

To balance the cells you need separate connections to each cell. Hence the separate charging connector.

A good point, I think you will also find that most 2 cell or more lipos in consumer devices have a built in balancing device.

I charge my 1500mAh lipo inside my TX using a decent lipo charger without issues. The lipo has a balancing lead and generally I balance charge every lipo pack I have and I have quite a few. The discharge rate in the TX is very low compared to flight batteries and they don't go out of balance, I balance charge every 4th charge or so and the pack is always balanced at the start of charging. I don't advocate this method but it works fine for me. It helps that my charger has a temperature sensor which will shut off the charger if the pack starts to get hot.

I'm using Eneloop nimhs in controllers for the Xbox and Wii at home, they are fantastic for this and cameras as they have such a low self discharge rate, if they sold tagged cells they'd be a good option for the DX7 and will fit straight into a DX6i

[cambs flyer]

I've a Ni Mh 1500mah power plant in my DX6, at the weekend I left it on all Saturday until the alarm went off solidly once it got below 8.5v then she had a good charge, so far I've managed 4 hours left on and there's still plenty of power.

Before I was charging her every couple of hours.

[jboweruk]

Ah right, that was what I meant, like my DX6i does that takes ordinary Duracells.