Which RC battery for a 2 channel glider

[Chuck Plains]

I'm looking for recommendations for RX pack types, rather than spend any well earned without knowing what I'm looking at.

I'm scratching together my first non power assisted slope glider using an old built up wing from a Hi-Fly Precedent (200grams) and a section of carbon fishing rod. The fuselage is no wider than15mm, with carbon boom, wing saddle (ok that's 40mm), saddle for the tail plane, a forward section made from cheap lightweight square dowel. It weighs in at 53 grams without the tail feathers, RX or servos.

The batteries will obviously be exposed due the the stick fuse, so if they end up being AAA or AA size I'd like to run them in line with the fuse if possible, just for less drag.

Heh, in spite of my silly name (no it's not my real name!), I'm not used to thinking about un-powered gliders or separate RX packs, so I'm not certain what level of capacity I should consider.

I'll be using a Hitec  Minima RX which can cope with up to 8.4v

I do have 20+ AA size NIMH cells lurking here which I normally use for cycle lamps, but I'm kind of balking at the weight of 4 or 5 AAs. I don't want the overall weight to jump to over 400grams when it could be sub 300 with a bit of consideration.

 

Thanx in advance guys. :¬

Edited By Chuck Plains on 04/02/2017 13:11:40

Edited By Chuck Plains on 04/02/2017 13:28:58

[Phil Green]

Our group tends towards small, lightweight models and we often use a single lipo cell (direct, without a voltage booster), most receivers & servos are fine with that voltage (not Spektrum obviously). A lot of DLG flyers also use a 1S cell. The voltage is lower than 4 NiMh but the lipo is very stable with no sagging - a rx & a couple of servos is barely a load compared to a brushless electric flight motor.  In bench tests with a precision reference I've always found that the servos always brown out before the receiver. My Fox and Elf DLG for example each have a 240mAh 1S, I've a S/C Simplex with a 1S 350mAh cell, etc. The other benefit of a lipo cell is that week to week theres almost no self discharge,  
Just suggesting it as an option 

Cheers
Phil

 

Edited By Phil Green on 04/02/2017 19:45:39

[Frank Skilbeck]

my Mini Fox, 3 servos uses a single cell lipo and a voltage booster, works well.Other option is a 2cell LiFe battery which is the same voltage as a 5 cell Nimh pack

[Chuck Plains]

Ah, cheers guys. Single Lipo is very interesting. It would definitely keep the weight down!

.

Actually, I remembered that I have three 2s 240mah packs sitting at the bottom of my Lipo collection. They're so small that I often ignore them. I've even ignored the Nine Eagles Sky Surfer that the 2S packs belong to. It was my first RC plane. ( too small for a first really)

I don't think the Minima regulates voltage, so I'll have to dig out a regulator. I have a couple with beepers here somewhere.

[Denis Watkins]

The Minima Receivers have quite an array of voltage tolerances Chuck, which varies slightly with the model number. You could save yourself any doubts with a Nimh set up, but a 2 channel glider will perform quite some time in the 300 mAh range, with the usual field voltage checker and charger should not be a problem

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]