Jump to content

12s batteries? Field charging practicalities


Recommended Posts

Thinking of ditching a Zenoah g62 due to noise regs in favour of electric with 12s lipo. My concern is without spending inordinate amounts on batteries how can I get in a few flights in a session? Charging from a spare car battery? At 5 amps minimum of an hour. So 2 pairs of 6s 5000mah lipos (that's what? 280 quid?) will give me an 8 minutes flight then another then maybe wait 45mins for the first set to charge for the next 2 flights. Seems a bit expensive a conversion for the lack of convenience. Just to reduce noise (that's good). Still I can listen to the chain saws lead blowers and off-road motorbikes while I'm waiting!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Advert


My flying buddy runs large petrol engines and has invested in decent, although quite expensive, silencers from MTW - https://aerobatx.co.uk/shop/

I can vouch that the silencers are very effective indeed and alter the tone of sound emitted to something much more acceptable and easier on the ears as well as reducing volume.

Worth considering before laying out a lot of money on an large and almost certainly more expensive electric conversion.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

One set of Li-ions charge any LiPo you take to the field. I've been doing it for over a year now (approx 1500 charges) and Russ, whose version I copied, has been using his for 5 years (many thousands of charges!) and they work really well. You only need one pair of LiPos and you can fly all day. I put my one together specifically for flying pairs of batteries in series, like you want to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Edgeflyer said:

Well an ev car and generator! Nice cheap solution. Does the generator emit more noise and pollution than a Zenoah g62? Lol

 

I know you & ED are joking but my Mazda MX-30 R-EV does just that! 

 

It has a 240v AC 1500w outlet and if the EV batteries become depleted the rotary engine coupled to a generator kicks in to maintain the output. It can also be used as an emergency power outlet at home in case of power cuts with Mazda estimating that a full tank of fuel will last up to a week.

 

And it is quieter than a Zenoah!

 

IMG_4919.thumb.jpg.a0c3dd50abbea65cb3284cb259ab5740.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Edgeflyer said:

How many lion cells at £3 each?

 

Depends how long you want to fly for! I made two, so take two in summer and one in winter. 40Ah each = 48 cells. Flying 12S 5000 I'd assume approx 3500 per batt per charge, so 7000 per flight, so each 40Ah Li-ion pack would do you 5 flights on 12S (10 x 6S charges). Just add or subtract rows of 6 Li-ion cells to scale it to your requirements.

 

Or buy an EV!

 

I'd take on board what others are saying about decent silencers and/or quieter engines. I love flying big electrics but lots of gasser pilots don't like flying big electrics, so see if you can blag a flight on one before you convert.

 

9 minutes ago, Andy Stephenson said:

Austrian company called Kolm

 

To die for! If I flew gassers the hangar would be full of 'em.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, John Lee said:

 

I know you & ED are joking but my Mazda MX-30 R-EV does just that! 

My MG5 has a 2.4kW inverter built into it so would give me practically unlimited field charging - although we have a solar charged battery solution at our field using surplus commercial UPS batteries (thanks Chris) which supports a busy club operation. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...