Mini-Z, Kyosho Mini-Z Racer, MR-03, MR-02, MA-010, Forums, News, Pictures, Parts, and Shop - Mini-ZRacer.com
Forums, Mini-Z, MiniZ, Kyosho Mini-Z, Kyosho MiniZ, Kyosho Mini-Z Racer
Mini-Z Hop-Ups, Mini-Z Parts, MiniZ Hop-Ups, MiniZ Parts, Kyosho Mini-Z Hop-Ups, Kyosho Mini-Z Parts, Kyosho MiniZ Hop-Ups, Kyosho MiniZ Parts, Kyosho Mini-Z Racer Hop-Ups, Racer Kyosho Mini-Z Parts
Old 2010.01.10, 07:15 PM   #1
Justin
Registered User
 
Justin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Brisbane Australia
Posts: 253
Send a message via ICQ to Justin
Question Atomic Mods LiPo Batteries Installation?

Hi All,

been digging around for battery solutions and I came across the Atomic Mods LiPo battery which doesn't sound like a bad option. According to the description written on the page, it states that it will work with the standard electronics of any Mini Z, however it requires small modifications (which they claim aren't too hard).

Does anyone have a clear set of diagrams or instructions of what needs to be done for an MR-02 to run on LiPo?

Thanks in advance!
Justin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.10, 08:10 PM   #2
wildthing
RC addict
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Pilipinas
Posts: 227
On my iwaver and mini Z, this is what I plan to do to wireup a lipo:

This is designed to be used on a lipo 10440 cylindrical type (10mm diameter, 44mm length) with a wiring modification that would make the set-up 2S2P or 2 batteries in series and 2 batteries in parallel.

This set-up will double the mAh capacity of the lipo and double the output voltage (7.4v).

I will be using a lipo battery with 360mAh that are wired parallel so that they become 720mAh. Then series connect two of these parallel batteries so that they they become 7.4v.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Wiring of lipo.jpg (19.0 KB, 66 views)
wildthing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.10, 10:33 PM   #3
ianc
Registered User
 
ianc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Redwood City, CA
Posts: 562
Quote:
This set-up will double the mAh capacity of the lipo and double the output voltage (7.4v).
Stock voltage is ~5V (4.8 nominal), so not quite...

ianc
ianc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 03:35 AM   #4
wildthing
RC addict
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Pilipinas
Posts: 227
^^ huh?!?

Isn't lipo have about 3.7volts each (full charge... so in series or 2S configuration... it would give out 7.4volts).

... these lipos are also charged full to 4.2v so two lipo in series would be 8.4v...

Last edited by wildthing; 2010.01.11 at 03:38 AM.
wildthing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 10:23 AM   #5
ianc
Registered User
 
ianc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Redwood City, CA
Posts: 562
Sorry, my bad, you are quite correct of course.

I thought you were saying you'd double the voltage of the stock (nimh) batts, but now that I actually READ it, I find that's not the case.

ianc
ianc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 01:29 PM   #6
Traveler
of both Time and Space
 
Traveler's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Posts: 1,892
Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin View Post
Hi All,

been digging around for battery solutions and I came across the Atomic Mods LiPo battery which doesn't sound like a bad option. According to the description written on the page, it states that it will work with the standard electronics of any Mini Z, however it requires small modifications (which they claim aren't too hard).

Does anyone have a clear set of diagrams or instructions of what needs to be done for an MR-02 to run on LiPo?

Thanks in advance!
I don't recommend this mod unless you have a runway to drive it on. Its way too fast to handle.

But if you choose to do it, there is a tutorial on it on A.M.s website!
Traveler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 03:45 PM   #7
Justin
Registered User
 
Justin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Brisbane Australia
Posts: 253
Send a message via ICQ to Justin
Quote:
Originally Posted by Traveler View Post
I don't recommend this mod unless you have a runway to drive it on. Its way too fast to handle.
By the sounds of it, you've done it to your car I know it'll be faster (consider the voltage bump of double), so I was expecting double the speed. But if you'll need an excessive amount of room to run it, then maybe it's not a wise idea.

Just found the link - must have skipped over it on the A.M. website (my bad). I was thinking it'd be an easier alternative to running NiMh rechargable AAA's as I already have a Li-Po charger. Decisions
Justin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 04:13 PM   #8
cowboysir
epic procrastinator
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Whistler, B.C.
Posts: 2,216
The voltage peak of a li-po does state 8.4volts but that is a no-load reading, just like some aaa's state a no-load voltage of 1.5v. When load is applied it functions from a 7.4volt basis.

As for doing this modification, you will find it very difficult to control on a RCP race surface. The lack of grip and higher peak speeds will make for crashes and spinouts at every turn.

Keep the li-po conversions for xmods which don't have real performance in the first place.
__________________
I wonder what rocket scientists say to their coworkers when one of them doesn't get it?

my custom body album...
http://mini-zracer.com/forums/album.php?albumid=192
cowboysir is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 05:16 PM   #9
wildthing
RC addict
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Pilipinas
Posts: 227
your observations on lipo about the speed burst is true...

on my rental iwavers I only use 1 cell of lipo (14430) per car and I have to bring down the EPA of the throttle to 55% so that the "newbies" who rent them won't crash it hard.

My AAA holder (keystone part # 170) arrived yesterday so I can now arrange me a good charging tray from my 10430 lipos. I will test my modified Iwaver and MA010 on my carpet tracks with a 21 feet straightway later and see if I can handle it well enough.
wildthing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 05:51 PM   #10
Justin
Registered User
 
Justin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Brisbane Australia
Posts: 253
Send a message via ICQ to Justin
Quote:
Originally Posted by cowboysir View Post
Keep the li-po conversions for xmods which don't have real performance in the first place.
LOL

Everyone's basically talked me out of it now. I was going to use in on an indoor track where they run 1/18. If it's peaky and the EPA has to be dulled down, then there isn't much point to run with Li-Po's (except the long run time and even performance throughout). Furthermore, another thing I noticed is - there is no balance charger plug or I'm going blind since I skipped over the tutorial on the battery installation.
Justin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.01.11, 08:04 PM   #11
wildthing
RC addict
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Pilipinas
Posts: 227
oh well... I still hate the charging of NiMh... I will probably stick with my lipos and simply learn how to it up properly.
wildthing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.02.03, 01:08 PM   #12
Z06 Tony
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by wildthing View Post
On my iwaver and mini Z, this is what I plan to do to wireup a lipo:

This is designed to be used on a lipo 10440 cylindrical type (10mm diameter, 44mm length) with a wiring modification that would make the set-up 2S2P or 2 batteries in series and 2 batteries in parallel.

This set-up will double the mAh capacity of the lipo and double the output voltage (7.4v).

I will be using a lipo battery with 360mAh that are wired parallel so that they become 720mAh. Then series connect two of these parallel batteries so that they they become 7.4v.
That is not right. You only double the voltage not the mAh. That would be magic. I use 2 3.7v 400Ah lipos wired to get 7.4v 400mAh. The people who are saying not to do it have never done it so they are NOT talking from experience. My track is this and the straights are perfect for 2s lipo
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Z Track.jpg (71.9 KB, 37 views)

Last edited by Z06 Tony; 2010.02.03 at 01:53 PM.
Z06 Tony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.02.03, 01:20 PM   #13
mikedw
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Grand Valley On. Can.
Posts: 141
2S2P- that's four batteries not two.
mikedw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.02.03, 03:31 PM   #14
color01
Moderator
 
color01's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Los Angeles (Pasadena), CA, USA
Posts: 2,809
7.4V LiPo is not unusuable, but you have to motor down to account for the voltage jump. A PN70t car with 2S LiPo can be geared up to the point that it walks away from Mod cars on NiMH. If you'll be racing against 1/18's then the infield shouldn't be too tight for the car (LiPos can make the car too punch for really tight infield sections), so a 2S2P setup would be fine.

For racing against other Mini-Z's, a 1S4P setup would be much more desirable. If you follow the current situation in 1/12 pan cars, the classes are moving from 4.8V NiMH to 1S (3.7V) LiPo, and motoring up a little bit to compensate for the reduced voltage. In a Mini-Z, a 1S4P setup will give you ridiculous runtimes, and you actually won't lose much speed at all due to the 4P LiPo having much lower internal resistance than the stock 4S NiMH config. Although you won't have quite the same punch with 1S4P LiPo, you'll also get much more consistent performance throughout a 5-minute qualifier or main (you could probably make it through a 20-minute main while everyone else would've dumped a long time ago). If serious competition is not your goal (PNWC, Atomic WC, Tekin, KO, etc. races all require NiMH batteries), then I'd personally go with 1S4P LiPo.



One more thing: I believe the 10440 cells are metal-cased lithium-ions rather than lithium-polymer cells. Watch the heat when you charge them up, and don't exceed a ~300mA charge rate per cell.
__________________
Brian Ma

Greyscale RC

PN Racing | My TinyRC Blog
color01 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2010.02.03, 05:37 PM   #15
Z06 Tony
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by color01 View Post
7.4V LiPo is not unusuable, but you have to motor down to account for the voltage jump. A PN70t car with 2S LiPo can be geared up to the point that it walks away from Mod cars on NiMH. If you'll be racing against 1/18's then the infield shouldn't be too tight for the car (LiPos can make the car too punch for really tight infield sections), so a 2S2P setup would be fine.

For racing against other Mini-Z's, a 1S4P setup would be much more desirable. If you follow the current situation in 1/12 pan cars, the classes are moving from 4.8V NiMH to 1S (3.7V) LiPo, and motoring up a little bit to compensate for the reduced voltage. In a Mini-Z, a 1S4P setup will give you ridiculous runtimes, and you actually won't lose much speed at all due to the 4P LiPo having much lower internal resistance than the stock 4S NiMH config. Although you won't have quite the same punch with 1S4P LiPo, you'll also get much more consistent performance throughout a 5-minute qualifier or main (you could probably make it through a 20-minute main while everyone else would've dumped a long time ago). If serious competition is not your goal (PNWC, Atomic WC, Tekin, KO, etc. races all require NiMH batteries), then I'd personally go with 1S4P LiPo.



One more thing: I believe the 10440 cells are metal-cased lithium-ions rather than lithium-polymer cells. Watch the heat when you charge them up, and don't exceed a ~300mA charge rate per cell.
Thank you. I should have mentioned that I am using stock motor/gearing. The lipos I am using are the polymer so they do not have the metal casing. They do not get hot. Once I get a little better I will vid my laps wth the lipo against 3 other racers. We race every Sat. My track is the wide tiles so that helps as it is not as tight. My buddy is addicted and owns a snowplow/landscaping bus so he is calling me every day to race so I should get better faster. Raced 4 outa 5 days this week and racing tom and Sat.
Z06 Tony is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
F/s M10 Awd Atomic Mods rc100722 Mini-Z Marketplace 7 2008.04.23 06:35 PM
Sanyo eneloop arch2b Batteries, Chargers and Dischargers 25 2008.03.17 03:56 PM
SOLD: The mother of them all, Mini-Z AWD package DeOz Mini-Z Marketplace 14 2007.10.30 04:55 PM
FS: RTR awd, RTR F1 Faze Mini-Z Marketplace 14 2007.05.22 02:37 AM
FS: Atomic Mods HC AAA's pinwc4 Mini-Z Marketplace 0 2007.05.05 08:13 PM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:02 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2011 Mini-ZRacer.com
Mini Inferno Sale - Up to $85 Instant Savings!
Micro-T Hop-Ups
RC18R, M18, Micro RS4, Mini-LST, TamTech-Gear, Minizilla, RC18T, RC18B, RC18MT
shop.tinyrc.com Products

more»
Tiny RC Community News
[03/22/17] MZR was on vacation, didn't... : All kidding aside, the host experienced a bit of a server meltdown last week and efforts to restore the site to a new server took longer than anticipated. The current server is temporary until - more»
[11/25/15] Did You Hear? Our Black... : Hey Racers,
We're getting started a bit early with our Black Friday sale this year.  Generally we're not supporters of retailers opening early on Thanksgiving, but in our case, we're - more»
[06/30/15] shop.tinyrc.com: Have You... : Hey All! Just a quick reminder to everyone that we post all of our shop.tinyrc.com Newletters here on the MZR Forum. If for some reason you miss them in your email inbox, you can always see the - more»
Mini-Z, Mini-Z Racer, MR-02, MA-010
M18, M18T, RC18T, Mini-LST, Mini-T, Micro RS4, XRay, 1/18, 18th scale
XMODS, XMOD, Micro Flight, ZipZaps, ZipZaps SE, Bit Char-G, MicroSizers, TTTT, Plantraco Desktop Rover, SuperSlicks, Digi Q
Mini Inferno, Mini Inferno ST, half EIGHT, 1/16, 16th scale
Epoch, Indoor Racer, 1/43, 43rd scale
E-Savage, eSavage, eZilla, e-Zilla, HPI
Robots, Bots, Bipeds, Wheeled, Manoi, Roomba, NXT, Lego, Hacking
Crawling, Crawlers, Micro, RC, Losi Mini-Rock Crawler, Duratrax Cliff Climber
Kyosho Minium, Caliber 120, Minium Forums
Mini-Z Hop-Ups, Mini-Z Parts, Mini Inferno Hop-Ups, Mini Inferno Parts, M18 Hop-Ups, M18 Parts