Lithium ION Battery Cells

[Spinner]

Why doesnt anybody make lithium ion R/C cells? I know they would be about 2x as expensive as matched 3,000s BUT they have roughly TWICE the capacity of Ni-MH, and the have NO memory characteristics...... anyone? :confused:

[Spinner]

???????? Steve? :confused:

[Jason C]

I'm pretty sure other RC companies have thought about this before. Like all other companies, they are out to make money and if an idea doesn't seem economically feasible, or if they think it won't sell too well, they most likely won't bother with it.

Like you said, the new cells would be twice as much as matched 3000's. I for one would not be willing to pay over $100-$150 for batteries no matter how good they are. But, I'm sure there's also some other reasons why Li-ion cells are not made as I'm sure the factory drivers would probably be using them by now.

[DerekB]

I'm not sure that cost is an issue more than they can't deliver the AMP load required by todays sill wind motors.

[Spinner]

derek,,,,,,, lithium batteries are used in laptop computers, which draw more amps then any motor does..... ill have to email trinity about it

[jeepinator]

I have read tech articles on Lithium Ion cells. They require an ultra precise charge profile. I am not saying some of the better, software controlled chargers could not charge them, but it would be even more difficult than NiMh.
Lithium Ion also does not have (yet) the ultra low internal resistance (high current) capability modern Nicad and NiMh cells have.

... and then there is expense. A new Lithium Ion battery for my Dell Inspiron laptop sells for over a hundred bucks.

[Grizzbob]

Jeep & Derek are both right, Lithium Ion batteries still have way too high internal resistance right now to be of any use to us in our cars, & they'd likely be severly damaged by the high apm load that today's motors are capable of. In fact, I believe one guy(read about him on Trinity's borad) did try it, & the Li pack pretty much did a meltdown(plus it just wasn't very fast, due to the excessive resistance). However, I DO think they might be a nice idea for our transmitters...... :)

[InspGadgt]

Spinner, The Compaq Armada 7400 Laptop (for example) has a 3.2AHr Lithium Ion battery. That's equal to 3,200Mah. It takes 2 hours for laptop to drain the battery. A mod motor in an RC car can drain a 3000Mah battery in roughly 5 minutes. Amp draw really is quite good in laptops these days.