Not all lipo's equal??? Zippy Compact v Turnigy 5000mah

[SlipperySquid]

Morning all,
                  As a complete noob to all that is RC I recently purchased what I thought was a bargain Hexacopter. In facted it turned out to be a bit of a lemon that';s been sucking cash from me at about the same rate as a Murdock Pension fund.

Anyways needed some Lipo';s did the research of what would suffice etc and fell upon the Zippy compacts. Thought they looked good, reasonably priced and light.

Ordered two 5000mah 25c 3s. Got them up and running and was slightly dissapointed with their run times (approx 5 mins) ok, with battery my hex weighs nearly 3kg so I thought this was the norm...that was until my mate gave me a bog standard Turnigy 5000mah 20-30c that he';d never used due to switching to 250 quads! Over ten minutes of flight in the same set up!!!!

What is it with these lipo';s? are companies actually "Shock horror" lying about there capacity? what could make one battery with almost identical specs outperform another by such a margin? Do I ahve two duff zippies or is it just a case of suck it and see when you a purchasing these things (reviews where glowing about the compacts!!!!)

Anyway just a little rant, the zippy';s are pants don';t buy em!

Cheers!

[flybywire]

Morning all,
                  As a complete noob to all that is RC I recently purchased what I thought was a bargain Hexacopter. In facted it turned out to be a bit of a lemon that';s been sucking cash from me at about the same rate as a Murdock Pension fund.

Anyways needed some Lipo';s did the research of what would suffice etc and fell upon the Zippy compacts. Thought they looked good, reasonably priced and light.

Ordered two 5000mah 25c 3s. Got them up and running and was slightly dissapointed with their run times (approx 5 mins) ok, with battery my hex weighs nearly 3kg so I thought this was the norm...that was until my mate gave me a bog standard Turnigy 5000mah 20-30c that he';d never used due to switching to 250 quads! Over ten minutes of flight in the same set up!!!!

What is it with these lipo';s? are companies actually "Shock horror" lying about there capacity? what could make one battery with almost identical specs outperform another by such a margin? Do I ahve two duff zippies or is it just a case of suck it and see when you a purchasing these things (reviews where glowing about the compacts!!!!)

Anyway just a little rant, the zippy';s are pants don';t buy em!

Cheers!

Hmmm 
THat';s odd!  I use ZC';s all the time, and find they are a very good lipo for the dosh/size.  Did you buy from HK?  Are you ';balance charging'; them like a good boy?

BTW, with that weight of quad, I';d deffo use 4 cell lipo';s.

[Paul01]

You wouldn';t be using a lipo alarm would you? Might just be voltage sag on the zippy, they are usually very good

[hoverfly]

Very odd , I have been running both sorts and the  Zippy  has a more accurate c rating, they last a couple of mins longer before the voltage drop occurs. The Turnigy I have had a couple of them   have weak cells  from the start.  As above  I always charge at  1c and balanced, mainly because i';m a boring old fart , and it annoys the "I never balance and charge at full c"  brigade.
On the other hand what do you expect  for 2/6 from Woolworths.

[flybywire]

On the other hand what do you expect  for 2/6 from Woolworths.

Ahh, getting all nostalgic now!   

[annikk.exe]

I run a ZC 1500mah and a Turnigy Multistar 1400.

The 1400 is physically quite a bit smaller than the ZC.. as well as being lighter.  It also feels more punchy to fly.  Out of the 2 batteries I own, the Turnigy Multistar is definitely the better one.

[flybywire]

I run a ZC 1500mah and a Turnigy Multistar 1400.

The 1400 is physically quite a bit smaller than the ZC.. as well as being lighter.  It also feels more punchy to fly.  Out of the 2 batteries I own, the Turnigy Multistar is definitely the better one.

What ';C'; rating are they both?  Obviously, with racing style quads, the higher the C rating the better, and you really shouldn';t be using anything below 35c.  I have used them on my AP rigs over the last few years, without issue, and they are generally lighter/smaller than the equivalent Turnigy ones (which I';ve also used).  I think maybe there are better brands out there for racing/high performance stuff, but I would definitely give the higher C ZC';s a chance anyday.

[annikk.exe]

What ';C'; rating are they both?

The Turnigy Multistar is 45-90 and the Zippy Compact is 40-50.
I';m running 12 amp ESCs though and really shouldn';t be exceeding the "continuous" current rating, although I have no way to  check, so I guess it';s possible that I just have some very hungry motors and particularly invincible ESCs.

[flybywire]

The Turnigy Multistar is 45-90 and the Zippy Compact is 40-50.

45-90!  that';s quite a variable.  But even if it were say, 60c you would expect it to out perform the 50c ZC would you not?

[annikk.exe]

Well, I would have expected roughly similar performance from both...  Perhaps the Turnigy pack would have a slight lead consider it';s lighter.
In reality there seems a big difference between them, particularly during short bursts of full throttle.  The ZC also seems to sag more.

Taking the lowest number cited of 40C, which is the continuous rating on the zippy... at 1.5amp hours capacity, that';s a maximum continuous current of 60 amps.
I have 4 12-amp ESCs; if they';re running at rated current they should be drawing 48 amps.

Now if I know anything about whether one number is bigger than the other number, I can say with some certainty that 60 amps rating of the battery is more than the 48 amps combined rating of the ESC';s.  Does that mean one battery is better than the other?  I think so... but I';m cautious about drawing strong conclusions based on my extremely limited experiences.

[flybywire]

Well, I would have expected roughly similar performance from both...  Perhaps the Turnigy pack would have a slight lead consider it';s lighter.
In reality there seems a big difference between them, particularly during short bursts of full throttle.  The ZC also seems to sag more.

Taking the lowest number cited of 40C, which is the continuous rating on the zippy... at 1.5amp hours capacity, that';s a maximum continuous current of 60 amps.
I have 4 12-amp ESCs; if they';re running at rated current they should be drawing 48 amps.

Now if I know anything about whether one number is bigger than the other number, I can say with some certainty that 60 amps rating of the battery is more than the 48 amps combined rating of the ESC';s.  Does that mean one battery is better than the other?  I think so... but I';m cautious about drawing strong conclusions based on my extremely limited experiences.

Well, I disagree with your assumption that they are more or less equal anyhow!  To find out the actual current draw, you would need to know what the wattage of the motors are, i.e AxV=W.

[DRKX]

hello all,
Sorry to butt in, but I thought this might be a good thread to hijack with a, not totally unrelated, question.

Oddly enough I had a battery loose a cell this morning... dag-nabbit 
i';m going to double check it when I get home but portable battery reader tells me things are not good.

I was just wondering where you guys recommend buying batteries from, I think mine were from Hobby King, is there a better outlet?

Cheers

[flybywire]

Depends on your definition of ';better';.  If it';s cheaper, then no!

[annikk.exe]

Well, I disagree with your assumption that they are more or less equal anyhow!

Oh, I';m not assuming that.  They seem quite different in performance to me.  The continuous amp rating is quite similar on them, though.

To find out the actual current draw, you would need to know what the wattage of the motors are, i.e AxV=W.

Well the motors are rated at 180 watts, but with Gemfan 5040 props they probably don';t pull that much power.

[flybywire]

Oh, I';m not assuming that.  They seem quite different in performance to me.  The continuous amp rating is quite similar on them, though.

Sorry, I meant that as they had different charge/discharge rates, that they could not be compared like for like, that';s all.  I make it 15a 3 cell full current draw.  12a with 4 cell.