Battery pack conversion to LiPo

[DVandrews]

I wonder if anyone here can help, I have built a lightning 'swing bin' racer powered by a 12v drill, the battery packs(NIMH 2.0 AH) don't last all that long and I was considering converting them to LiPo batteries (3 x 1.3 packs in parallel) to try to improve the range of the car. Does anyone have any experience of this and have any tips or ideas/pitfalls. The plan is to take a dead battery pack and fix the 3 packs in connected to the original battery top. even with charger this is less than 1/3rd the cost of a 2.0 AH replacement pack so it seems to make sense.

Dave

[tr7v8]

Dave, assuming this is for kiddies then I wouldn't go LiPO. Rather than replace the drill batteries, wire some fly leads off it & use a small car battery or more sensibly a sealed lead acid as used in alarms etc. If you chat to your local security co. they'll sell you a 6V 7Ah SLA for around a tenner.

LiPos need careful treatment both in use & in charging & do 'orible things if mistreated. They also need special chargers, i.e. you must not & cannot use the NiMh or NiCd charger for them.

[DVandrews]

Thanks for the tips, I had considered a sealed LA battery but the only ones I could find of suitable capacity were too large for the available space, the advantage of LIPo is their compact footprint and light weight. I know about the charge issues (uneven cell voltages) and the usage problems, I just wondered if anyone had any direct experience. I will have a further search for a rigid cased LA battery of suitable size/capacity.

Dave

[DVandrews]

Have gone with a 20AH sealed LA battery from Maplins, fits a treat I to the space and has a bag of capacity. Thanks for the advice. Have used the LiPos to revive some drill battery packs.

Dave