1:8th Scale RC Buggies go Brushless :)

[motormania]

Have been noticing a new line of RC cars coming out this year. Move over Nitro fuel, brushless and lipo are going to blow you away with a new breed of 1:8 scale off-road buggies.

Was chatting to the boys from HPI at The Gadget Show at the NEC the other weekend and asked them if they were going to release a 1:8 scale Brushless version of their Nitro buggies.

Answer was a huge YES

Associated have one out, waiting for Xray now...

The guys at HPI told me that one was run as a recent world championship against Nitro and it left it eating dirt!!! If it's speed you want, then these new brushless electric 1:8 scale models are the future, far less hassle than fuel

We also got talking about Lipo and they were saying that 2009 will be the final deathnail in the coffin for brushed and cells. All manufacturers are now solely working on brushless/lipo chassis'

I'm very keen to keep my 1:10 Xray Brushless setup for TC, but if they release a 1:8 brushless chassis for off-road then I might be very tempted...

[motormania]

HereBeMonsters said:

chr15b said:

Lipo's you have to be very careful with - charge them wrong and you can have a fire very easily

No more careful than with NiMH.

I have to agree here. All this talk of LiPo's being dangerous and a fire hazard is just stupid.

OK, so some thick idiots found that if you use the wrong charger then they go bang and put a video on YouTube, but look at the facts... They were dumbass pricks! They were not charging them correctly, that's the problem with the Internet and sites such as YouTube.

Try and find out the facts about these issues...

The correct charger fitted with a balancer and designed specifically for charing LiPo batteries makes them very safe indeed. The huge benefit over cells is that I can charge my LiPo on Sunday evening and the is no loss of charge for when I go racing the following Friday. I race, put the same battery on charge straight after the race and do that all night. No need for lots of cells, discharges etc. Would never buy another cell pack ever, even if they were given them away I would not have one.

Just imagine when the new breed of technology hits our sport when you'll be able to charge your LiPo pack in seconds for a full charge!! The mind boggles...

[motormania]

HereBeMonsters said:

Davi said:

motormania said:

Lipo's are also not like NiMh, they go into thermal runaway on a scale nothing like NiMh and are nigh on impossible to extinguish once they go.

I'd rather have a slow burning fire that I can chuck outside than an exploding cell in the face.

I've been running LiPo for 6 months now, and would never go back to NiMH. The only "other" batteries I have are some vintage NiCads for the vintage runners...

.

You need to be careful with your quotes, you've put words in my mouth!

I still stand by my comments that these packs are safe. It is only when they are mis-used that problems occur. A box of matches are safe in the right hands, a sharp knife is safe - but used incorrectly, anything can become dangerous.

Edited by motormania on Wednesday 29th April 09:33

[motormania]

Mikey G said:

We have a Caster Fusion in our little club and he got the car out to play during practice for an event the other weekend. Must say i was very impressed with the turn of pace of the car. It was only running a pair of 2600 7.4v LiPo's, so battery life was a little short. But even with a decent set of 5000's i doubt it would run much more than 15-20 minutes. Trouble is how many sets of batteries would you need for a days racing in Rallycross? You may be able to top up your batteries from the first rounds to use in the finals but still with the buggy using 2 packs a time you will probably need 6 packs just to be sure, and thats without bump ups in the finals! And at the best part of £80-100 a pop per pack that is a little expensive...

I'll stick to my Xray 808 and GRP combo for a little longer i think

Interested to know why you need multiple packs? I use just one pack (I know some 1:8 scale Brushless chassis are now using 2 packs linked) but when I go racing I charge up the weekend before I go, then just stick the LiPo on charge between heats - never have to worry about having more than one pack. The pack is not effected by coming off from a race and put straight back onto charge. So why do oyou have so many packs?

I'd also like to know who your buying your LiPo's from as I can buy them for between £30-50 brand new!

Edited by motormania on Wednesday 29th April 09:50