tmc0011

Spoke too soon. Both batteries only lasted about 5 charges. I’m so pd off I am either really unlucky or doing something fundamentally wrong. I’m £40 down now on what I thought was a ready to run!

I bought a dedicated balance charger, only £10, and a spare battery. The old battery needs to be rebuilt but the new one is fine after many many charges. I think the USB charge cable is a bit of a joke really as it just is not up to the task. I think the LiPo i have been using needs more current than USB can supply

i definitely agree the usb chargers arent much cop. i need to get a new battery and a charger for sure, was scouting ebay but not a lot of luck yet

also when measuring current the charger starts flashing as it first did when charging the battery on the first day, suggesting it does register the draw into the multimeter

clearly need to touch up my multimeter skills too. on connecting the charger output to voltage dc 5v is registered but the output say it should be 8.4v. also on the 200m DC AMP measurement it reads 80, much less than the 150mA it says it should be outputting. i might have my electronics all mixed up of course. multimeter measure voltage set to V DC, range 20, measure 5. multimeter measure current set to A DC, range 200m with Red lead connected to mA input on multimeter, measures 80

so the esc is the ftx esc/rx combo, try finding a manual on that and you are a better man than me. the connections appear to be good. there is some play but the cable and connector move in prallel so i think they are still in good connection. same for the charger but it is USB powered and i dont know if it actually outputting anything. ill be borrowing a multimeter tomorrow to check voltage output from the battery and the charger. i guess from that it will be clear how much power is outputting from charger and how much is being stored in the lipo thanks for the offer of support, its very much appreciated for a newbie, we all have to learn sometime.

Hi, yes it's lipo, i have guessed that you cannot discharge too much. But how do you manage that in reality? Mine is my daughters, try telling her to stop playing with it even when it has charge left in it!!! Maybe I shouldnt have bought such a nice one for a 7 year old. but she loves it. looking at the esc/rx i think i can just switch between the two power types, switching between 7.4 and 7.2 v basically. nimh seems to be more reliable, less prone to issue when depleted too.

Got one of these as a newbie for my daughter. She flipping loves it. But the battery performance is rubbish. The 600mAh 7.4 2s has plenty of time, we get a good 25-30 mins continuous use. But when it comes to charging it all goes wrong. the supplied charger I think is too low rated at output of 150mA. It won’t charge if it is nearly dead it only charges after light use. Not really useable. looking at the ESC/RX (FTX9370) I’m tempted to change from lipo to nimh. Anyone tried it?

Decided to see if the esc/rx combo can take Nimh. I can see a lipo/nimh diagram which looks like it can take either depending on where you place the jumper port. This battery is a dodo

luckily the driveaway is stoney and we have plenty of spare deck boards and the like. just need to get my head around the charger situation now. it seems the charger works fine but if the 2s goes below a certain level then the charger doesnt have enough guts to charge properly. of course without measuring the battery its impossible to know the current level in the battery so when it goes below that critical level all hell breaks loose and i have to find a suitable charger with correct connection on it, work in progress now that school is starting again

i get about 30 minutes intermittent, im quite impressed with that but it is a rock crawler not a straight line speed machine!

Thanks all, good comments here. it is LiPo and the pins are set correctly. I am suspicious of the supplied charging cable not being up to it. I doubt it does any balancing. Might be worth an investment in 2nd hand charger to see what charge is in each cell and balance the charge correctly. Also connecting charger and battery in the exact order stated by modelsport, who wouldve thought connecting in an order makes a difference. im clearly in need of learning lots about RC and LiPo. Thanks

Thanks @stimpy hadn't thought of that!! I am now connecting each element in the correct order and it seems to be ok. Probably need a proper beefy charger that can tell me how much juice is left in the 2S LiPo. Thanks

Well it was the best present for my daughter ever until after it’s second charge and re connection it all came crashing down around our ears. drive works for literally a second and then drive fails. Steering service still worked. batteries, control unit, all checked nothing in any mechanism. no completely stopped. Just the LED headlights and occasional ESC red light flashes. followed manual instructions to re bind. Successful. Back to 1 second motion then nothing. Now nothing at all. does this sound like battery to anyone else or ...... Open to suggestions as it didn’t make it past 12 hours and daughter will be devastated. thanks newbies dad

Well it was the best present for my daughter ever until after it’s second charge and re connection it all came crashing down around our ears. drive works for literally a second and then drive fails. Steering service still worked. batteries, control unit, all checked nothing in any mechanism. no completely stopped. Just the LED headlights and occasional ESC red light flashes. followed manual instructions to re bind. Successful. Back to 1 second motion then nothing. Now nothing at all. does this sound like battery to anyone else or ...... Open to suggestions as it didn’t make it past 12 hours and daughter will be devastated. thanks newbies dad