[HELP] Lipo Battery

[Tommy Styrvoky]

I am planning to get a LIpo battery, as most of my models tend to use up lots of AA batteries. I wonder what the maximum number of recommended motors it can power.( I am planning to power 2 xls, 1 servo, 1 L, 1 M)

Will the Lipo battery work for this application?

[Nalyd997]

Would you run them all simultaneously?

[bonox]

try this:

http://www.philohome.com/batteries/bat.htm

The standard AA box is recommended for 2 XL only.

See motor characteristics here:

http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm

Simple answer is you're unlikely to be able to run all of them at the same time.

[PKW]

sure you can! But only il They haven't Hot high torque all togheter in my battlebots i've used 2 XL and 2 L motors simultaniously with no problem But I got some problem while running 3 L motors all with a torque near To stop Them,i think that you're gonna make a tank with subtractor so I think that The lipo BB should work, if you look At what philo says you'll discover that all The batteries all The same thermal protection At 750ma/h, so if your MOC work with 7,2V AA BB it will work with lipo one

[Tommy Styrvoky]

sure you can! But only il They haven't Hot high torque all togheter in my battlebots i've used 2 XL and 2 L motors simultaniously with no problem But I got some problem while running 3 L motors all with a torque near To stop Them,i think that you're gonna make a tank with subtractor so I think that The lipo BB should work, if you look At what philo says you'll discover that all The batteries all The same thermal protection At 750ma/h, so if your MOC work with 7,2V AA BB it will work with lipo one

It won't have a subtractor, but there will be 2 xls driving it, 1 L motor spinning a flail, and 1 m motor for a fake engine.( this would be the maximum number of motors running at once.)

Edited February 3, 2015 by Tommy Styrvoky

[Nazgarot]

Should be no problem, depending on how heavy the flail is to run... I guess it's mostly for a visual effect, and that should not draw to much power.

As said before, if you can do it with a AA BB with 1,2 volt AA cells, it should be no problem.

-ED-

Edited February 3, 2015 by Nazgarot

[PKW]

Remember that servo electronic uses a bit of power ;) but with your setup it should go :3

[nerdsforprez]

When people refer to "lipo" on here are they referring to the rechargable Lego battery box? What exactly? When I hear of "lipo" I think of the batteries used in RC cars, and I think that cannot be the case. Way to powerful.....

[Tommy Styrvoky]

When people refer to "lipo" on here are they referring to the rechargable Lego battery box? What exactly? When I hear of "lipo" I think of the batteries used in RC cars, and I think that cannot be the case. Way to powerful.....

Most people are referring to the lego Lipo battery.

[nerdsforprez]

Ahh... that makes sense.

[PKW]

When people refer to "lipo" on here are they referring to the rechargable Lego battery box? What exactly? When I hear of "lipo" I think of the batteries used in RC cars, and I think that cannot be the case. Way to powerful.....

Except the electronic circuit that lego rechargeable battery box has, it is a 2S LiPo 1000mah battery like some for rc cars ;)

[nerdsforprez]

That is a lot of power. I am new at this, and do not have an engineering or electronics background, but I thought that lipo batteries were for brushless motors. Lego motors certainly are not....

Also... so the 2s 1000 mah battery... is this the battery that the rechargable box comes with? in your last post, "Except the electronic circuit that lego rechargeable battery box has, it is a 2S LiPo 1000mah battery like some for rc cars ;)" -- what exactly does this mean? Are you describing some modification to the Lego rechargable battery? or are these simply the specifics that the battery comes with?

thanks for the patience, for someone with no degree in electronics, etc. this is all hard information to come by. I am trying to speed up models that I have already built. Lego PF functions just aren't powerful enough. I need to consult phil.com site but I have read it before and it really doesn't do a good job on describing how one can power-up current PF functions. For example, I know running PF motors on 12V instead of 9 will make them more powerful, but how does one go about doing that?

If there is a way to power-up current Lego motors I am all for it. Right now I am restricted to try and use RC motors and such:

[Blakbird]

That is a lot of power. I am new at this, and do not have an engineering or electronics background, but I thought that lipo batteries were for brushless motors. Lego motors certainly are not....

There is no connection between brushless motors and lithium batteries. They are just both "good".

If there is a way to power-up current Lego motors I am all for it. Right now I am restricted to try and use RC motors and such:

There really isn't a good way to "power-up" Lego motors. The motors, controller, and batteries were all made with imposed limitations to prevent just such a thing. If you really want more power, you'll have to go to R/C batteries and motors, but be prepared for lots of broken Lego bits.

I don't recommend doing any of that until you have a good understanding of motors and batteries. Best place to learn is mess around with R/C for a while. You'll learn everything you need to know and you'll already have the components you need when you want to add them to Lego.

[PKW]

@nerdsforpretz if you look at philo's website you'll find that lipo BB has a circuit That provides this functions:

Low voltage cutoff

thermal protection (750ma/h like all lego batteries)

the variometer function controlled by the orange female axle connector

this means that due To the thermal protection BB outputs don't provide the same power of the battery itself, and also generally normal RC batteries haven't got an internal cutoff

the problem of using other kind of batteries than lego BB is the risk of damage IR receivers, and in fact you could only gain more torque changing the thermal protection (Or removing it ) i suggest you To use a normal ESC and find some way To connect normal RC servos That will make you able to use a 3S lipo and so gain more speed, but i think that stress motors with an higher voltage will break them, there are also people that change the motor into the PF M one but you have To mind the limited power that batteries and receivers can provide

hope i've explained well what I want To say

[nerdsforprez]

There is no connection between brushless motors and lithium batteries. They are just both "good".

There really isn't a good way to "power-up" Lego motors. The motors, controller, and batteries were all made with imposed limitations to prevent just such a thing. If you really want more power, you'll have to go to R/C batteries and motors, but be prepared for lots of broken Lego bits.

I don't recommend doing any of that until you have a good understanding of motors and batteries. Best place to learn is mess around with R/C for a while. You'll learn everything you need to know and you'll already have the components you need when you want to add them to Lego.

Yea, thus the post of my little video But yea, Blakbird you are right. Experimenting with RC helps with the learning part. That is exactly what I have done.

[Brickthus]

I wouldn't recommend more powerful motors and batteries because the rest of the LEGO parts are not designed for it. You would need a conservative design, such as doubling up on gears at each stage and doubling the support of axles.

Even an XL motor can twist an axle so an RS380 could do more. It's the torque that will do it though. Power = torque x speed. Might be OK with lower torque running faster but then axle friction may melt the axle and the beam. I once tried mounting a drill in a LEGO base to drive a static model but 135W was too powerful for the LEGO parts even with doubled-up gears - the axle melted.

There is also the motor heating to consider - melting a LEGO mounting scheme.

If I wanted a faster powerful LEGO motor e.g. for a propeller then I would consider removing one gear stage from an L-motor. I tried it with an M-motor with limited success.

The LEGO LiPo battery has a current trip at 800mA. Some of my trains need up to 1300mA so it tripped and restarted on the uphill section. It is far better than AAs because it has a lower internal resistance.

600mA on one channel is recommended for the motor driver chip, or 400mA on each channel with both together.

Mark