Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Land Models / July 2003

Hi,

I've been doing some bashing for about 2 years now and the three
battery packs I have are past their best.  One pack only gives out
6.4V unloaded and the other two give very little run time before their
voltage drops to a level where the ESC keeps cutting out when I try to
go anywhere near full throttle.
I am running them in a Tamiya TB-01 with a 12 turn motor.

The batteries I have been using are 2400 Orion RocketPacks.
Admittedly, they have been abused quite a bit - there's been plenty
times where I have charged them up with the intention of taking the
car out but never actually gone out.

I'm looking at buying some more battery packs and am trying to work
out what would be best for me.  The RocketPacks do seem to offer good
value for money but would I be better spending a bit more and getting
ones with named cells (ie. sanyos?)  I assume the RocketPacks do just
have some unbranded cells in them?  I'm more thinking about the packs
lasting a bit longer (before showing their age) opposed to getting
better performance from branded cells.
I generally don't have a chance to take the car out that much but I
will intend to treat these packs a bit better.

I have a semi decent peak charger at the moment, but it can only take
NiCds so I would rather stick to NiCds.

As the 12 turn motor doesn't give me much run time anyway, I would
like to stick to higher capacity packs (opposed to more sets of lower
capacity packs), just for the convienience not having the change the
pack in the car so much.  Then again, I probably would get better
value from buying more sets of lower capacity packs.

I live in the UK, so any recommendations on suppliers would be welcome
(I generally use Modelsport UK)

Thanks,

Michael Christie