Since my previous thread is getting run away with…
Who makes the best cells? Period.
The one’s I had bad experience with where yellow wrapped.
However, any counterfeit Chinese manufacturer can replicate any wrap it desires and you don’t know what’s inside.
What about the Chinese “Tenergy” brand?
Those on-line places like “All Batteries” sell the Chinese stuff.
How can one not be duped into buying cheap crap on line?
I’ve been using the Tenergy batteries for a year now with great results–far better than I ever got with the Energizer NiMH batteries I had been using. I buy the pre-assembled packs. On the 2600 mAh packs, I’m getting three and four hour run times for a single motored locomotive with sound running at around 50% full speed. I’ve got a 4400 mAh pack in one of my locos, and it ran for 7 hours (and was still going when I shut things down for the day). I haven’t been using them long enough to establish any kind of long-term track record, but from the bit I have been running, things look good. With the NiMH batteries, I could count on one cell out of the 12 required for the loco to go bad within a month or two. Because I charged them individually, weeding and replacing the bad ones was relatively simple, but still frustrating. One bad cell in the pack, and your run time took a nose dive.
I know the local R/C hobby shop carries a full line of Tenergy batteries for their customers (a bit more expensive than what all-battery and batteryspace charge), so I’m led to believe they’ve got something of a decent reputation.
Later,
K
Kevin Strong said:
I've been using the Tenergy batteries for a year now with great results--far better than I ever got with the Energizer NiMH batteries I had been using. I buy the pre-assembled packs. On the 2600 mAh packs, I'm getting three and four hour run times for a single motored locomotive with sound running at around 50% full speed. I've got a 4400 mAh pack in one of my locos, and it ran for 7 hours (and was still going when I shut things down for the day). I haven't been using them long enough to establish any kind of long-term track record, but from the bit I have been running, things look good. With the NiMH batteries, I could count on one cell out of the 12 required for the loco to go bad within a month or two. Because I charged them individually, weeding and replacing the bad ones was relatively simple, but still frustrating. One bad cell in the pack, and your run time took a nose dive.I know the local R/C hobby shop carries a full line of Tenergy batteries for their customers (a bit more expensive than what all-battery and batteryspace charge), so I’m led to believe they’ve got something of a decent reputation.
Later,
K
We buy from Tenergy by the crate, not a bad cell in three years. We have them build 14 cell 2300mah packs for us. All the packs are tested at Tenergy and tested again here, both at receipt and again before we ship. We also assemble that same cell in 6 cell packs ourselves. I’ve been totally satisfied personally and I’ve never had a customer complaint.
I have a feeling (my spidy sense is tingling) that one of our fellow power purveyors may take issue with what I’ve just said, we are talking Chinese batteries here after all, but that’s been our experience. BTW, if you need a 16.8v pack, do have a look at ours, it’s priced pretty aggressively.
The only bad experience we’ve ever had with Tenergy is we had a spate of bad 14 cell fast chargers from them a while back. It was a great PITA for us since they worked here but failed in customer use very quickly however Tenergy stood behind them 100% and made good on all of them. The recent ones have been fine. While we’re on that line of thought, you know that you can charge your NiMH packs in the loco with some minor plumbing, right? It never ceases to amaze me how many people pull them out to charge them.
Jeff Tyler said:And of course you can charge Lithium-Ions in place just as easy. My "Battery Conversion Modules" do all the plumbing for you. Easy Peasy, as Jerry (The Regal) would say. :)
... While we're on that line of thought, you know that you can charge your NiMH packs in the loco with some minor plumbing, right? It never ceases to amaze me how many people pull them out to charge them.
Edit: And to stay somewhat on topic, the Tenergy Lithium-Ions (from All-Battery.com) are working great for me as well.
Been usin Tenergy batteries from All Battery for years have two sets of 7.2 2200 mah, and one set of 8.4 3800 mah use em in my battery boxcars for all my QSI/Gwire applications have two, soon to be three battery boxcars 2 for power and 1 with power and QSI/G-wire and speaker system in it set up for diesel. I have 2 USA engines, a PaPb set with all the goodies in the baggage car, and just tonight mu’d a USA Heritage U.P./So. Pacific to run either with the u.p. baggage car goody set up, and or the newer box car setup with all the goodies in it set to diesel for my 3 Dash 9 BNSF’s and my Heritage. Have a k-27 set up, and an Aristo Mallet too! Once the weather straightens up will have video on my you tube channel and “livestream” channel of the passenge set running, and the new Heritage too!! P.S Del will never steer ya wrong either with his rc things, and or his decals! Has done some fine work for me!! Regal
Sanyo has always made very good batteries, and you find them in the battery packs of many of the best laptops.
Regards, Greg
Mine are Tenergy 3800MAH. I like them. They look like IED’s. hehe
IED"s, that will set of an alarm bell at Langley and you will have CIA, FBI, NCIS, CSI and TLA (Three Letter Acronims) on your door step.
Been nice knowing you, you will understand if I don’t send any xmas cards with a tune in them!!!
Wayne
Causes lots of Gomez Adams jokes.
Speaking of batteries, Im in need of a rechargeable pack that is no bigger than 6 AA batteries, but that is at least 12v.
How many Mah’s?
Sumpin that small prolly needs to be Li-ion.
The 14.8 V Li-On stuff is about the size of 4 AA batteries.
As I was gutting an old laptop at work, I noted the two 14.8V Li-On packs were still in good shape. I wonder if I can gut them for usable packs - OR I could keep the laptop frame and power supply as a charger and try and use them as-is. Opinions?
Jon Radder said:What was your criteria for determining the batteries were in good shape? In general, most laptops kill the battery pack fairly quickly. However, if you have determined they will still hold a charge and last for a reasonable amount of time in the laptop, there is no reason you couldn't use them in a train. I would keep the original charging bits though.
As I was gutting an old laptop at work, I noted the two 14.8V Li-On packs were still in good shape. I wonder if I can gut them for usable packs - OR I could keep the laptop frame and power supply as a charger and try and use them as-is. Opinions?
Del Tapparo said:It was my laptop. The battery life was pretty good - a good hour or more with two packs installed in an older laptop.Jon Radder said:What was your criteria for determining the batteries were in good shape? In general, most laptops kill the battery pack fairly quickly. However, if you have determined they will still hold a charge and last for a reasonable amount of time in the laptop, there is no reason you couldn't use them in a train. I would keep the original charging bits though.
As I was gutting an old laptop at work, I noted the two 14.8V Li-On packs were still in good shape. I wonder if I can gut them for usable packs - OR I could keep the laptop frame and power supply as a charger and try and use them as-is. Opinions?
So from my limited experience with laptop batteries, I would guess the shape of the pack would be suitable for a trailing car. The next question is how do connect to the pack and still use the original charging system? May require a bit of hacking.
The pack might be small enough for a tender too, but barely. I need to think about this a bit. The laptop is basically dead - needs a hard drive and other stuff, but it will still charge the batteries. It has two internal battery ports. I could use the laptop as-is as a charger and try to come up with a mate for the pack plug - OR - I could hack apart the laptop, grab one plug for a charging system and the other to connect the pack to the train. The problem will be keeping all the needed components of the power supply / battery charger intact while tossing the balance of the computer. It’s not likely that the power supply/charging board is neatly separate from the other components.
I like keeping the laptop together as a charger, but then need to come up with a mate for the plug. Maybe an eBay search for another deal laptop to hack up.