I need to replace a battery that won’t take a charge, I get a connection break warning on my charger. I’ll be replacing it with a Tenery 14.8V 6600mAh battery. I’m looking at two batteries, the 31026 and 31827. The only difference I see is in the max continuous discharge current and the over current cutoff. Is one better for our application for motive power.
31026 31827
Max continuous discharge current; 5A 6A
Over current cutoff; 6.5A 17A
Depends on your application. The over current cut-off on the 6A battery looks too high, like they went with the next available protection board to allow the 6A drain. What was the failed battery rated at?
I hate to admit it since I’ve been buying Tenergy batteries for a while, but I my experience with early failures is suggesting that maybe it’s smarter to spend more on the pack and replace it less often.
Is that like, you get what you pay for?
Hi Louis… Looks like they’re priced the same… The difference may be the PCB protection board.
If you’ll be using it in a locomotive or locomotives that will draw more that 5 amps you could possibly shut the 5 amp battery down. I’ve had that happen once or twice… However, to prevent that, you might do well getting the higher cutoff battery.
Just my thoughts…
Are there Large Scale locomotives that draw more than 5 amps? I don’t know, that’s why I ask.
Steve, mine don’t. Even with 2 motors, a sound-card and smoke unit going.
But then I don’t have the big AS44cw dash 8.36s hauling 138 loaded coal hoppers up a 5.738% grade on 6 foot diameter curves neither.
Even those shouldn’t be using 5 amps, though, should they? Not unless they have incandescent lights, but who uses those when shifting to battery?
Hi Steve, as Dave stated you can make them draw amps until they melt. I think for 98% of us the normal range is 2-3 amps per loco. But it can hit 6 amps. If you run dual locos pulling 20 cars up an grade it will draw all the power it can take from the throttle and battery. That is why batteries can get very warm and shut off.
A few years back I did some testing for USA Trains. Outdoor temp has a big effect on the current draw. Here in New England it is hard to melt them down. When I lived in PA we blew them up on hot days. That is why we developed the 10 amp throttle. Steam Locos behave well except for the dual motor Bachmann Mallet. It starts at 5 amps then settles down.
I will post my finding soon on my web site along with a video showing how I measure under load current draw.
Very good questions. I am sure others will provide their experiences.
Don
Thanks for the input guys. The battery in question is in an Aristo FA1. I am running two engines so that’s four motors, no sound or smoke. I’m going to replace it with a battery from Cordless Renovations. Does any one know the dimensions of the following batteries? cr1605 cr1605b. Can’t find it on the web site.
Hi Louis you can see all the specs by clicking on the additional information to see the dimensions fro each battery pack.
The 1605 is 72 x 36 x 74 mm
The 1605B is 134 x 36 x 40 mm
Don
X
Thanks, Don… Exactly my experience… I’ve lashed an ABBA unit together and under certain conditions shut a battery down. Ambient temperature, load, grade, etc… In Arizona we can get over 100 degrees in the shade and up to 190 degrees in an enclosed battery car or locomotive shell with no ventilation. I even installed some 12 volt low draw 3 inch fans in battery cars and 2 inch in a locomotive shell to keep air flowing over batteries and receivers…
There ain’t any real "pat’ answers but for the most part a 6 amp battery will do just fine… (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-money-mouth.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
Stan, were you able to use one ESC and one battery to power your ABBA? What did you use?
Louis, buy the higher rated system and then fuse EACH loco with an appropriate fuse, like 3 amps. Then if one loco develops a problem you won’t send 6 amps through it.
You can get over 2 amps draw from a heavily loaded Aristo FA.
Greg
Steve Featherkile said:
Stan, were you able to use one ESC and one battery to power your ABBA? What did you use?
Steve, Yes, one receiver and one battery. I tried the regular REVOLUTION receiver and it worked for a while but it would overheat or overload with a long consist and shut down. It was just one of those “experiments” that I tried working with the REVOLUTION.
I changed to the REVOLUTION track side received in the battery car and yes, used one battery… If I remember correctly, it was a 14.8 Li-ion 6600 pack from All Battery. It worked just fine when the ambient temperatures were in the 70’s and low 80’s. With higher temperatures, I had to remove the roof from the battery car to allow air flow to cool the receiver and battery. All 4 units were powered and wired together. We took them to Marty’s to run on his layout. I was quite happy with them.
However, now the layout is gone, we’ve moved into a Senior Retirement Community and are living in “memories” Sigh…
Are you looking@ your color slides?
ean McGillicuddy said:
Are you looking@ your color slides?
Ya know, Sean, we were clearing our a bunch of stuff and I found boxes of “color slides” that I took in 1959 during my USAF tour in Thule, Greenland and others from the early 70’s to the late 80’s when I spend 2 years in Uganda and Kenya, East Africa. Yes, there were a lot of returned memories… (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Thanks Don for the dimensions. Greg, I never thought about adding two fuses like that, I can see where that could be an issue.
Real world testing with lab equipment revealed a 6000ish mAh lithium-ion battery comprised of 18650 cells delivers 10-12 amps at rated voltage for nearly twenty minutes, and then literally drops off a cliff on the voltage/amperage graphs… And this was sans a battery protection device.
The numbers from the Tenergy batteries are pretty realistic IMO. One battery is aimed at the long life crowd and the latter is for the serious horsepower fiend with no regard to battery life cycles.
Louis, I’d suggest you not compete with the crowd that runs their batteries endlessly, some until equipment stops moving! Best scenario is to play and charge at will, running the batteries down past 50% capacity is detrimental to a long life cycle.
Michael
I personally wired my FAs together and installed a original trackside 10 amp Train Engineer; I ended up using a 13 amp hour Tenergy 14.8V Li-Ion as I figured I’d need the amperage.
I have no idea what the amperage output is.
