Tamiya Batteries

[astranaut]

Recently had the urge to dig out my Tamiya stuff, and discovered all my batteries are dead. They're pretty ancient Tamiya 7.2v, 1400mAh whatever that means? Could do with a recommendation for a few new ones, nothing special, it's still on the standard brushed motor and esc. Just something that will last more than 30 seconds for the kids. Cheers guys

[frogeyes]

I’m in the same boat

Be interested to see what can be done these days with batteries

[pauly22]

Lipo batteries are the new thing. But there are a number of occasions of them bursting into flames.

[Midas]

It depends on the model as to what they will take, When my kids got into RC about 15 years ago NiMH 3300mah packs were easily available. That would give you 20-30 minutes at full chat on a fairly standard 540 motor.

[Rich]

Oct 28, 2019 18:43:01 GMT pauly22 said:

Lipo batteries are the new thing. But there are a number of occasions of them bursting into flames.

I do wonder how out of control the horror stories of them blowing have got. Phones, tablets, Bluetooth speakers, power tools, etc have had lithium tech batteries on for years and years. I suspect the people who have had problems have, on the whole, mistreated them When charging. I’m sure genuine incidents have happened, And I would think it’s with the super douper mega performance million gigawatt quad copter batteries, but I think there is a also lot of strange scaremongering. I run small 1400 and 2200 MAH lipos in my garden rail locos, but they are always charged under supervision with a charger meant for the batteries, never left connected longer than necessary and I’ve not had issues. My latest thing with one is funnily enough using a 2000mha 7.something lipo in a WPL B36, again, same rules will apply. Treat them carefully, and you should have no issues coupled with great runtime, recharge life, shelf life and longevity

[caprijake]

Honestly go for a LIPO battery, youll need a new charger as well. But these are pretty cheap these days.
The problem with getting a lipo is you shouldnt let the cells go lower than 3v per cell. 4.2V is fully charged.

If your ECU doesnt have a cut off, youll need some way of telling the battery is low. You can get a cheap battery voltage reader that pugs into the balance pins on the battery and will beep when it gets to the minimum battery, telling you to stop.

LIPO is SOOO much better than nicad /nimh batterys. You'll get so much longer out of the battery and put it away charged and pull it out years later, its still going to work.

I wouldnt worry about explosions. But there are lipo sealed battery pouches you can buy recommended to be used when charging.
As long as you don't go above 4.2V or below 3.0v your good.

Jake

[pauly22]

Oct 29, 2019 7:55:41 GMT Rich said:

Oct 28, 2019 18:43:01 GMT pauly22 said:

Lipo batteries are the new thing. But there are a number of occasions of them bursting into flames.

I do wonder how out of control the horror stories of them blowing have got. Phones, tablets, Bluetooth speakers, power tools, etc have had lithium tech batteries on for years and years. I suspect the people who have had problems have, on the whole, mistreated them When charging. I’m sure genuine incidents have happened, And I would think it’s with the super douper mega performance million gigawatt quad copter batteries, but I think there is a also lot of strange scaremongering. I run small 1400 and 2200 MAH lipos in my garden rail locos, but they are always charged under supervision with a charger meant for the batteries, never left connected longer than necessary and I’ve not had issues. My latest thing with one is funnily enough using a 2000mha 7.something lipo in a WPL B36, again, same rules will apply. Treat them carefully, and you should have no issues coupled with great runtime, recharge life, shelf life and longevity

Yeah. I have no experience with LiPo myself, I’ve still got my tamiyas I had as a kid so I follow some Facebook tamiya pages where it does come up with people having fires from LiPo’s, Seen a couple of people claim there garden shed has burned down with all their cars etc in

so it’s just worth being a bit more cautious with them compared to a normal battery.

Like you say it’s probably more down to how they are treated and charged that caused the fire and the quality of the battery too.

I’ll be getting lipos in a couple of years when my son is old enough to play with RC cars.

[VW]

I have a load of old tamiya and have recently gone over to lipo. They are much better, but with tamiya there are a couple of possible issues.
Tamiya battery compartments quite often don't fit lipo. You can buy soft case lipo and they should fit, but hit a stone and pierce it and it will go up in flames. Alot of tamiya have exposed batteries.
Very few hard case lipos fit, but some do. Problem is you cant really find one battery that will fit all tamiya cars so you end up having to modify the batteries or the cars to make them fit.

Most lipo come with better plugs than the tamiya ones so you may need to change those too.

However, lipos are great, last ages and more punch too.

[AJB]

If you're just trying to get your old kit going then I'd personally stick with Nimh. Really cheap, works with old chargers, fits in battery compartment, less risk of fire even if you do something stupid with it.

You want something 7.2V (so that that's the same as before). The 1400mAh is basically how much charge it holds. Bigger number will last longer on a charge. Even the really cheap ones now are bigger than 1400mAh. I've got a couple of these:

www.jadlamracingmodels.com/overlander-2000mah-7-2v-nimh-battery-pack-stick-tamiya-rc-car-boat/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi4e_kZTT5QIViLHtCh0YdA6dEAQYASABEgLp4PD_BwE

Worth noting that I think these are a tiny bit shorter than the original Tamiya packs, and I think the higher capacity ones (ie bigger mAh numbers) are a tiny bit longer, so watch out going for a huge one if your car is tight for battery space.

And enjoy!! I revived my old 80s Fox last year - took me right back! Great fun!!