Need help with replacement battery

[HeliChopper]

I have a 1st generation Bladerunner and get about 10 seconds of flight before the battery starts to die. I've read some threads on here saying that I can replace the battery with a Kokam 340? My question is, will a replacement battery give me the same (or better) flight times as i would get if I just got a new blue/green Bladerunner from QVC or do the new ones have other improvements that increase flight time besides the battery?

Assuming a new battery would solve the problem, where's the best place to get one? I did a search online for Kokam 340 and found a bunch of places that sell it in 2-3 cell packs for $18-27. Can I get a two cell pack and take it apart and use one cell in my BR and have an extra cell to spare?
Thanks for the help. :o

[petter]

HeliChopper
If your motors are still OK (and they probably are) you will get much longer flight times with the Kokam. Just removing the blister body and moving the old battery forward to adjust the C.G. will help quite a bit (the 5.5 gram body is actually 10% of the weight). Several people have used a 2-cell Kokam pack that they have split. You can use the same charger, but you must remember to allways turn off the helicopter since the Kokam probably do not have a low-voltage protection. Flight times of 5-10 minutes have been reported with 1. gen helicopters and the Kokam.

Petter

[Kwok_Yu]

When people say they only get 10 seconds, I always wonder if it's the fail safe that is cutting the power. This is exactly what it does if the TX battery is extremely low. I would expect more like 30 seconds or 1 minute of run time from the old batteries. So do this simple test. Run the BR for its 10 second until it stops, then let it rest for 10 seconds. Then see if the rotor will run again. If it's the fail safe it will not run again. But it will run again if the BR is switched off and then back on.

[Tres Wright]

Flight times on the Kokam have been reported at 15+ minutes! My QVC gets 8-9 minutes on the stock battery, which is plenty for me in one sitting.

I highly recommend you avoid getting a multi-cell pack as the cells are difficult to separate and easily damaged. You can get individual cells here for 10 bucks:

http://www.allerc.com/index.php?cPath=3_4&sort=products_sort_order&page=2