Originally Posted by BrownEyedFool

You're the one I need to thank, I saw a post about this method of carrying and keeping 1S cells warm a week or two ago, and followed your lead. Tin card case with a clear plastic window in the front from Lowe's? I bought one based on your description, ran a strip of fine velcro across the middle of it, and now use it to carry my lipos when I walk away from my car/the flight line. Holds 9 Lipos, fits in a coat pocket very nicely.

Isn't it great! There is so much common over the counter stuff that you can adapt to this hobby with a little thought. It was winter flying that made me think of it.....just pack a bunch of Lipos with you in something slim and fireproof. You need a bunch of lipos in cold weather to keep your UMs airborne because of the shorter flight times. I had received a Lowes gift card from the In-laws in the tin and the first thing I thought was......forget the card, what a perfect battery box! (Of course I did not say that out loud in front of the In-Laws!)

I use the little altoids candy tins for mine. Lee

Originally Posted by leethetreeguy

I use the little altoids candy tins for mine. Lee

Is there no danger of shorting out when putting them in a tin can?

Originally Posted by WSEN

Is there no danger of shorting out when putting them in a tin can?

No....if you look at the micro plug on your Lipos the contacts are fully encased but you can see the embeded contacts from the top of the plug.
The only 1S Lipos I have ever had short out were the ones that the white plug encasement sheared off in cold weather after not so delicate contact with mother earth. Then they start smoken baby when those two contacts touch! They will melt their way down through the snow
And at that point the Lipo is trashed.

Just in case....you space them out in the tin box on velcro that you glue to the bottom of the box. I face the lipos one way in the box when fully charged and then face them the opposite way when they are spent . And get rid of any damaged ones.
I have been carrying 4 250mAh Lipos plus 8 150 & 160s all crammed into my Lowes gift card tin box with no problems. [thank you In-Laws!}

Hope that helps

I put the battery holder from a crashed mSR landing gear on the T-28 the other day. Much nicer than the velcro IMHO, and it lets me use the lipos on both aircraft.

Cost nothing, perfect CG every time, and there's no way the battery will shift in flight. Works great.

- Mark

Originally Posted by 4x4rc

I put the battery holder from a crashed mSR landing gear on the T-28 the other day. Much nicer than the velcro IMHO, and it lets me use the lipos on both aircraft.

Cost nothing, perfect CG every time, and there's no way the battery will shift in flight. Works great.

- Mark

Now that is pretty slick! What size lipos can you use with it? I switch back and forth between 160 mAh and 250s on the UM T-28 (on actually all my UMs except the UM Mosquito).

Originally Posted by F18

Now that is pretty slick! What size lipos can you use with it? I switch back and forth between 160 mAh and 250s on the UM T-28 (on actually all my UMs except the UM Mosquito).

I have 120s, 150s, and 160s and they all fit. Basically the length doesn't matter but width and height do. The wider 270s won't fit.

I havn't seen a battery that is bigger than 160mah that will fit that holder. But, there are others and other ways of doing it. Just have to get creative guys. It is your plane, have fun. Lee

Originally Posted by 4x4rc

I put the battery holder from a crashed mSR landing gear on the T-28 the other day. Much nicer than the velcro IMHO, and it lets me use the lipos on both aircraft.

Cost nothing, perfect CG every time, and there's no way the battery will shift in flight. Works great.

- Mark

The Miniaviation.com 25C 190mah cell fits the holder. I get at least ten minutes out of one in my mSR.

One of these cells has regularly yielded a good 20 minutes' flight time in warmer weather in the UM T-28 and close to a half hour in my HZ Champ...mind you, that's scale type flying at half throttle a lot of the time, not WOT.

I like the idea of using that holder in my 1S planes, avoids the annoyances of Velcro and would also make all of my 190mah batteries interchangeable between fixed wing and helicopter. My compliments for thinking that up!

I recant what I said. Yes, I agree, the MA 190's work just fine in that holder. I can confirm that as of this very moment. Lee

Just did some UM flying with a few friends at work this morning. Cold with temps in the low 40's. They were using the Eflite 120's and 150's and could only muster two to three minutes of flight time before the batteries died. I was using the Hyperion 160's and the cold weather didn't appear to effect battery performance very much at all. I think they have realized the extra couple bucks for the Hyperions are well worth the cost difference.

I just ordered some of those MA190's via Ebay, since it looks like my original mcx2 batteries from almost a year ago, converted to UM plane use, are finally dying. They act like they are charged, to 4.20 and stop, but under the load of the plane (only 17 -20 mah/min or so) they have no power.

I think my venom has a discharge function on it which tracks mah out, and I'm hoping that will serve as a way to let me test the remainder of these little batteries to sort the still-good from the weak and needing to be disposed.

Every since I started running MA190's, all my other batteries sit in storage. Lee

Originally Posted by ATC Chilli

Just did some UM flying with a few friends at work this morning. Cold with temps in the low 40's. They were using the Eflite 120's and 150's and could only muster two to three minutes of flight time before the batteries died. I was using the Hyperion 160's and the cold weather didn't appear to effect battery performance very much at all. I think they have realized the extra couple bucks for the Hyperions are well worth the cost difference.

There is another factor here that should be considered.

Although lipo cells perform poorly in cold weather, it is also possible that the low voltage detection circuitry in the receivers is temperature sensitive.

Has anyone ever put one of their micro aircraft in a freezer to determine if LVC is the same when the electronics are hot or cold?

Originally Posted by Martyn McKinney

There is another factor here that should be considered.

Although lipo cells perform poorly in cold weather, it isl also possible that the low voltage detection circuitry in the receivers is temperature sensitive.

Has anyone ever put one of their micro aircraft in a freezer to determine if LVC is the same when the electronics are hot or cold?

Not intentionally......but I left some planes in my trunk overnight last winter after unloading everything else (ie. TX, Lipo box and coffee mug.). It did get down below 20 that night.

When I retrieved the planes the next morning I bench tested one of them to make sure I did not do something stupid. I did not detect any early LVC using the batteries that were at room temperature on a cold plane. So I would say that the cold weather does not effect the circuitry.

I think the early LVC in cold weather can be attributed to both the drop in cold battery efficiency and the increase load from the ice cold electric motors......including the ones driving the micro servos.......the prop is also cutting through very cold dense air increasing the load.

Does that make sense?