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I shouldn't stir up interest yet - the jury is still out on them. The cells I got were for an electric r/c airplane, and were pulled out of surplus cell phone battery packs.
Lithiums are more dangerous to work with, as I understand they can melt down if pushed too far. But after running them through a few charges seem ok on the x. My concerns are that they are about 8.4v fully charged - what will that do to the esc long term? It does not get warm, so I hope it is ok. The motor is another matter. I thought it would have hurt the esc and not the motor! But that is good because motors are cheap, and we may see modifieds some day.
The packs have a tiny circuit which limits current draw (2 or 3 amps) and shorts, so of course I removed that! So the cells may not last long (I paid $4 per pair - a pair is 8.4v - so I don't mind burning out a few). That allowed me to snap them into single AA holders from Radio Shack - one on each side. Since they are longer that AAA, I had to trim away the plastic on the front battery box, and move the rx and esc up higher. It is getting pretty ugly. But the AA holders are on their sides, so I can change batteries without romoving the body!
Two lithiums and the holders are still lighter than the 6-cell pack, and have about 850mah capacity. But the discharge curve is not as level as nimh, so the voltage drops while using. And you have to be very careful not to run them down too much or a cell can be damaged (that little circuit takes care of that by cutting out).
All that just to say it is not for the faint of heart, may be hard to obtain, and may damage your car. So let me get a new motor in this thing and continue testing before saying much more!
Pics will have to wait 'till I get a camera rigged up. Just imagine a fat AA cell on each side, the side and front plastic removed from the battery "box", and the esc and rx mounted over the batteries to avoid hitting the steering works.
There are some other mods, too. But nothing interesting.
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