Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Battery Type for Remote Controlled Toys


Your RC toys life depends very much on your battery. Each remote controlled toy is using different type of battery. I will try to describe all type of battery available now, and my next article will discuss on how to handling them for longer life-span.

Each RC Battery type has its own characteristics, such as voltages, chemical compositions, life-cycle and so on. Technology on batteries has evolved so much focusing on the main principle, which is to find a media that keep the energy as long as it can, safe for use and also for environment and has longer life-cycle.

So now we have better type of rechargeable batteries that we can use, especially for our beloved RC Model, but still every type has its own pros and cons.

Nickel Cadmium (NiCad or ni-Cd)


Some RC Car models are using Ni-Cd battery, each of them has 1.2V voltage. This kind of battery need to discharge fully before you wants to charge it, because it is said that the battery won’t be fully charged as a result. It's called memory-effect. Please purchase a battery discharger if you want to keep your battery longer.

Ni-Cd usually sold in package containing several soldered batteries - two or more, to form the voltage required by the application. Self discharge rate is about 10% per month.

Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH)


NiMH is the next generation of rechargeable battery, which comes with the same size and voltage like Ni-Cd, also sold in packaged according to the voltage they need to form. NiMH has more advantages than Ni-Cd as it has longer life cycle and safer for environment.

Disadvantage is its high self-discharge rate at about 30% per month, higher than Ni-Cd battery. But there are also available Low Self Discharge NiMH - introduced at November 2005 - which is having the lowest self discharge rate, that is 1,25% per month.

Lithium-ion Polymer (LiPo, Li-Poly, PLI, LiP, LIP, Li-Pol)


LiPo is the new technology of Lithium ion cells and some RC toys has been using it because of its light-weight reasons. Li-Po battery can be stored for about 1-2 months without losing charge significantly. But if you intend to keep it longer better discharge it to 40% of full charge capacity. I read somewhere that you can refrigerate it, but not freezing it.

Please be careful when charging Li-Po battery, as it becomes hazardous when you overcharged. This can cause explosion or fire. That is why some good charger manufacturer will stop charging process at about 90 minutes to prevent this thing.

Lithium-ion Battery (Li-on or LIB)

Lithium-ion has been widely used in consumer electronic, such as laptop, cell phone and in RC Toys as well. This battery has some advantages, light-weight, no memory effect, self discharge only about 5-10% per month, and a lot safer for environment. Disadvantages of Li-on is in it's cell life, cell's capacity reduce over time, because each charging form deposits inside  the electrolyte that inhibit ion transport.

Be careful when charge the unit, overheat or overcharge can lead to combustion. But some battery manufacturer already put fail-safe circuitry, that will shut down the battery when the voltage outside of the safe range (3 - 4.2V).

5 comments:

  1. This is a great blog posting and very useful. I really appreciate the research you put into it.
    Infotainment Lounge

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice and informative article ...you put lot of efforts...Thank you so much for sharing such an informative article..Blessed ..:-)

    jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your Blog is very nice and informative. Very interesting.
    I really like the valuable information you shared here and really appreciate the research you put into it. In RC Toys every thing is depend upon their battery and a battery of a quality really increases the worth and performance of toys.

    Regards
    Brett
    Find more info at Nitrotek

    ReplyDelete