[klasskote]

Hi

I recently purchased an E-Flite J3 Cub 25 ARF. The Battery I ended up with is a 10 cell 12.0V 1800mah NI-MH( Eflite # EFLB4010 ). Anyone know what the ends are? I thought it was a Tamiya end but it seems to accept bullet plugs.

My dilemma ( and frustration ) is that my old "Juice" charger for my Clodbuster is a fast charge for NiCad. It has the Tamiya ends. I want to use it to charge the Ni-MH ( is that okay?). But I suspect I need to create custom plug for the charger so that it has bullet ends.

The J3 Cub requires the Power 25 motor, the 40 amp EFlite controller ( both of which I bought). But there really are next to NO instructions on hooking up the wiring. Everyone suggests deans ultra connectors. Okay...so do I then have to find a charger with deans connectors? Or do I simply cut the ends off a perfectly good charger and solder on deans?

Anyone who can answer that has experience with setting up/wiring Electric ARF's would be appreciated.

Lastly, EFlite recommends the Power 25 but if flying with floats (which I have ordered) the tech support guys at Horizon Hobby recommend that I use a Power 32 and then use two 4200mah LiPo's in serial. Thats going to be expensive. And does EFlite have a serial connector for connecting two LiPo's like this?

Confused...and trying to patiently try Electric....

Gordon

ps. I do eventually plan to go to the LiPo battery on this plane but the dealer only had the 10 cell Ni-MH in stock so I went with that.

[rscamp]

Gordon. I'm not sure that you have a perfectly good charger. What is a "juice" charger? Never heard of it. Please provide a link or details.

You don't buy a charger with the connectors on. You buy a charger and put on the connectors you want or need. Deans Ultra is a good choice.

You don't say how many cells are in the "recommended" packs.

Please try to provide as much information as possible, otherwise it is difficult (or at least, time-consuming) to to fill in the gaps and provide help.

You have lots of choices to power this airplane. I suggest you do some research. This is a good start: http://ww.eme.ca/eflightwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

[klasskote]

Hi

The Charger is called the "Juice Machine" and was designed to charge 7.2 volt batteries (I think 2200 mah but will check) for my ClodBuster. The charger takes 20-30 minutes to charge. It has the Tamiya end on it.

I will check the specs on it ( its not at home).

Thanks for the LINK...will check it out tonight.

The EFLB4010 battery is 10 cell. The E-Fliute docs recommend a 3 cell 11.1v 4200 mah Li Po battery (Thunderpower THP42003S2PPL)

Thanks for your help and patience, its appreciated!

Gordon

[rscamp]

Gordon.

I know the recommended packs are 10 and 3-cell respectively for the stock setup but you don't say what number of series cells they recommended in each pack for use with the "Power 32" motor.

Stay away from Tamiya connectors. They have high resistance and deteriorate badly with age.

I used the search term "Juice Machine" + battery + charger and didn't come up with anything worthwhile. If it is a fixed-voltage charger, it is not useable in this application. You need to get a settable, adjustable hobby charger for the various battery chemistries, charge rates and number of cells you are likely to use.

[Squidbait]

Gordon,

Back to front - I don't think your charger is up to the job... it's only got voltage for a 6-cell pack. It might, given enough time, get your 10 cell pack charged, but I don't think it would give a good charge.

If you're serious about going lipo later on, rather than get a charger that will just do the 10 cell pack, you'd be better off getting one that will do lipos and NiMH, like an MRC superbrain.

The connector on your pack seems to be a new E-Flite proprietary connector called an EC3. You can stick with that, or you can chuck it in favour of a Deans, which a lot of people do.

Let us know how the cub flies on the NiMH. If the flight time is decent, it would be an inexpensive alternative to Lipos. My worry is that guys are getting 8-10 minutes on 2100 Lipos, you may see ~5 min max on the NiMH.

As for the Power 25 vs the Power 32, I'm not sure. Everything I've seen suggests the 25 has lots of power, but that's on lipos. The other problem is that the Power 32 is probably going to draw more than the 25, and I don't think the NiMH pack is going to be up for that, or if it is, you'll see very short flight times.

[skyhog]

Buy a charger that will do lipos and Nimh thats the way to go...
I think you have to work this backwards..How much flying time are you looking for? With your existing components and depending on the prop you pick you are looking at very short flight times.

1800 mah Bat /35000 mah draw(35amps) =0.051x60=3.06 min of run time

Cheers

[Canhos]

I have talked to a couple guy's with these Cubs. One had bought a "32" for it, but exchanged it for the smaller "25". I asked him why, and he said the 25 had lots of power, and the 32 required alot of "bodywork" to get it to fit.

The other had a 25, and said it would go vertical.

As far as connectors go, I'd swap out to the Deans connectors. If you want to have multiple connectors on a charger, either make adaptors to your charger, or have several connectors on your charger.

If you are serious about getting Lipos, you will need a new charger, and you can get one that will do em all for around 125 nowadays. Or watch for a used one here.