5s NIMH?

[butters86]

I had a 5000mah saddle pack and I melted the shrinkwrapdue to a dodgy old brushed motor and some over gearing and it's not worked properly since.

I've confirmed today one of the cells was faulty and had 0v so I removed it from the pack and resoldered to test if it would charge properly with 5 cells. It's charged up and is reading 5100mah @ 7.3V

Just gave it a quick go in the Buggy and it seems as fast as my 6s 4700mah stick pack I had been using.

Obviously it makes the car slightly lighter but the overall voltage is lower.

My question is, what would be the downside of running a 5s pack, would in theory the voltage just drop quicker and so the car would gradually just get slower, quicker than if it was a 6s pack? I'm going to get a couple of LiPo packs next month for racing but is it worth me buying a 5000mah cell to take it back up to a 6s pack or leave it as it is?

[magictorch]

In fact neil cragg won his 2wd world championsip title running on 5cells, if you like how ot feels then no real need to blow money you have planned for the lipo upgrade on old technology.

[mattr]

Adding a brand new cell to an old pack will leave it very unbalanced and probably performing very little better than your current 5s. Aged and new cells don't play well together.

You might have a weak cell in your other pack too, hence the limited performance difference between 5 and 6s

[ianjoyner]

Leave it as it is, it will run down a little quicker, but it will be fine on 5 cells.