lipo's in a D4

[quincey]

im about to purchase some trakpower lipo's for my D4,ive seen lipo's in a BJ4 and B44's so im assuming they will go straight in
and which ones should i get 3200 or 4800's

[rc_penguin]

I know a bloke at faversham with a d4, he has the 3200 ones in his and the look like they go straight in

[MATTY]

To allow them to fit you will need to insert some spacers under your rear top deck.

[mark christopher]

Originally Posted by MATTY

To allow them to fit you will need to insert some spacers under your rear top deck.

only the 4800 saddles the 3200 fit straight in

[telboy]

You will have to modify the battery braces a little though and fiddle around with raising the posts.

[bjcaldwe]

I run a 3200 in mine. I cut the cell "nubs" off the battery straps so they lay flat. Then I put a few piece to hold them a bit more securely in a hard hit.

[mark christopher]

just turn straps over, and file small flat on the body clip area, no post adjustment needed apaort from adjusting the nuts

[quincey]

thanks for the pictures,i now need to modify the connectors im using.

[tarcus]

Wotcher, I fitted 4800 mAH saddles to mine, pics on my flickr page in the radio controlled car set;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tarcus/sets/

They fit under the top deck fairly tightly and I used velcro fixed in the middle with some old servo horns to act as stops and as anchors for the velcro. If I had my time again I'd probably use something different for the central fixing as I had to drill 4 holes right in the centre, I'm hoping that won't weaken an area of fairly thin chassis material too much.

It's a little bit of a bodge, this is my first RC car build since I was 14 so I don't think I did too bad..

[bigred5765]

Originally Posted by mark christopher

just turn straps over, and file small flat on the body clip area, no post adjustment needed apaort from adjusting the nuts

sounds painfull, though sometimes a tweak on the nuts can be quiet secure feeling.

[tarcus]

Originally Posted by tarcus

...I used velcro fixed in the middle with some old servo horns to act as stops and as anchors for the velcro. If I had my time again I'd probably use something different for the central fixing as I had to drill 4 holes right in the centre, I'm hoping that won't weaken an area of fairly thin chassis material too much.

.. in fact right now I thought of a better method of fixing the velcro in the middle, just put it under the chassis central section and fix it in place with a piece of velcro stuck under the chassis as it only needs to hold it in position when the batteries are being removed. Why didn't I think of that before..

[jim76]

Mark
I'm thinking of getting a couple of 3200's for my D4 over the winter. They seem to slot in yours pretty easy. Couple of questions if possible;
1 - what do you use to prevent sideways movement of the cells, to stop them sliding against the centre drive shaft etc? Or are the just clamped down tight?
2 - How are they connected in the car? I must admit i've never actually seen a pack in use! It looks like you have little corally plugs going into the cell, is that right?

cheers

[mark christopher]

got a strip of lead under the prop shaft then i either tape em to the strap on use some trackpower ones

[tarcus]

Originally Posted by jim76

2 - How are they connected in the car? I must admit i've never actually seen a pack in use! It looks like you have little corally plugs going into the cell, is that right?

Banana-plug style connectors on the top, 4mm diameter, you can see them on my photo pages (see .sig) on the wiring closeup, and the 4800 cells certainly come with a ready-made connector cable to go between the cells, not sure if the smaller cells come with the same. On the 4800 pack the packs are so large the supplied lead can't be used as the plugs are too tall to fit under the bodyshell, so I had to wire some leads up to run close to the pack, you may find the lead plugs, if supplied with the smaller packs, are also too large to fit under the shell, hopefully Mark can confirm that, I don't see the supplied lead in the photos above.

If you do get some, note that the cells are contained in a bling plastic gold coloured box, this is held together with a flimsy transparent plastic film that is easy to tear, and is easy to mistake for a protective film intended to be removed before use! Don't remove it unless you have to, shouldn't need to with the smaller packs but I removed it for mine to help it fit under the chassis centre rail. The 4800 boxes split apart down the middle but don't come apart easily so I wasn't worried about removing the film.

[peetbee]

Originally Posted by tarcus

If you do get some, note that the cells are contained in a bling plastic gold coloured box, this is held together with a flimsy transparent plastic film that is easy to tear, and is easy to mistake for a protective film intended to be removed before use! Don't remove it unless you have to, shouldn't need to with the smaller packs but I removed it for mine to help it fit under the chassis centre rail. The 4800 boxes split apart down the middle but don't come apart easily so I wasn't worried about removing the film.

It's only clear heatshrink, like you can get for nimh packs, so you can easily replace it if required.

[mark christopher]

corally 4mm connectoer and the balance is 2mm. trakpoer do sell the plugs/sokets seperatly, just make sure what ever you use it a nice tight fit
stick pack clear heat shrink is all the film is, it protects the gold and also makes the pack case stronger

[bjcaldwe]

I redid my setup for my 3200s. I cut some strips of brass for under the rear input shaft, and drilled a hole in them and counter sunk the bottom of the chassis. That way I can add or remove weight. I then used an idea from a friend of mine and put velcro on the bottom of each cell, and some on the ribs of the cell slots. It looks like it will hold pretty good.

[discostu]

can someone tell me the measurment between the top of the lower deck and the bottom of the upper deck so i can compare diffrent lipos for best fit and performance.

stu rand