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NCR18650B - The Future of RC Aircraft Batteries?

Posted by Trent at MyGeekShow on March 8, 2014 at 8:23am

NCR18650B: A Lithium Ion battery with a ton of promise! People say it has twice the energy per gram as LiPos... but is that true? Lets test it!

But it doesn't stop there! I want to know how to actually use this on an RC Aircraft, how to charge it, what it's maximum amp draw is, how many watt hours of power does it have, and in the end, can you actually use these on RC aircraft?

I think I've found the answers to these questions!

Battery: Panasonic NCR18650B
Grams per Watt Hours is 57% that of a typical LiPo
Pack Capacity: 3.3Ah (3,325mah)
Pack Voltage in 4S: 14.4v
Pack Power: 43 watt hours (personally tested with a watt meter)
Pack C-Rating: 2 (6amp max discharge rate)
Pack Cycles: Hundreds! I've not personally tested this, but this is the same chemistry as an iPhone, which can last years of daily use.

Buy the battery pack here: http://store.mygeekshow.com/product-p/3.3a-4s-2c-battery.htm

-Trent

geek, my, mygeekshow, show

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Comments

Craig Roberts March 9, 2014 at 5:58pm

Question on that...Would there still be a weight saving? How big/large/heavy would a supercapacitor have to be for 10+ min run times?
marco leal March 9, 2014 at 5:40pm

Quazimodo,

Regarding your comment on Li-Ion battery with low C and a supercapacitor, it is not new, Satellite technology works that way, all you need is a circuit to discharge the energy to the motors instead of the li-ion battery it self.
Craig Roberts March 9, 2014 at 2:48pm

How about a 2S for flight/Ignition packs.
Craig Roberts March 9, 2014 at 2:47pm
Quadzimodo March 9, 2014 at 2:29pm

Anyone interested in throwing-in on an order of GEB8043125s? Or would it be a nightmare reshipping them? I have never read the Material Safety Data Sheet that Lipos should technically be shipping with, but I assume most preferred carriers don't like them.
Rob_Lefebvre March 9, 2014 at 10:44am

The same power pack that flew my endurance tricopter for over two hours would not even lift my 3.5 kilo cameraship of the ground properly. Both used the same 395 kv multistar motors. with 17x5 props.

Well, of course. But you'd have to use 2 or 3 of the same packs in parallel to fly a copter of 2-3 times the weight.

I can fly my 500 heli on a single 4S5000 battery, but that same battery won't fly my 600.
Quadzimodo March 9, 2014 at 10:35am

Denny - The Dekacopter is any MR over 2kgs. NCR18650Bs in this airframe would be 6S20P. Hover current would be around 50A and max current would be around 100A, thus flight time would be over an hour. The NCR18650Bs would be under 1C rating at hover and under 2C at max in this configuration.
Moderator

Graham Dyer March 9, 2014 at 10:35am

The latest quad endurance record has been set, NOT with these NCR18650B cells but actually with a traditional LiPo battery (the first first few records were set with the 'B's).

The cell is called... GEB8043125, there's very little solid information about these cells but they are 6000mAh 20C weighing 85g per cell claiming 262Wh/kg rather than the 245Wh/kg of the 'B's.

I made some inquiries from one place but they want large order quantites (1000+ cells) and seem to be making on order only not ex stock.

here's one place: http://gebattery.en.alibaba.com/product/1659419185-215494297/High_r...
Denny Rowland March 9, 2014 at 10:11am

The same power pack that flew my endurance tricopter for over two hours would not even lift my 3.5 kilo cameraship of the ground properly. Both used the same 395 kv multistar motors. with 17x5 props.
Denny Rowland March 9, 2014 at 9:24am

OK for an endurance craft that is very light. Or say a motor glider but any MR over 2 kilos and it will not have enough power. even with 20 cells. maybe with a few supercaps.......