Battery Size for Hobbyzone Sportsman S+

[julinick]

Hello Gents,

I just purchased the Hobbyzone Sportsman S+ and I'd like to purchase extra batteries. I've been trying to read up on Li-Po batteries on the web, 1s, 2s,3s etc.. etc.. My question is I have a 480 Brushless outrunner, 960Kv and 18A ESC, how much more mAh can I go so I don't burn anything up? It came with 3S 11.1V 1300mAh battery. Can someone please educate me on how to calculate something like this. Thanks.

[radioflite]

http://multicopter.forestblue.nl/lipo_need_calculator.html

This is a link that will help you understand and choose the proper Lipo.
Let me know if your still confused or need any help .
Once you understand it all , its quite sime.

[julinick]

Thanks radioflite. If I need help, i'll give you a shout.

[radioflite]

Sounds good
Always happy to help
The battery that comes with that airplane is a great match .
Motion RC also has the admiral Lipo battery line that I really like and there is one that will drop right in your sportsman!
I have an admiral pack in my T28 Trojan and it is a great quality Lipo.

[julinick]

radioflite,

My only question now is can the balance charger that came with plane charge the admiral battery? The Hobbyzone charger states it charges at 1.3A rate. The admiral battery charges at 3C and states and can be charged with most li-po chargers. I'm sure I can use the Hobbyzone charger correct?

[psustan]

I had the Sportsman back before they made it the S+ version, so I didn't have the GPS and all the gee-wiz autopilot features. Anyway, I used the 2200 mAh 3S batteries in it. They fit perfectly snug into the battery tray, and I could fly 12 minutes and still get down with 3.8V/cell or more. I use an in-flight voltage alarm that is set to beep at 3.7V with load. I would usually get tired of looking up and land well before the beeper went off.

If you are going to get several batteries, I would highly recommend getting a balance charger that lets you program the current, and show how many mAh are going back in, etc. Well worth it in the long run.

The only criticism I had for the Sportsman was the nose gear. It tends to bend back with hard landings. I eventually replaced it with the nose gear for the Apprentice, and put larger wheels on all around. The pants look nice, but are not well suited to a grass field.

[julinick]

Thanks psustain. I wanted to get a couple of 3S 2200mAh batteries but wasn't sure about the 35C that it being higher than the stock battery at 26C. Still trying to learn about li-po's, esc, motor and all that fun stuff. I read somewhere that as long as you have higher discharge rate than your stock battery it's fine. Please correct me if I'm wrong. My thinking was as long as it was 3S 11.1V like the stock battery and found one similar but a "larger gas tank" like 2200mAh than 1300mAh that would be fine. Lots of great info on here that's keeping me learning and getting close to that first maiden flight.

Thanks.

[psustan]

Thanks psustain. I wanted to get a couple of 3S 2200mAh batteries but wasn't sure about the 35C that it being higher than the stock battery at 26C. Still trying to learn about li-po's, esc, motor and all that fun stuff. I read somewhere that as long as you have higher discharge rate than your stock battery it's fine. Please correct me if I'm wrong. My thinking was as long as it was 3S 11.1V like the stock battery and found one similar but a "larger gas tank" like 2200mAh than 1300mAh that would be fine. Lots of great info on here that's keeping me learning and getting close to that first maiden flight.

Thanks.

Hey, It's Stan, not Stain! :@:D

So I used Turnigy 2200 mAh batteries that are rated "20-30C Discharge". Of course that begs the question "well which is it, 20 or 30?" The main idea is that if your battery C rating is too low, it will overheat trying to drive a high current. Higher C rating is never bad, but they cost more (both money and weight). Higher mAh capacity will get you longer flying times, but they add weight too, so you get diminishing returns at some point.

For this plane, you can cruise around nice and easy at half throttle. In fact it glides so well you can often cut throttle even lower (my son liked to get it up high and then switch to "glider" mode). Even when flying at high-rates and full throttle for acrobatics, I never had the battery get warm. I'm not sure if you could get a battery bigger than a 2200 to fit without cutting foam, but since 2200 gets you at least 12 minutes, I can't see any need for more.

Good luck with your maiden! It really is a docile airframe. The big high wing really makes it want to fly straight and level. And it is pretty rugged too, I cart-wheeled a landing and only got minor dings and scratches. Only weakness was that nose gear.

[julinick]

My apologies Stan. The Admiral 2200 will fit perfectly in the Sportsman. Thanks for the great info.