Not enough cooling on batteries in FW A10

[ablesrc]

Is any body else having trouble with batteries really getting hot in the FW A 10?
I live in the Dallas area and the ambient temp can get hot , However today it was in the lo 80s. On the maiden flight I went to wot on take off then backed down to 1/2 for most of the 4min. flight. By the way this A10 is outstanding.
2nd. flight was only 31/2 min. with two times at wot for about 30 sec. Batteries still got too hot.
It looks to me there is not enough opening in the right place to allow cooling air to pass through the battery compartment.
I'm looking for ways to get more cooling through the battery compartment with out detracting from the good looks.

Thanks

Ron

[xviper]

I've been following the FW A-10 stuff fairly closely and this is the first reported case of hot batteries. I suppose "hot" can mean different things to different people when it comes to LiPos. Also, what kind of batteries are you using? Brand? "C" rating? 30 second WOT bursts can be quite a draw if the batteries aren't able to keep up (C rating), since ESCs generally will have "burst" ratings of only around 10 seconds. My SebArt Mig 29 is a hovering EDF and when I practice hovering, the battery comes down quite hot (my interpretation), but doing the same with newer, higher C rated batteries (like Graphenes), they come down very warm. Even when the batteries got hot, they didn't seem to suffer. I continue to use those ones (Admiral Pros) since last year and they are still working well.

[Mike_Then]

Is any body else having trouble with batteries really getting hot in the FW A 10?
I live in the Dallas area and the ambient temp can get hot , However today it was in the lo 80s. On the maiden flight I went to wot on take off then backed down to 1/2 for most of the 4min. flight. By the way this A10 is outstanding.
2nd. flight was only 31/2 min. with two times at wot for about 30 sec. Batteries still got too hot.
It looks to me there is not enough opening in the right place to allow cooling air to pass through the battery compartment.
I'm looking for ways to get more cooling through the battery compartment with out detracting from the good looks.

Thanks

Ron

Mine come down warm but I wouldn't call them hot. When you say 'hot', what's the temperature of the batteries? Are they too hot to hold your hand on for more than a few seconds? If you use a temp gun, what was the number?

But to answer your question, check out the A-10 thread on RC Groups. We're trying to keep an Index of common questions/solutions and crxmanpat has some excellent photos of mods he made to keep his batteries cool. Links are in the first post.

[crxmanpat]

My batteries were coming down hot as well, one reading was 145°, but that was after a longer than intended flight as I had forgot to set my timer and only had 4% left in the packs. My cooling mods that Mike posted to above do seem to help though.

[F106DeltaDart]

Check out this cooling mod on RCG, one of the early reviewers did it and it helped significantly: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...postcount=4626. BTW, I'm around the area and haven't had any cooling issues, but most of my flights have been pretty low on throttle usage, and have been done in the evenings. Might have to consider this mod eventually when I start flying mine in the middle of the day.

[ablesrc]

Hey . Thanks for the info and the cooling mods. I didn't notice any extra cooling intake . I think I will open up the inflight fueling port maybe with a blow in door or something like that.

[crxmanpat]

I did something similar. Details are on this post.

[401 FOOT CEILING]

Maybe a variable size one of these or smaller ones on each side of the fuse...

[xviper]

Maybe a variable size one of these or smaller ones on each side of the fuse...

Shouldn't that point the other way and be an "exit" since the batteries are forward of that area? If that's the "entry", what is it cooling and where's the exit? The ESCs are in the airstream of the fans, no? (I haven't unboxed mine yet.)

[crxmanpat]

The A-10 in the picture is obviously not the new FW version. The batteries for the FW are in the nose, so any cooling entry needs to be up there. I used the refueling door as an entry point. You could also hollow out the cannon and use that.

[crxmanpat]

Sorry, forgot to attach pics of my cooling mod.