UPGRADE TONGDE TANK BATTERY CHARGING QUESTION

[dai phan]

Hi all,

If I upgrade the stock TD battery to Admiral 3500 or 5000 mAh, what kind of battery charger will I need in order to charge through the tank’s charging port? Dai

[keilau]

Hi all,

If I upgrade the stock TD battery to Admiral 3500 or 5000 mAh, what kind of battery charger will I need in order to charge through the tank’s charging port? Dai

I magnetize the upper and lower chassis to allow easy access to the battery pack.

I use a SkyRC iMAX B6 mini charger because it was cheap and has good software. I can fully charge the 5000mAh 2S26650 pack in less than 4 hours.

Using the buildin balance charge port and the TD charger, it will take overnight to charge it up.

[quitcherbitchen]

My only tip and it doesn't matter which charger you get is to charge Li ion batteries at 1.75 amps. I never read the labels and charged them like my lipos ( for my Planes) which can handle and kinda need amps that equal the battery rating. So a 5000mah lipo I would charge at 5 amps. Li ion which is what the tanks use should only be 1.75 amps max unless your batteries are custom packs that use higher level 18650 or 21700 batteries. My custom built tank packs that use panasonic 25A can be charged much higher, but to conserve the batteries life span you should charge slower at the 1.75 amp range. My custom packs are using 21700 panasonic 25A batteries and can handle 6 amps fast charge which is ridiculously high and I would never risk it even if the specs on the battery say it can take it.

[keilau]

My only tip and it doesn't matter which charger you get is to charge Li ion batteries at 1.75 amps. I never read the labels and charged them like my lipos ( for my Planes) which can handle and kinda need amps that equal the battery rating. So a 5000mah lipo I would charge at 5 amps. Li ion which is what the tanks use should only be 1.75 amps max unless your batteries are custom packs that use higher level 18650 or 21700 batteries. My custom built tank packs that use panasonic 25A can be charged much higher, but to conserve the batteries life span you should charge slower at the 1.75 amp range. My custom packs are using 21700 panasonic 25A batteries and can handle 6 amps fast charge which is ridiculously high and I would never risk it even if the specs on the battery say it can take it.

It is an excellent recommendation for safety and battery longevity. The Mabuchi 380 motor used on 1/16 scale RC tanks draws very little current. I use low drainage, high capacity EBL Lithium Ion cells in my DIY pack. No need to use expensive premium cells. (High current cells are for vaping and very expensive.) However, avoid made-in-China no brand cell which hold only 10-15% of the capacity they printed on the package.

[keilau]

p.s. There seems to be an universal "sold out" of the EBL18500 Li-Ion battery. Even the EBL Official Website is out of them. I paid $2 a piece when I started using them 2 years ago and now they are $9 and unavailable. I still have a few 2S2P18500 packs in backup use. When I build new pack, I do 2S26650 as shown in post #2 of this thread. The 2S26650 is 5000mAh and can last a full day on the HL tank. The size fits the battery compartment of older HL perfectly. I use a cheap spot welder to build the packs. But a 45 watts iron and silver solder work equally well. You must be extra careful welding Li-Ion cells. Welding and soldering are safe, but any accident short circuit of the cells can cause a small fire.