leaderhobby LiPo packs? Has anyone experience with?

[competitions]

I have no idea how well LH would respond but I tried their chat window and this is what they said, so it may be worth trying asking them technical questions directly just to see if you get responses and if they are accurate.

Not taking away from HK, but having competition from LH could be really good for ES members.

Shirley14:15:02
Usually when there are techniacl question , we'll translate it to Chinese and then send to our engineer

[liveforphysics]

I don't think LiMn is capable of outputting 20C. I believe that involves cobalt being involved.
I have never heard of a 20C RC Lipo battery being this light. Not even the very expensive stuff.
I do wonder if there is a typo there. But yes, you are correct. It seems to be a higher wHr/KG than all the other lipo, including the yellow/gold label 'bullistorm' stuff.

I can't find a 5S version for a direct comparison, so let's do the math.

340g / 4S = 85g per cell.

85g x 5 = 425g per 5S pack.

5s 5AH would then be 425g per cell, versus the typical RC lipo weight of 640-655g for 20C 5S 5AH.

5S 5AH x 2 = 850g for 10AH.

That would be notably lighter than the li-Mn stuff i am drooling over.

http://www.bullistorm.com/
The official bullistorm page doesn't seem to list any 20C batteries.
Something does smell fishy here, you wanna be the guinea pig on this one?

Remember the blue LiPo packs from RCtoyz or whatever that shop was in the US also had some tremendous energy densities claimed on the site. The folks that bought them got cells that weren't even close to claimed capacities, and were saggy turds to ride on.

With just applying a sticker, you can call a 4Ah 20C cell a 5Ah cell 30C cell.

[parabellum]

Something does smell fishy here, you wanna be the guinea pig on this one?

Have 2 on the way here since the tread started and they was in stock.

[adrian_sm]

The pick of the cells from my glance at them would be the KingMax 5200mah 35/50C packs.
Work out at $0.37/wh, nice thick discharge leads. These are the ones I would order if I was to take a chance on them.

https://www.leaderhobby.com/product.asp?ID=9394001223784
https://www.leaderhobby.com/product.asp?ID=9394001223783

[parabellum]

With just applying a sticker, you can call a 4Ah 20C cell a 5Ah cell 30C cell.

Good idea, will print and apply 6Ah 40C sticker on one and see if they start acting differently.

[adrian_sm]

See below for a comparison in a similar price range ($/wh) from HobbyKing, which we have a lot more data on. Given Luke's comment on b-grade packs being relabelled and resold, I would probably stick with the HobbyKing alternatives that I have experience with and trust.

LeaderHobby
KingMax5200mah 35C 14.8V 4s Max 50C, $0.37/wh
KingMax5200mah 35C 6s 22.2V Max 35C, $0.37/wh

HobbyKing
Turnigy 5000mAh 4S1P 14.8v 20C hardcase pack, $0.31/wh
Turnigy 5000mAh 5S 20C Lipo Pack, $0.39/wh
Turnigy 5000mAh 6S 20C Lipo Pack, $0.40/wh
Turnigy 5000mAh 4S 20C Lipo Pack, $0.41/wh

Turnigy nano-tech 5000mah 6S 25~50C Lipo Pack, $0.56/wh (cheapest Turnigy Nano-Tech I found)

[parabellum]

Thanks Adrian!
You are tha MAN! I was dreaming about such excel table for Lipos, never got time to make it!
I have over 50 4s5Ah hard cases and dozens of others already and happy with hobbyking quality.

We do not have any specific picture of those new lipos, same like hobbyking years ago, but pioneers, beta testers, guinea pigs made of hobbyking what it is now. Who don't risk, don't drink champagne.

Test results cumming soon!

[parabellum]

Mystery solved!

I got my 2x 4s 5000mAh 15C Bullistorm batteries today and started testing. I already finished testing.

Those suckers only delivered 2497mAh and 2409mAh at 1C discharge rate, less then 1/2 of promised capacity, I see no sense to make any more testing or post internal resistance, wight, size and other accumulated values, being clear they are just a ripoff!

Neptronix, if they still not processed your order, be wise to not order large quantity.

[neptronix]

those were the fake label bullistorm lipo, yes?
Time for a paypal claim for defective goods!!

Dude, I ordered nov 7th.. tracking # from 'swiss post' is still 'departed from origin country'.. not trackable by USPS yet, so it's still in China or on a boat. sea shipping from cell_man ( near shanghai, i think ) is faster than this..

In the meantime, i recieved a package from hobbyking China in 1 week.

Very glad that i only ordered 1 pack ...

When did you place your order? and what country did you ship to?

[adrian_sm]

Grinhill also got pretty crappy capacity from the packs he bought from leadershobby. 13Ah from a 20Ah configured pack. I think they were the Transmetic 4s packs 5Ah or 10Ah, but I could be wrong.

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=33113&start=30#p491193

I'm running it on 8S with some 10C packs I got from Leaders Hobby (cheapest lipo I could find, thanks to gfulton for the tip on that).

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=33113&start=30#p493797

As it turned out, the dodgy cells let me down. I ran out of time to run some more cycles on the packs, so I wasn't expecting great things from them. I ended up getting around 13 Ah from the 20 Ah packs. One cell went down to around 2.1V, the other 7 in the string were still hanging in there at around 3.6V. I was only monitoring one string, but I'm sure there was a similar story on the other one. I was secretly hoping for some flames shooting out the plywood side panels, but alas, my speed just dropped away.

[parabellum]

When did you place your order? and what country did you ship to?

05/11/11 to Dominican Republic

I hope those battery medics perform better, ordered 12 in next package.
I must say, the 4 in 1 monitor (came with lipos) is the coolest thing ever, now I can measure internal cell resistance in 2 sec. Under 3.7A, 7.2A and 1kHz 1.85A + it reads and displays graphs life when connected to charger eco eight (unfortunately not on Icharger).

Time for a paypal claim for defective goods!!

Will just start tormenting them via email for now.

[parabellum]

Grinhill also got pretty crappy capacity from the packs he bought from leadershobby. 13Ah from a 20Ah configured pack.

He would get a little more if not a dude cell.
In my case there are 4 dude cells in every 4s pack.

[adrian_sm]

I must say, the 4 in 1 monitor (came with lipos) is the coolest thing ever, now I can measure internal cell resistance in 2 sec. Under 3.7A, 7.2A and 1kHz 1.85A + it reads and displays graphs life when connected to charger eco eight (unfortunately not on Icharger).

What is a 4 in 1 monitor? Got a link?

[parabellum]

I must say, the 4 in 1 monitor (came with lipos) is the coolest thing ever, now I can measure internal cell resistance in 2 sec. Under 3.7A, 7.2A and 1kHz 1.85A + it reads and displays graphs life when connected to charger eco eight (unfortunately not on Icharger).

What is a 4 in 1 monitor? Got a link?

https://www.leaderhobby.com/product.asp ... 4001225374

[neptronix]

Well i'm a bit pissed now that this is a recurring theme. I can hear money being flushed down the toilet in the distance.

I'm usually the guy yelling at some newb telling him how dumb he is for even considering ordering ordering some off brand stuff from a site like this. But the thought of 180-200wHr/kG cells was too tasty to resist
Too bad a handful of us decided to play guinea pig as the same time, eh?

[Grinhill]

For the record, here's my experience with Leaders Hobby:

I ordered four of the Transmetic 4S 10Ah 10C packs a couple of months back for my competition bike, at that time they were only $32 each (which was even better than the $41).

However, I then received an email from a lady there saying that the parcel was too big to be posted but could I please send some more money!!!! I told her sorry no can do (had already paid around $40 for postage). By this time, the stock with 4mm connectors had disappeared, so I said just send ones with whatever type of connectors you can get.

No kidding, the email thread grew to 25 messages in total before I finally received the parcel about a month or so later. It ended up arriving via EMS. I stayed polite the whole time, but I came very close to lodging a dispute in Paypal.

Anyway, so far I still think it was a reasonable deal with the batteries, they were fine for this application which was to get the most W-hrs for the least $ (around 28c/W-hr including shipping). I was only using 30A discharge on an 8S 20Ah configuration (1.5C). I only got about 6.5 Ah out of 10Ah from them on the first really deep discharge (in the race), because one cell got down to 2.1V, no puffing though.

BUT, they all came up OK on recharge, the low cell even came up to 4.2V
Will report back after a few more cycles.

[gfulton]

I'm a little late to the party here... but I order 6 bullistorm 11.1V 10AH a couple of months ago. They were on special... the entire order with shipping came to $200. I've wired them to provide 22.2V 30AH. Every cell came between 4.05 and 4.10 volts, a little high, but they all seem to be healthy cells. Being late fall here, we already have snow on the ground, so I was not able to perform any real world observations as to their power delivery, ability to keep cells balanced (since I have 3 in parallel, weaker cells should be supported) etc.

When the warm weather hits we shall see, but so far they are exceeding my expectations.

[parabellum]

I've wired them to provide 22.2V 30AH

If were you, would perform discharge test to see how many amps are actually in. Will not be funny getting out of power on half of the expected way.

I capacity test every battery on arrival, this way I can instantly react and go back to seller if there is any problem. Imagine trowing battery's in the long box and discovering they are crap after a year. I do not see any seller taking seriously someone writing "Hey, I purchased in your store 3 Lipo packs a year ago, just got to test them and they are crap, give me my money back."

[BikeFanatic]

para, would you consider doing a brief review of that 4 in 1 monitor, Once you figure it out?

[parabellum]

para, would you consider doing a brief review of that 4 in 1 monitor, Once you figure it out?

Yes, will do that, just let me torment leaderhobby first. Will post link to review on this forum.

[parabellum]

para, would you consider doing a brief review of that 4 in 1 monitor, Once you figure it out?

here is the review.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=34154

[neptronix]

Would you believe it.. i am still waiting for the effin' things.. meanwhile i recieved other packages from hong kong in 6 business days ..

[parabellum]

I already received firs and last ordered packs, the one in the middle is missing, strange. Those battery medics are better then from HK.

[psycholist]

How are those battery medics better? Quality? Accuracy?

[parabellum]

How are those battery medics better? Quality? Accuracy?

They can be adjusted up to 4.2V on discharge limit (MKS Pro from HK only up to 4V), in 0.1V steps.
So if you set it to 4.1V 4 of them and connect to 24s battery (1 on each 6s) then push discharge buttons after a wile you have perfectly top balanced pack, since it discharges every cell separately.
Received 8 and 1 is of the values a little, about 0.02v in all directions (some cells higher, some lower). This is the first test candidate until I receive last 4 of them.