Has anyone tried the new Aristo-craft Lithium Ion battery? (CRE-55610) I would like to install them in my SD-45’s. How about the charger (CRE-55620) Thanks
Walter,
Welcome to the forum.
As yet those parts you mentioned are not available.
All of us are waiting with baited breath to see how they turn out.
They sound as though they will be great, but until someone can actually test them properly they will remain just an intriguing possibility.
Tony Walsham (RCS).
Lithium Ion batteries are still very temperamental and can be destroyed by overcharging or overdepleting them. Special circuitry is required that shuts them off when they drop below a certain threshhold, and they must be protected against overcharging. They do produce more power for a longer period of time when compared to other technologies, such as NiMH batteries, but they remain expensive at the present time.
LSOL has posted an articl on LiIon batteries from Aristocraft. I do not subscribe to that list (just had to set limits). Has anybody had any experience with these?
Thank you
I bought 3 of the Li Ion batteries and a charger. The charger is a lightweight charger that takes about 4 hours to charge the battery. As of yet I haven’t really used any of them as I haven’t figured out how to hook up the 21.5 volt batteries to my 18 volt Airwire receiver. I have heard reports of the batteries going “bad” and needing to be replaced after a couple months of use. I suspect that in those cases the owner did something wrong to damage the battery or shorten their life. I can’t believe that a company like Aristocraft or Crest (the batteries manufacturer) would promote something that was substandard.
I installed one of the Aristocraft onboard recievers in a dash 9 a couple of weeks ago and am powering the engine with their litho batterys . This it my first battery powered locomotive . Anyway as far as I have observed the batterys are working perfectly so far. I pulled a 18 car double stack train last weekend continuiously with smoke going the whole time and all the lights on and the batterys lasted about a hour and a half or so . I don’t know if that is good or not cuz like I said this is my first battery loco but I was happy . I really love the low speed the train can achieve now . It really creaps along SLOW .
I have converted all of my motive power over to Lithium Ion batteries with virtually no problems whatsoever. Put very simply, they are lighter and provide a more stable output as they are used than other types of batteries making them perfect for model railroading applications. All the stuff about them blowing up and being tempermental may be true, but since virtually all mobile electronics devices and laptops now come standard with them, the problems can’t be too bad. My personal experience with them has been very good, and I couldn’t recommend them more. For those of you who are looking for them built in packs with the protection circuit already installed, here is a great place to get them…
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=841