Re: [Aus-soaring] Hand Held Radio Battery

[Gary Stevenson]

Hi Erich,

Greetings! Hope you and the nipper are well.

 

You have supplied some very good information.

 

Regarding the rest of your email:

YES ... if you want to maximize the life of the batteries ... you really do
need a smart charger to charge your SLA (gel cell) batteries.

 

The charger you showed in your post is almost certainly OK, but I have no
idea what is BEST. Technically, you would need to draw up a specification to
match your exact needs, and then see what matches it.

 

[Of course I fully understand that when it comes to writing Specifications,
in many cases the exact opposite occurs: Find a product that MIGHT do the
job, and then write the specification to match that product description!
..A regular procedure in the 3rd world, especially if (large sums of),
money change hands. Funny about that good match! Of course such practices
would never happen in OZ, and in particular in Australian Tertiary Education
Centres .  would they? ]

 

Ross is keeping away from batteries being sold from China. I have no
experience of this, but modeller friends, use "Hobby King" -based  in Hong
Kong - extensively, with good results.  

 

If you want to go down the home-build route for your charger, you might want
to have a look at a kit. Altronics  - Perth based, but now with many outlets
- puts out a kit  No K1685. This can be built either as a 12V or a 6 V
system by changing a few components, all of which are supplied so that at
the end of the day you will have a few spare parts. I suspect that the
design comes from the  "Silicon Chip Magazine" people, so you can check out
their site too,  if interested in "best" parameters.

 

 I have not checked, but no doubt Altronics can  supply you with an adequate
kit to build a useable SLA battery tester too! However if you are regularly
doing 10 or more hours in a single flight, without battery depletion
problems, then I suggest that you do not need a battery tester.

 

Battery technology is currently changing rapidly.  There has been relatively
recent extensive discussion on this site, and I refer you to the archives,
for that mass of  information. It is very apparent that what is "cutting
edge" today, will be very shortly supplanted by something else tomorrow! On
p 64 of the March/April edition of Gliding International there is a note re
"Alternative for Lithium Batteries" where experiments are being done at
Virginia Tech in which sugar is being used to charge mini fuel cells, with
the ultimate aim of producing a biodegradable, high energy density, low
price, battery. Hmmm!

 

I use very ordinary SLA batteries (2No 7Ah in parallel, with a 7Ah back-up
tail battery),  in my glider, and at this point in time see no reason to
change to something more exotic:  Much more expensive, and potentially much
more hazardous. However if you have a battery weight problem then go for it.
Did I mention that I had a  failure of ALL my (very old), batteries at the
same time in an October 2013 flight? Very interesting: Sh*t happens! So much
for back-up! (Note: The mechanical Sage vario worked OK.) All these
batteries were replaced via 2 local  eBay sources, both of which provided a
12 mth warranty on their high quality, brand-name product: Incredibly cheap,
about $60 total - including "free" freight in both cases. Absolutely no
problems to date, and I would expect 4 - maybe 10 years tops, life from
these batteries, with maybe 400 full recharges in that time period.

 

Regards,

Gary

 

From: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net
[mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] On Behalf Of Erich
Wittstock
Sent: Tuesday, 11 March 2014 3:25 PM
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Hand Held Radio Battery

 

First up the fishing rod:
..it is 2014
After a long debate - they did put the internet on computers. ;-)
There is a handy search engine that works in a web browser - it is called
Google.
can be found at: http://www.google.com.au
type in "FNB-64" into the search.
and on the first page you will find something like
  this.

..and

here is a fish.

You could get really adventurous and do a search on Ebay
 

and get a result such
  as this.

 

And now let's make this thread a bit more interesting:

I would like to find out about the Ebay experience of the people on this
mailing list with purchases such as batteries for hand held radios?

And: what are people using to charge their SLA glider batteries (wha

Re: [Aus-soaring] Woodstock weak link

[Gary Stevenson]

Send an email request to the Bendigo Gliding Club, marked to the attention
of Mal Bennet, and I am sure you will get your answer.

Phone the club on a weekend if you  are really desperate. All contact
details are on the GFA web site.

 

Gary

 

From: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net
[mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] On Behalf Of Christopher
McDonnell
Sent: Tuesday, 11 March 2014 1:05 PM
To: aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net
Subject: [Aus-soaring] Woodstock weak link

 

Hi all,

 

I have tried to find out what the Woodstock aerotow weak link should be but
cannot find anything. There is no woodstock in the GFA data sheets either.

I hope somebody can help.

 

Regards

 

Chris

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Re: [Aus-soaring] Woodstock weak link

[Morgan]

The US glider manufacturers never put a weak link specification in their
manuals because the FAA specifies the correct weak link to be used in the
Part 91 regulations. I think they do it to give the pilot something to talk
about - nobody talks about weak links nearly as much as the Americans.

 

The regulation says that the weak link strength must be between 80% and 200%
of the weight of the glider. Pretty simple really.

 

-  Morgan Sandercock

 

 

From: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net
[mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] On Behalf Of Christopher
McDonnell
Sent: Monday, 10 March 2014 7:05 PM
To: aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net
Subject: [Aus-soaring] Woodstock weak link

 

Hi all,

 

I have tried to find out what the Woodstock aerotow weak link should be but
cannot find anything. There is no woodstock in the GFA data sheets either.

I hope somebody can help.

 

Regards

 

Chris

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Re: [Aus-soaring] Hand Held Radio Battery

[stephenk]

 
 1. A caution on Hobby King. They are indeed very cheap and supply
stuff in a moderate time, but basically you should write off any order
with them that goes wrong. I have had about 6 orders with them. One
where an item went out of stock between my ordering it and them
preparing the order. They wont tell you, your order will sit "pending
completion" ie till the out of stock item comes into their warehouse
(which may be never). Also had a second one where they sent me someone
else's order (I assume they got mine which was the better deal for
them!). Have been "negotiating" with Hobby King for a resolution since
November (yes 5 months now). They have processes which must
be follow but no-one at their end seems to understand clearly what
they are.

 

2. Battery tester for capacity requires some form of voltage
measurement over time with battery discharge. To make the test
reasonably quick (ie an hour or a few) requires a moderately high
current rate which you could do with spotlights or similar. You can
then (knowing the current and voltage) work out the battery capacity.
I don't believe any kit manufacturers would do this. I have done this
recently with AA batteries playing around with a PIC type
microprocessor. I also worked out a method for friends of mine in the
90s who were into RC car racing in a big way, when NiCads were the
only batteries around and capacity was critical to them. The problem
always is to waste the heat energy at the rate you want.

 

Regards

SWK

- Original Message -
From: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia." 
To:"Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia." 
Cc:
Sent:Tue, 11 Mar 2014 23:18:26 +1100
Subject:Re: [Aus-soaring] Hand Held Radio Battery

 

Ross is keeping away from batteries being sold from China. I have no
experience of this, but modeller friends, use “Hobby King”
–based  in Hong Kong - extensively, with good results.  

 I have not checked, but no doubt Altronics can  supply you with an
adequate kit to build a useable SLA battery tester too! However if you
are regularly doing 10 or more hours in a single flight, without
battery depletion problems, then I suggest that you do not need a
battery tester.

 

FROM: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net
[mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] ON BEHALF OF Erich
Wittstock
SENT: Tuesday, 11 March 2014 3:25 PM
TO: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
SUBJECT: Re: [Aus-soaring] Hand Held Radio Battery

 

First up the fishing rod:
 ..it is 2014
 After a long debate - they did put the internet on computers. ;-)
 There is a handy search engine that works in a web browser - it is
called Google.
 can be found at: http://www.google.com.au [1]
 type in "FNB-64" into the search.
 and on the first page you will find something like this [2].

..and here is a fish. [3]

You could get really adventurous and do a search on Ebay [4]

and get a result such as this [5].

 

And now let's make this thread a bit more interesting:

I would like to find out about the Ebay experience of the people on
this mailing list with purchases such as batteries for hand held
radios?

And: what are people using to charge their SLA glider batteries (what
is the BEST charger?)
 Do I really need one of them? [6]
 What is the best test to find out what capacity the glider battery
actually has - not just what is written on them.

What is a good SLA battery tester? 

 

I went through the archive of this list and found LiFePO4 being
mentioned.
 Who uses LiFePO4? Interesting article here. [7] What is your
experience, how long have you used them now? Are they worth it?

Erich

 

 

 

On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Ross McLean  wrote:

I am hoping someone can help me find a battery supplier for my VHF
Handheld radio, the battery has finally given up.

It is a VERTEX STANDARD PRO V, VXA-150, and the battery product
number is FNB-64.

Thank you for any assistance.

ROSS

 

 

 

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Links:
--
[1] http://www.google.com.au
[2]
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=FNB-64.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs&gfe_rd=ctrl&ei=GIkeU_j5Ds_C8gfqoYG4Cg&gws_rd=cr#channel=rcs&cr=countryAU&q=FNB-64.&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&safe=off&tbs=ctr:countryAU
[3]
https://www.master-instruments.com.au/products/57686/TWB-FNBV57H.html
[4] http://www.ebay.com.au/
[5]
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Two-way-Radio-Battery-Replacement-for-Standard-FNB-64-FNB-