About to buy a kraton 6s. Need to know what batteries/charger to use

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Freedom556

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I've searched and cant really find good answers. I'm new to RC and all I have is a brushed 2wd traxxas slash and it's way too slow. I'm assuming my traxxas lipo charger won't work for a 4s or 6s battery? I'm planning on buying at least a 4s 5000mah 50c battery to start with. I just need to make sure that I order one with xt90 connector right?
 
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I've searched and cant really find good answers. I'm new to RC and all I have is a brushed 2wd traxxas slash and it's way too slow. I'm assuming my traxxas lipo charger won't work for a 4s or 6s battery? I'm planning on buying at least a 4s 5000mah 50c battery to start with. I just need to make sure that I order one with xt90 connector right?
My personal experience with lipos are either hit or miss regardless of brand the "c" rating is most of the time bogus if 4s is all your ever gonna run that's good but if your gonna want more later i would just get a 5000 mah or more 6s and take it easy until you get used to it i wouldn't waste the money on a 4s and the charger i use is the isdt sc-620 it needs a power supply but it's a good charger pretty cheap too and yeah you need xt90 connectors unless you know how to solder your own.
 
I run my Kraton on 4S but that's because I haven't had it very long and when I picked up the car my LHS was out of 6S batteries so I bought 4S. Since then I have been focused on buying parts not batteries and if I need more batteries then I have a number of 2 S from other cars I can run together in the meantime until I get a few 3S's. I will go 3S's as I can charge multiple more quickly (in theory or at least the same)

Your manual will specify minimum battery requirements for the Kraton see below:

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The chargers I have are 2 Skyrc BiMAX B6AC V2's and a SkyRC D400. The B6AC's charge 1 battery at time and the D400 can do two.
 
Many also run dual packs. I run 2x2S 7200/7400 SMC packs in mine. Friend of mine runs 2x3S 5000mah gens-ace-r-spam in his.

What charger do you have?

Here's a pretty lengthy thread on charging setups:
https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/recommend-me-a-battery-charger.1079/

I have 3 chargers. One stays in my car all time, htrc h150 duo ac/dc. I have a Dynamite Prophet Sport Quad 4 X 100W DYNC2050 and Hitec D7 that I use to charge packs before I head out.

To get good life out of the packs vs speed when charging, most charge at 1C. So, whichever type of packs you plan on running, figure out the math that will let you charge at 1C for amps and watts.

Just for a rough ballpark of what a 100W/14Amp per channel charger can do:
4000mah 6S takes 4A and 99.9 watts
7000mah 4S takes 7A and 103.6 watts
9000mah 3S takes 9A and 99.9 watts
14000mah 2S takes 14A and 103.6 watts
 
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Many also run dual packs. I run 2x2S 7200/7400 SMC packs in mine. Friend of mine runs 2x3S 5000mah gens-ace-r-spam in his.

What charger do you have?

Hey @olds97_lss have you compared charging one battery of the same capacity as 2 smaller ones? I'm presuming the charge would be the same if the MaH is the same?
 
Look up Venom Pro Duo. It's a good starter charger and fits my needs. Can find it for less than $100. Your traxxas won't do over 2s so yes you need something else. Also the venom comes with on xt90 but you can easily purchase another.
 
Hey @olds97_lss have you compared charging one battery of the same capacity as 2 smaller ones? I'm presuming the charge would be the same if the MaH is the same?
If the charger can handle the watts needed, it would be the same. By that, I mean if you have a dual charger that can charge 2x2S or if you charge 1 4S, both with the same capacity and with the charger amperage set for 1C, it would charge in the same amount of time I'd think.

I've had 2S for most of my electric running in all my trucks. I just recently started running a single 3S in my stampede 4x4 and converted ejato. I still intend on sticking with 2x2S in my outcast, brushless revo and savage flux. 4S seems to be plenty of speed/power for where I run. 6S would just cost me more parts. :)
 
Look up Venom Pro Duo. It's a good starter charger and fits my needs. Can find it for less than $100. Your traxxas won't do over 2s so yes you need something else. Also the venom comes with on xt90 but you can easily purchase another.
I have that charger as well but only downfall is it can only charge 6s up to like 3.5amps or so but for 2,3,4s it's a great charger! ?
 
I have that charger as well but only downfall is it can only charge 6s up to like 3.5amps or so but for 2,3,4s it's a great charger! ?
That is true. For 3s it's perfect. It's 7 amps so you are correct doing two 6s packs will pull about 3.5 amps per pack.
 
You will want 6s for the Kraton, it is heavy however that is my opinion. For chargers many of us will start out with a simple 4 button charger like this one. https://www.rcjuice.com/chargers-ac...w-ac-dc-touchscreen-lipo-balance-charger.html
Its fine but eventually, if you stick with the hobby and start running more cars and have more batteries you may like something like this. https://www.rcjuice.com/chargers-ac...ultimate-ac-dc-dual-lipo-battery-charger.html
That one comes out a little pricey but if you look around you may save a few bucks on ebay. Its quite a bit faster than the other and will do two bats at once.
the Venom charger above is fine as well and if you plan ahead charging its all you may ever need. Guess which one I have...how about all three. The Venom came used with another truck. The Skyrc is my favorite.
Lots of guys will buy a charger and an external power supply. I haven't tried that yet. Chargers and batteries can become a hobby all their own...
 
Seems high for only 4s. The charger is about $100 so means each battery is $90. Maybe I'm wrong but that seems a little high. Since your car is 6s I'm not sure you'd really want 4s. At least that's what I have seen others say. I got my charger off ebay for $99. I did buy a 2 pack of 3s batteries on amazon $105.
 
How's this deal look? And how would this charger do with a 6s 5000mah?
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbypower-P...o+duo+xt90&dpPl=1&dpID=51gfh8pKzSL&ref=plSrch
Not that great considering the charger won't even charge the packs at 1C. It's an 80w x 2 charger. You'd need 6.5A and 92W minimum for 6500mah 4S packs.

If you think your going to end up going with 6S and running single 6S packs, your going to want to buy a stronger charger. I don't know what a normal 6S pack that guys use in the arrma trucks would be for capacity. I know many run 2x3S 5000mah packs, so would stand to reason you'd run a 5000mah 6S pack which takes 111watts to charge at 1C.
 
I got the kraton locally today along with a charger and a couple batteries. It wasnt the best deal, but I'm impatient lol. I have one question right now about the lipo batteries. It's cold and the roads were wet, but I wanted to take it out for a few minutes. The battery still has several minutes left on it I'm sure so if I want it fully charged before I take it out tomorrow do I need to discharge it first? Or just plug it back in until its fully charged?

Also the instructions are extremely short and not very helpful for the kraton itself. As far as I can tell I just leave the esc alone and just turn it on and run it? That's what i did cause the instructions suck.
 
Plug them in and set them to storage charge. Then plug them back in in the morning to fully charge using the balance charge. I don't leave my fully charged overnight. I always keep them at storage charge when they aren't being used.
 
I got the kraton locally today along with a charger and a couple batteries. It wasnt the best deal, but I'm impatient lol. I have one question right now about the lipo batteries. It's cold and the roads were wet, but I wanted to take it out for a few minutes. The battery still has several minutes left on it I'm sure so if I want it fully charged before I take it out tomorrow do I need to discharge it first? Or just plug it back in until its fully charged?

Also the instructions are extremely short and not very helpful for the kraton itself. As far as I can tell I just leave the esc alone and just turn it on and run it? That's what i did cause the instructions suck.
There are a bunch of things you should check before running it hard. Make sure all the screws are tight, easy to check. Set your steering end points, it will help your servo last longer. Most esc's are set to a factory default setting, but I would go through and check each one. Manual has great instructions on how to do this. YouTube has great videos on setting end points. Also check the manual on how to set the fail safe, incase your radio shuts off while the truck is moving. These are simple things to do without any real wrenching. If you go to the Outcast/Notorious thread, you'll find a handy checklist with these and more things you should look at before going too hard. All the tips apply to most of the 6s vehicles
 
Okay guys another question. Is there a way to set or change the low voltage on the esc? I ran it for what seemed like too long without it cutting off like the slash does so I just stopped. I haven't had a chance to check the actual voltage yet.
 
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