Spektrum rekindled my love

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Baldingo

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Halfway between there and there
Arrma RC's
  1. Nero
  2. Outcast 6s
  3. Talion
Long story, but I'll try to keep it somewhat brief.
I had a Nitro Rustler as a kid and loved it. I drove it morning noon and night. All of our neighbors hated me.
After a long hiatus I jumped back in with a Nero 6s with the diff brain. I was hesitant to get back into it because of my nervousness with Lipos. In my head they felt like ticking time bombs but I wanted an rc again so I bit the bullet and did it. In reality I wasn't as brave as I wanted to be. This ended up with me buying a bunch of rc's and only modifying them, not driving them because I was too scared to deal with the Lipos. Not to mention, it was taking over an hour to charge two 3s Lipos with my Hobbymate HC120AC. I have a toddler and having a spare 3 hours or so to dedicate to driving my rc's isn't an opportunity I ever get.
I was tempted to buy an Xmaxx because of the ease of their battery setup and really, deep down, I think there are few people who have no desire drive one. Again the toddler comes into play...how the hell am I ever going to come up with $1400 for an Xmaxx and batteries. I also couldn't do it because you know...F Traxxas.
Already being fully invested in Arrma, I decided to take the plunge yesterday and I picked up the Spektrum Smart 6s battery and charger combo. Freaking game changer for me!
In 27 minutes my batteries were charged and I was outside ripping my V3 Talion around. I'm running IC5 to XT90 adapters for now in my Talion and because of my Voltage Hobbies chassis braces I had to get a little creative with the wiring situation. The zip tie solidly holds the adapters in place and is far enough away from the center diff, but I'm not confident with the wiring to the ESC because the leads are loose around the steering servo. That will need to be figured out soon but I'm not doing any hard bashing at the moment.
None of this will be an issue with my V4 Outcast since it already comes with IC5s.
Is the Spektrum Smart stuff overpriced? I think the answer to that question is based on the user. For me, no, because it actually gets me back to enjoying the hobby.
So far I love it. I highly recommend this setup if your lack of lipo confidence is keeping you from having fun with your stuff, as it was for me.
Right now I'm watching the clock. I've got a little less than two hours until my daughter goes down for a nap....and I know what I'll be doing as soon as her eyes close.
 

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Go Baby Go ?
I have the same batteries and charger. they truly are a game changer for busy newish folks in the hobby.
 
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Balance charge!
The Smart batteries can handle a 3C charge rate so one channel on the charger runs at about 4 amps, the other channel runs at 12 amps. Once the 12 amp channel finishes it balances the cells and the other channel starts charging at 12 amps.

Spec-freaking-tacular.
 
I'm relatively new to this hobby and was quite intimidated by the complications of charging and discharging lipo batteries, so I decided to purchase a Spektrum smart technology battery and charger bundle S2100.

I seem to be having problems with the charging process. When I plug both batteries into the charger, first battery into 'Channel one' second battery into 'Channel two' and begin charging both channels - I get an error "an Abnormal Connection Error, and it stops the charging process."

If I unplug the second batteries and then begin charging only on one channel, this will allow me to charge one of the batteries relatively quickly. However, the other battery, when plugged into one channel, is still taking an extremely long time to charge 1 to 2 hours, can I assume this battery is faulty? Or is there a way to reset the battery.

I've set the batteries to auto discharge after 24 hours. Do I need to buy a separate discharger too? Am I doing something wrong?

It's was to my understanding that these batteries take care of themselves.
 
Typically that should not happen. I have a set of those in 4 s and they charge together with out issues. I would reach out to spectrum customer service and see if the can help are the cells on the second battery healthy and balanced? The charger should give you readings.
 
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While I don't have a Spektrum charger, I do have to agree....the thought of going brushless with lipo was daunting. Dealing with battery packs, storing, balancing, etc.

But buying a good charger is key, IMHO. It truly handles most of the work for you. Balancing built in, ability to storage charge, discharge, etc.

If you storage charge them for the day (figure 3.8V per cell), it shouldnt take many chargers very long to get back up to full before you want to play. Granted, its not as quick as filling the tank with nitro, but there is far less futzing around to deal with (no tuning, matching glow plug for the outdoor temp, no mess, no after-run cleaning, etc)
 
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