Kraton Will these batteries fit

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Jigstick

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Arrma RC's
Will two SMC 11.1v 7400mAh 149amp 90c batteries fit the Kraton battery tray? I just ordered my Kraton and would like to order either two 3s batteries or one 6s battery to go with it. I think these batteries stacked on top of each other may be a few mm taller than the battery tray
 
Not sure why, but my local hobby shop said he would never recommend a single 6s battery - maybe too volatile??? I run two hard case Venom 50C 3s 5000mAH 11.1v batteries that are almost identical in size to the SMC, and they fit perfectly stacked on top of each other in my v3 Kraton. I also have a single Turnigy Graphene 6000mAh 4S 65C Lipo Pack that fits, but not very well...

Venom - Dimensions: 138 x 46 x 36 mm
Turnigy - Dimensions 168 x 69 x 34 mm
 
Yeah it seems running two 3s is more common. Would a Kraton run on one 3s? If I don't want to go 6s all the time?
 
Nope, has to be some combination of 4s or 6s according to the manual:

2x2S LiPo, 2x3S LiPo, 1x4S LiPo, 1x6S LiPo Battery

Arrma seems to be okay with one 6s, unlike my local hobby store...
 
Yeah it seems running two 3s is more common. Would a Kraton run on one 3s? If I don't want to go 6s all the time?
The Kraton runs just fine on a single 3s and I have done it numerous times. You can run the stock ESC on 3s, 4s or 6s and have Lipo low voltage cutoff. Anything other than those and you will need to run in Nimh mode with an external voltage alarm.

Not sure why, but my local hobby shop said he would never recommend a single 6s battery - maybe too volatile??? I run two hard case Venom 50C 3s 5000mAH 11.1v batteries that are almost identical in size to the SMC, and they fit perfectly stacked on top of each other in my v3 Kraton. I also have a single Turnigy Graphene 6000mAh 4S 65C Lipo Pack that fits, but not very well...

Venom - Dimensions: 138 x 46 x 36 mm
Turnigy - Dimensions 168 x 69 x 34 mm
I'm also guessing that there could be two reasons that your store doesn't recommend a single 6s pack.

1. Higher cell count packs require higher powered, more expensive chargers to charge in a decent timeframe.
2. 6s packs are expensive and if you drop a cell, that is a lot of money down the drain, when two 3s packs are used and you drop a cell, you still have a good 3s pack to use in something else.
 
Yeah it seems running two 3s is more common. Would a Kraton run on one 3s? If I don't want to go 6s all the time?
Let me know how you like those SMC batteries. Seems like some pretty good reviews around the internet and better price point vs. my Venom's.

The Kraton runs just fine on a single 3s and I have done it numerous times. You can run the stock ESC on 3s, 4s or 6s and have Lipo low voltage cutoff. Anything other than those and you will need to run in Nimh mode with an external voltage alarm.


I'm also guessing that there could be two reasons that your store doesn't recommend a single 6s pack.

1. Higher cell count packs require higher powered, more expensive chargers to charge in a decent timeframe.
2. 6s packs are expensive and if you drop a cell, that is a lot of money down the drain, when two 3s packs are used and you drop a cell, you still have a good 3s pack to use in something else.
Good point, thanks!
 
Good point, thanks!
Again, those are just my guesses as to why they don't recommend single 6s packs. They may have a different reason.

I know SMC recommends single packs instead of two packs in series. I have read that when you run in series the ESC will pull harder on one pack than the other. I don't know which pack it pulls harder on, if it is the one on the positive side or the one on the negative side but that is something that I have read. But I would also think that would happen within a single pack as well but can't confirm any of that. The big reason against running two packs in series is that the cells within a pack are matched by properties such as capacity and resistance. So with one big 6s battery, all 6 cells are matched to one another, but with two separate packs, the cells in each pack are matched but the packs most likely are not matched which can cause the early death of one pack.

That said, I have and still do run the batteries in my rigs both ways and haven't had any problems yet. I also set my low voltage cutoff as high as it will go on all of my aftermarket ESCs so that if one battery does get pulled down more, it is still in the safe Lipo range.

Edit:
Here is a link to the SMC page in regards to running in series.

https://www.smc-racing.net/index.php?route=product/category&path=166
 
Well my Traxxas ID charger (which was purchased for my kids Traxxas Skullys) can only charge 2s or 3s Lipos. So I guess I'm kind of stuck using two 3s LIpos in my Kraton, unless I buy a different charger.

Im going to try the SMCs that I mentioned above and will report back.

Can you guys explain "running in parallel vs series" for me? This Kraton is my first electric RC. Im versed in Nitro mostly.
 
Well my Traxxas ID charger (which was purchased for my kids Traxxas Skullys) can only charge 2s or 3s Lipos. So I guess I'm kind of stuck using two 3s LIpos in my Kraton, unless I buy a different charger.

Im going to try the SMCs that I mentioned above and will report back.

Can you guys explain "running in parallel vs series" for me? This Kraton is my first electric RC. Im versed in Nitro mostly.
Running in parallel is where you hook the two positives together and the two negatives together. With two 3s, 5,000mah batteries you would now have one 3s (12.6 volts fully charged), 10,000mah battery.

Running in series is you take the positive from one battery and hook it to the negative of the other battery and hook the remaining positive and negative to the esc. With two 3s, 5,000mah batteries you would now have one 6s (25.2 volts fully charged), 5,000mah battery.
 
Ok so when these two SMC 3S batteries arrive how do I connect them to the Kraton? I now this sounds silly, but I read that it comes with "loop connectors" or something like that. Will the ESC have two connectors coming off it...one for each battery?

Like I said...this electric stuff is new to me. Im used to my Nitro LST2
 
Ok so when these two SMC 3S batteries arrive how do I connect them to the Kraton? I now this sounds silly, but I read that it comes with "loop connectors" or something like that. Will the ESC have two connectors coming off it...one for each battery?

Like I said...this electric stuff is new to me. Im used to my Nitro LST2
The ESC will have two plugs on it and should be straight forward. The loop connector is for if you want to run a single battery.
 
Ok so when these two SMC 3S batteries arrive how do I connect them to the Kraton? I now this sounds silly, but I read that it comes with "loop connectors" or something like that. Will the ESC have two connectors coming off it...one for each battery?

Like I said...this electric stuff is new to me. Im used to my Nitro LST2
Arrma also includes a nice little adapter for running a single 4s/6s battery, if you end up upgrading your charger/batteries down the road.
 
I have read that when you run in series the ESC will pull harder on one pack than the other. I don't know which pack it pulls harder on, if it is the one on the positive side or the one on the negative side but that is something that I have read. But I would also think that would happen within a single pack as well but can't confirm any of that.

I can confirm that running in series will be harder on one of the packs. I've tried this on two different sets (2x2 S and 2x3 S).

With 2x3 S, after the LVC had kicked in, voltage of the first battery was between 3,47 and 3,52 per cell, and the second battery had voltages around 3,23 per cell. After running two 2 S batteries in series, voltage of the first battery was between 3,21 and 3,65 per cell, and the second battery had voltages around 3,66 per cell.

I emailed Arrma about this, because I wanted to set the LVC higher, but as most of you already know, this setting is locked. According to them (direct quote from their email): "It [LVC] is set to a very safe value that should leave your batteries at 3.5V per cell once the load is removed from them."

Being able to set the LVC is, in my mind, one of the most important things, and not letting users set it by themselves is stupid. I do not want to use separate alarms, especially when a simple 0,1 or 0,2 V change on the LVC would fix this. :/
 
Holy crap are these batteries big. They are enclosed in a hard case which i wasn't expecting. Are these to physically big to be in this truck?

Ejd2Yevl.jpg


CI2xR0sl.jpg
 
Once you hit the throttle on that 6s setup, you'll know they're not too big for this truck... :)
 
So far it seems to balance pretty well. I’m not noticing more suspension travel on the battery tray side when hard cornering compared to the other. Haven’t hit big air yet though. I’ll have to report back on that. Even with the punch set at factory level this thing has insane power. Standing backflips
 
Will two SMC 11.1v 7400mAh 149amp 90c batteries fit the Kraton battery tray? I just ordered my Kraton and would like to order either two 3s batteries or one 6s battery to go with it. I think these batteries stacked on top of each other may be a few mm taller than the battery tray
Hi I just bought two smc 3s 6400mah 150c will they both fit in my kraton 6s v4
 
Kraton battery tray size: 158mm x 48mm x 70mm
Battery size of what you purchased: 139mm x 46mm x 37mm

Height might be a problem as 74mm >> 70mm.
 
I never understand if your running a basher why ruin suspension performance and over heat electrics with huge batteries. 5more minutes of run time?
 
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