ASK Cub Reporter, 09.06.2012, Version: Me BS’n My Way Through Your Questions

I’m not bashing your test in fact I found it very interesting. But I’m curious why in the weight test the lightest battery was given the better score. In general I’ve found the heavier battery with similar Mah almost always is the better performer. Your overall test results seem to bear this out.

Thanks Scott

Cubby– Yo what’s up Scott and thanks for taking the time to shoot us an email.

I’ve answered this question a couple other times, but it has been a while since I’ve done it, so here’s the scoop-age.

Why is the lightest battery given the highest score in the weight category of our Lipo battery shootouts? To really, really, really boil it down- before we did our first shootout I went back and forth with a number of lithium battery industry guru’s about criteria to use be used in the shootouts. To help determine the criteria we posed this question amongst ourselves, “If we were to be given a blank sheet of paper and could design the ultimate battery pack from the ground up, what factors would we consider important?”. After literally months of emails, weight was deemed one of those “important” factors, and therefore it became a category in our shootouts.

Personally, if I were designing a new “ultimate” pack from the ground up I’d want it to put out more voltage than any other pack on the market, AND I’d want it to be the lightest. This gives the best possible power to weight ratio, and if you are racing, this would allow you put extra weight at a different spot on the chassis for better handling.

Now, to get back to the real world, often times the Lipo batteries that put out the highest voltages are heavier than those that put out less power. This is due to the pack interns being beefier, thus allowing better electron flow and less internal resistance. But, and there is always a but, that is NOT always the case. For example, in our Lipo Shootout #4, the Orion pack was the third lightest out of the seven packs tested, yet it put out higher voltage under a 60 amp load than any other pack in our shootout. So… if we were to change and award maximum points to the heaviest pack in the weight category, it is entirely possible that the heaviest pack could have poor voltage under load, thus resulting in a piss poor power to weight ratio. A heavy and slow pack is not the type of pack we want finishing well in one of our shootouts, we want the “ultimate” type of pack to excel- fast AND light. Yes, we want to have our cake and eat it too.

Hey Cubby
Does it mean where I race rc has made the big time if one of our layouts was placed into VRC video game/ race simulator???
P.S. Racing is held on Thursday and Saturday, free bashing during rest of the week,,LOL! Keep up the good work
Thanks
Doug B.
Dallas TX

Cubby– Good for you and your local track. I tried VRC at a trade show years ago, it was quite horrible at the time, but I’ve been a bit intrigued to give it another try since they added short course trucks to their mix.

So has the place you race at made the “big time”? I am gonna say no, mainly because I have no idea what track you race at. Regardless, shoot Brian your snail mail so you can go blasting around your local track with some new BigSquidRC stickers on your rig.

Hey,
I just signed the petition for the next evolution of monster truck (TXT-2) and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name. Our goal is to reach 2,000 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here: (URL omitted by me- Cubby)
Thanks!
Darryl M.

Cubby– So…. you are wanting me to sign a petition in an attempt to get Tamiya to fix all the little issues on the TXT? Seriously?

First off- isn’t mod’n out a TXT and fixing all its issues part of its appeal?

Secondly- why not petition Tamiya to bust out an all new, precisely scaled, solid axle, fully licensed monster truck? I was quite disappointed when Traxxas started putting out licensed monster trucks on their 2WD Stampede platform. I mean, I want to buy an old school Stampede about as much as I want Area 955 to start playing “Call Me Maybe” 24/7. But… I would totally buy a perfectly scaled Tamiya solid axle monster truck (as would a LOT of people).

Anywhos, good luck with your petition, you are gonna need it.

That’s it for this week ya bunch of juggalos, shoot me your emails, queries, pasties, and old baby teeth to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your letter makes the big time on the front page you’ll get free stickers, if I pick yours as letter of the month you get a totally uber Asian knock-off BSRC t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter