ASK Cubby, 12.11.2013, Version- Your Write In, I Jive Talk

“Animus 18TR

I was recently reading a thread on your website that reviewed the Animus 18 TR. I believe it was posted by Tim Mohr in Nov. of 2011. Near the bottom he talks about mods over $5 being a good quality charger, which would be around $50. I was wondering what the brand of charger (model # too) was and how long it would take to charge those batteries on that newer charger.

Thanks,

Pete”

Cubby- Yo hey Pete, thanks for taking the time to shoot in an email.

If there is one thing I truly hate it is using a wall charger that takes 5, 6, 7, or 8 hours to charge up a pack. I am just not wired to sit around that long waiting on a pack to be ready to jam.

There are a plethora of good chargers at the $50 price point to quick charge the Helion Animus 18TR’s 1100mAh Ni-MH pack. But sometimes those pesky Ni-MH packs can like to false peak, so I am going to recommend this one to you- the Duratrax Onyx 210 (#DTXP4210). It sits right at the $50 mark, is AC/DC, has more than enough power to charge the stock 18TR pack in under an hour, and I’ve used one extensively around the office with minimal false peaking. Oh ya, I really like its big LCD display as well.

How long would it take to charge the 1100mAh Ni-MH on the Onyx? You could set the 210 for a .8 amp charge rate, resulting in a charge that would take just under an hour and a half, or the stock Helion pack might be able to take a 1.5 amp rate, if so, you would be looking at charge times under an hour.

If you want to stick with a Firelands product, I would recommend the Radient Primal. The Primal is an AC only charger, but I’ve used it extensively and it has worked well for me. Oh ya, it also has plenty of power for small packs, plus it can charge Lipo, which if you haven’t switched over to yet, you really need to pull the trigger on. The price point is awesome too, just $40.

Hey Pete, when ya pick up a new charger shoot us an email on what ya ended up buying. Later homie, go fast, spin tires.

“Quadcopters

Hi,

So some people are getting wound up because of the quadcopters appearing everywhere. Never mind, now how about an update on the first quad shootout. I’d love to know what’s the best one to get now, especially with Christmas on the way.

The reviews and shootouts are great. Keep them coming.

Gary F.”

Cubby- Hey, good to hear from ya Gary.

I hate quads, or maybe I should say, I used to hate quads. I am truly a surface kind of guy, it is just how my brain is/was wired, but I have actually been using the Estes Proto X quite a bit around the office. It flies for a while, it is super fast to charge, and it takes some skill to put it where ya want it. If you are looking to pick one up for X-mas, I highly recommend it.

So… ya, you can put me on the list of people wanting to see an updated quad shootout. We’ve been toying with ideas for a bunch of different shootouts for a while now, but we get relentless emails about the quads. I need to crack the whip on Brian and make that one happen. There are bucket loads of new quads on the market, heck even I want to see how they stack up.

That’s it for this week ya freaks, shoot me your letters/questions/rants/manifestos to Cubby at BigSquidRC.com. If your letter makes the front page shoot us an email with your snail mail so we can hook ya up with a sticker pack!

YOUR Rub-a-dub-Cub Reporter