I Made a Long Duration Li-ion 18650 Battery for my RC Airplane | Li-ion vs LiPo

I made this amazing battery pack using 18650 cells, performing about 3X better than a LiPo battery of roughly the same weight and size. So instead of flying for 15 min, now you can fly for 45 min.
Content of the video:
0:00 Intro
0:15 Preparations of the airplane
1:27 Warnings about Li-ion batteries
1:50 About 18650 cells
3:20 What you need to make the battery
3:55 Making the battery
5:25 Battery Song ♪
6:09 last steps
6:41 Charging
7:13 Performance test LiPo vs Li-ion
9:45 Conclusion
Materials:
Spot Welder: bit.ly/3uGHv9I
Tape: bit.ly/3uJkIKz
XT60 connectors: bit.ly/3sBZgo2
Balance leads: bit.ly/3uJnEqG
Important!
Batteries of this kind are dangerous, if you don't handle them well it could result in an accident.
Recommendations for making your own battery at your own risk:
Safety and general info: • 7 Steps On How to buil...
Charging the batteries: • Is it safe to charge L...
Using a flight controller in an RC airplane
• Using a Drone Flight C...
Buy the Tanar kit: joyplanes.com/en/product/tana...
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[@azatecas]

love it, i always wondered why people didnt do a static test of the battery drain since its more subjective than total flight time. you did it you finally answered my question

[@abdullahkrmzyuz5827]

That's a huge difference! I love the song btw, good video!

[@falconer100]

I have been doing similar to you but for my boats. I also found that if you need more volts than an 18650 can supply a voltage booster card can be used. I get my batteries from recycle yards that take electric scooters. pulling the battery case apart gives 30 X 18650 cells with some scooters having 50 cells. I pay $40 per pack. A well done film clip. Thanks.

[@guilhermecorreale]

Your video was a mix of "electroboom" and "rctestflight" sound/video effects, kkkkkk.

[@Joyplanes]

Hahahaha, that's true.

[@ilan8465]

Nice test. For complete results it would be interesting to measure the thrust of both batteries. Does the li ion can rotate the motor at the same thrust as the lipo?

[@sakarrc5001]

Great sound! Name of the game for Li-Ion is parallel. Gives you less sag, smoother voltage drop and more amps. Long range have never been easier.

[@minetubequest]

Nice its helpful for making cheap battery packs. Appreciate it!

[@sajalacharjee7008]

I loved this experiment and the song was really cool.

[@evgenigeorgiev1241]

Great project man, I love your work and the channel. Hoping to work with you soon

[@Youdontwannaknow..]

I like the newer videos with humor but also helpful like before 10/10

[@oadka]

Great video! Thank you!

[@Pilotkosinus]

thumbs up for the song.

[@alvinsintimsintim2855]

cool invention and cool song

[@juliusopiana8702]

Hello sir..what 18650 batt u using and discharge rate of each cell??can i apply those batt on drones?

[@rcplanelover1643]

Nice project....

[@stejer211]

When you started singing the battery song, the neighbor's Tesla spontaneously caught fire. I don't know if there's a connection, but the fire department said it was suicide.

[@jonujangid3J]

you are making very interesting & informative video , l like it

[@Joyplanes]

Thank you so much 😀

[@jiero7918]

Hello Joyplanes Rc, can you make a video about motor thrust 3s lipo battery vs 3s 18650 battery and last is to use 4s 18650 battery if can beat the 3s lipo battery

[@GilbertsVlogs]

Is it ok if i mixed up the polarity of the blue amd green on the diagram of the balancer?

[@ignaciotellechea8246]

I have a question: I have a drone that uses a 3.7 V lipo battery, the battery is old and I was thinking of changing it. Do you recommend I change it for one of the same voltage of this type? Obviously adapting it to the inputs. The drone is not a racing drone but a medium-small one. Thanks

[@ishigamiyu1991]

buy a battery with a voltage and c rating same as the old one. li-ion batteries for that size and amp draw rating may be hard to get. As for the capacity of a new lipo, if the old one was 250 mah and the drone flew nimble and quick, you may be able to get away with buying a much higher capacity battery for example a 300-320 mah for potentially longer flight times at the cost of agility

[@PyccoloSantos]

I beg your pardon, but cell is the same as notebooks cells? How do you diy a charger for this? You are running 3xCells in series direct to recievier???

[@CarbonGlassMan]

I just made my first 18650 battery pack. I had 2 brown outs just cruising with my 7 inch drone. I think my spot welds were not very good. I used 2800mah 35a discharge rated Molicel 18650 cells. Should be plenty good for the drone. My spot welder got the nickel strips to stick to the cells, but I seen no sparks, no smoke when spot welding. I am thinking my poor welds created a lot of resistance and did not allow the power to flow well from cell to cell to drone.

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

An interesting exercise although I personally would have soldered the leads to the nickel strips before spot welding them to the batteries. No need to worry about how much heat you are putting into the batteries that way! ;-)

[@soosmate]

Good idea actually! Didn’t think of that :)

[@on1ytheb3st]

Do you have to connect the balance leads to the nickel strips, or can you connect to the li-ion terminals on either side of the strip? In a case where you don't have a spot welder, it would be jumper wires being used not nickel strips.

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

@@on1ytheb3st If you are planning to solder directly to the battery terminals you might want to buy the type with solder tabs already attached. Much less likelihood of a mug punter's soldering disaster that way. If you want to use the button or flat end type cells you might be best to just put them in a plastic battery pack. Let us know of any success/disaster. 😉🙃

[@brianthibault5929]

Are you limited to three batteries in series or could you put 12? For long range flying?

[@elektron2kim666]

Yes. You can use more.

[@matejhlaca5171]

What is the tickness of nikel strip that you are using? I read somewhere that nikel strip 7mm x 0.15mm can pass only 5A.

[@ericklein5097]

Thats a rather conservative number but that is what the most popular chart says. There's another chart I got off endless sphere that doubles the ratings from the first chart. Best thing to do is to determine how conductive pure nickel is vs copper (don't use nickel plated steel!). Then determine the cross sectional area (thickness x width) then compare that to copper wire, factor in that nickel is only like 25% as conductive as copper and bam you have your rating

[@wearemany73]

Can you make a video with 26650 too? Love your vids.👍

[@mohamedyoosuf7582]

Nice

[@giovannibarbagallo7723]

i want to use li ion battery but im not really shure if i know how to do it properly. does the balancing cable need to be conected somewhere or is it only when charging. i want to use it with a molex adapter for a rc car

[@yaimem]

The balance cable is only used for the charger to charge each cell equally. The wires on the balance lead can not handle large current. The main pluglike the xt60 is used to power electronics

[@pushpanjalisenevirathna1075]

Is the laptop battery suitable for this as a replacement for the 18650 battery?

[@wibbyarief8958]

No, the laptop battery is NOT suitable. The discharge rate from laptop battery is really low

[@pushpanjalisenevirathna1075]

Is this compatible with fpv drones and rc jets?

[@Joyplanes]

Yes but depending on how much current they draw you have to select the right cells.

[@nevillecreativitymentor]

I am making a GIS Mapping Fixed Wing 2M drone to fly +2 hours (looking at 3.5 to 4 kgs AUW)... so the battery pack is going to be big !! the batt pack is going to be 4S2P style (as of this moment) Li-Ion 18650 , home made pack. I am concerned about HEATING ? Should I be ? I mean if the cells do heat up ... I am concererned about the IN-BETWEEN cells .. will it be dangerously hot inside !! ?

[@pratikjagtap1203]

Can i use 2200 mah 10c 3.7v 18650 3 cell pack for rc plane of 1000kv motot Please reply sir...

[@lightlord299]

Dont atleast use 13c battery

[@flightdesign1592]

First you upload a video about designing an rc wing right after I finished mine and now you upload a video about 3s li ion batterys just after I just completed mine? Something seems a bit off here... Anyways great video😅

[@Joyplanes]

Global consciousness.

[@astratech3671]

Are you using a 30A esc ? But my plane is kind of heavy can I still use this battery type … I’m using a 30A esc

[@Joyplanes]

Yes, it is a 30A esc, but it does not matter, what matters is that the battery can provide that amount of power when the motor draws it.

[@oswelbaltodano6439]

Hl que tal disculpa queria aser un paquete de baterias asi como la que estas asiendo y pues queria saber si mi electronica y el esc 30A lo pueda resibir sin problema

[@ericklein5097]

HE4's good choice! Similar to the Samsung 25R. Don't get fooled by that Sony rating. Its a 25A cell. When looking at cells see what Battery Mooch or HKJ have said about them. Both of them have tested about every cell out there by the major companies. Mooch gives an honest continuous amp rating catered to the vape world but it applies to all of us

[@FetterCheckerchef]

I started RC-flying with "Konion"-Cells, which are, I believe, Sony 18650 cells. So, the idea is not new. But your video is great, anyways!

[@tykendrick800]

🤣🤣🤣 Ion battery song took me out

[@rizen3467]

Why dont you use the frsky x20 anymore?

[@Joyplanes]

I'm reserving it for the big planes like my Epsilon XL3 and other future more expensive ones, and the Ethos software is new for me so I'm still learning how to use it, I wish I could install edge TX on it.

[@rizen3467]

@@Joyplanes oh ok, personally i like ethos more than edge

[@ericklein5097]

Did you just drain a 3S Lipo down to 6V?????

[@fzngagan]

The C rating is an issue as well with the cheap 18650 batteries. If you are using a motor which draws 12amps max, a 3s 2200mah li-ion with 2c rating is not gonna cut it. Higher C rating cells are costly and it then makes more sense moneywise to get a lipo. 21700s are well bigger in size and probably heavier but if there's no CG issue, those would be useful.

[@thomaseidst3170]

If you paralell the battery pack you get more A :) power 3s3p

[@mathieusan]

I think you have to be careful with homemade li-ion pack as the spot welds cannot handle all the current the battery claim to deliver. So it can be misleading thinking you can use a homemade li-ion pack and get lots of instantaneous current; as you will melt the spot welds and maybe start a fire. If you try to pull lots of amp, that is.

[@Joyplanes]

You're right, I would recommend welding as many spots as possible to generate more contact points where current can flow, and the strip has to be thick enough to drive that current.

[@ericklein5097]

That will not start a fire. The ideal way is to layer two or three layers of nickel strip or use 0.1mm copper with nickel on top. The nickel on top allows you to spot weld the copper which normally cannot be spot welded

[@MessingWithCode]

hahahahaahaha should give you this like for singing haahahaha jokes just kidding great video

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Somehow I feel the spot welder is just 3 18650 cells shorting....

[@ericklein5097]

nope its a high discharge lipo....but you were close. The best ones are made with supercapacitors. I think the microwave oven transformer ones are meh

[@clsgaming3859]

hello

[@Joyplanes]

Hi!

[@ramswaroopsoni9841]

Can you make arubber band airplane with incense sticks ?

[@LordMarinade]

Man this hurts a little. You should know that going under 3,7V per cell already destroys the battery but I bet you haven't touched the Tanár motor once. I am pretty sure that the windings were hella hot and I'm not even talking about the ESC. Outside especially in this weather it would be ok because the air cools it down significantly but in a room temperature with no air flow the propeller won't really cool it down that much. Big dedication of the components for a youtube vid :D

[@Joyplanes]

Yes, it was hot going at 100%, but that's what it is, and the li-ion can be discharged to 2.5v per cell.

[@LordMarinade]

@@Joyplanes okay, I believe the li-ions are a little bit more durable than lipoly, didn't the cells get warm too? I would rather take the 30A output cells at least.

[@Joyplanes]

@@LordMarinade Yes, they did get warm a bit, but the LiPo was warmer after the test.

[@m3chanist]

@@LordMarinade "A little bit more durable" you say? 2.5V (and that's conservative) is ALOT more discharge than 3.7. 1.5volts of discharge for the lion vs 0.5V for lipo from the 4.2V max charge for both. Thats 300% more, hardly "a little bit" by any stretch.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

That's experimenting man. Remember how Madam Curie tested critical mass of radio active isotopes....