smart batteries (other than spektrum)

[AaronF]

Hi all,

I just got an ISDT K2 which has XT60I connectors on the front and got me wondering if anyone other than Spektrum make smart batteries or have plans to make them? It would be good to have an open standard as from what I can tell you need to stay within the Spektrum eco system to use the smart features.

Can we expect to see the elimination of balance cable in future batteries?

I couldn't find much online about the subject or couldn't frame it up in a way that google would give me relevant results.

 

[GraniteFox]

"Smart" battieries are geared towards the manufacturer so you buy stuff from them. Traxxas has their stuff...Spek has their stuff. They have some benefits but these are mostly novelty. The vast majority of the RC world uses standard lipo batteries with balance connectors. You are safe with a standard setup.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

As I understand it, the Spektrum "Smart" stuff is licensed ISDT tech. ISDT tried to market it on their own, and was trying to get battery mfgr's to start adding their chips to batteries, but the system didn't go anywhere till Spektrum picked it up. What I don't know is if Spektrum added special code to their version of the chips so that Spektrum will only work with Spektrum.

 

[dk3000]

As I understand it, the Spektrum "Smart" stuff is licensed ISDT tech. ISDT tried to market it on their own, and was trying to get battery mfgr's to start adding their chips to batteries, but the system didn't go anywhere till Spektrum picked it up. What I don't know is if Spektrum added special code to their version of the chips so that Spektrum will only work with Spektrum.

Probably

 

[slick2500]

As I understand it, the Spektrum "Smart" stuff is licensed ISDT tech. ISDT tried to market it on their own, and was trying to get battery mfgr's to start adding their chips to batteries, but the system didn't go anywhere till Spektrum picked it up. What I don't know is if Spektrum added special code to their version of the chips so that Spektrum will only work with Spektrum.

ISDT removed the Battgo tech in their most recent firmware as well.

 

[Diem Turner]

I too think it's just a gimmick. It sounds like a good idea but, to my mind, it's just an extra unnecessary complication that can go wrong. Personally, I'm a proponent of the K.I.S.S. principle.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

The only part of the "Smart" system I would like is the auto-storage feature. Too often, I charge but don't run, then I need to remember to go storage charge my batteries. Having them auto-discharge to storage after a day or three delay would be nice.

The rest of the Smart system, IMHO, just promotes lazy, non-learning of how to treat Lipos, and probably leads to more failed batteries in the long run (but gives more sales, so Win-Win, right?)

 

[sandblaster]

WOW. All the haters. Guess that is always the case when the boat gets rocked. Love the Spectrum SMART batteries system. Have lost more than one battery when the balance lead got loose and destroyed taking the battery. Love the plug and play and forgetting the hazel of discharge to storage. This is the same system DJI uses on their drone batteries. Do not forget the battery history is keep and if the battery develops a problem it shows in the history. Something one had to guess at with the dump batteries.

They also offer the smart batteries with balance leads. Although that defects the purpose for me. And the smart charger will charge a balance lead battery and has all adjustability for dumb batteries. It is a win win for me. They offer charger/battery starter packs. Plus shop at tower and get points for future purchase.

Sure makes the hobby much more enjoyable for me. Spent so much time dealing with dump batteries. This takes the biggest hazel out of the hobby and give me more time to enjoy running trucks. Less the .5 hr from storage to full charge.

 

[slick2500]

WOW. All the haters. Guess that is always the case when the boat gets rocked. Love the Spectrum SMART batteries system. Have lost more than one battery when the balance lead got loose and destroyed taking the battery. Love the plug and play and forgetting the hazel of discharge to storage. This is the same system DJI uses on their drone batteries. Do not forget the battery history is keep and if the battery develops a problem it shows in the history. Something one had to guess at with the dump batteries.

They also offer the smart batteries with balance leads. Although that defects the purpose for me. And the smart charger will charge a balance lead battery and has all adjustability for dumb batteries. It is a win win for me. They offer charger/battery starter packs. Plus shop at tower and get points for future purchase.

Sure makes the hobby much more enjoyable for me. Spent so much time dealing with dump batteries. This takes the biggest hazel out of the hobby and give me more time to enjoy running trucks. Less the .5 hr from storage to full charge.

You forgot to mention that they cost almost twice as much as dumb batteries that have been proven to have twice the performance. Even the 100c lipos are at best a true 29c battery.
I don't care how smart the battery is it doesn't make up for the lackluster performance compared to batteries that are half the cost.

And charge times have nothing to do with the Smart tech. I can charge my lipos from LVC to fully charged in 30 minutes.

 

[Diem Turner]

WOW. All the haters. Guess that is always the case when the boat gets rocked. Love the Spectrum SMART batteries system. Have lost more than one battery when the balance lead got loose and destroyed taking the battery. Love the plug and play and forgetting the hazel of discharge to storage. This is the same system DJI uses on their drone batteries. Do not forget the battery history is keep and if the battery develops a problem it shows in the history. Something one had to guess at with the dump batteries.

They also offer the smart batteries with balance leads. Although that defects the purpose for me. And the smart charger will charge a balance lead battery and has all adjustability for dumb batteries. It is a win win for me. They offer charger/battery starter packs. Plus shop at tower and get points for future purchase.

Sure makes the hobby much more enjoyable for me. Spent so much time dealing with dump batteries. This takes the biggest hazel out of the hobby and give me more time to enjoy running trucks. Less the .5 hr from storage to full charge.

lol..."haters". Hater implies some sort of irrational or unreasonable dislike of something, but there's nothing irrational or unreasonable about it. No boat has been rocked. If they were actually better I'd use them. I also don't guess the condition of my batteries. It's pretty easy to observe objectively by internal resistance (IR) and by how the individual cells charge in relation to one another. Don't get me wrong, I understand the allure of a battery you don't need to think about (or so the story goes). But considering the number of things I think about and consider when it comes to my vehicle, keeping tabs on the health of my batteries is a miniscule portion of it. There are better performing batteries for less money. But my main complaint is that they lock you into an ecosystem of gear and I'm just not into that. I charge my batteries from storage to full charge in 20-25 minutes, so I don't really understand what argument you're making here. Perhaps you should take a few minutes to understand the arguments before throwing out terms like "hater".

Just out of curiosity...what's a hazel? You used the term twice and I'm not familiar with it in this context. I only know the color, hazelnuts and Witch Hazel.

 

[sandblaster]

It all depends on what a person wants. I like the simple easy to use and care for. That is worth a lot to me. With time the price will come down. If you are happen and need the personnel felling of running the biggest battery out there, go for it. For a new comer the biggest issue I had getting into the sport was understanding lipo charge rate and all that strange stuff. Was almost a turn off for the hobby. Now we have two companies that recognize that as a big hurdle to newcomers in the hobby and have taken steps to make it easier for new and old timers to feel more confortable and enjoy the hobby WITHOUIT the need to spend hours baby sitting batteries. The one thing I hated the most and spent the most time doing. So do I need to break speed record for my YouTube channel. NO. I want to run and enjoy the hobby.
Spell checker is not always accurate. Good thing I put on my flame proof suit. All of us should be encourage new users and let them know the options. For me Smart Batteries are a much appreciated advance to our hobby. For a new user, I would strongly suggest the smart battery system. One can then spend their hobby time running and building. Worrying about charge rates and blowing up batteries discourage a lot of new users. Took my son in law and I many hours trying to figure out charge rates etc. Doubt I would be here now without his help. Traxxas and Spectrum smart system will bring many new users in as the battery headache is now gone.

 

[Diem Turner]

It all depends on what a person wants. I like the simple easy to use and care for. That is worth a lot to me. With time the price will come down. If you are happen and need the personnel felling of running the biggest battery out there, go for it. For a new comer the biggest issue I had getting into the sport was understanding lipo charge rate and all that strange stuff. Was almost a turn off for the hobby. Now we have two companies that recognize that as a big hurdle to newcomers in the hobby and have taken steps to make it easier for new and old timers to feel more confortable and enjoy the hobby WITHOUIT the need to spend hours baby sitting batteries. The one thing I hated the most and spent the most time doing. So do I need to break speed record for my YouTube channel. NO. I want to run and enjoy the hobby.

And that's all well and good. You could have just stated your case as to what you like about them. That would have been fine. But instead you decided to open by calling everyone who doesn't like them "haters". You do you. Use what you like. You'll have your reasons for why you do and others will have reasons for why they don't. That's usually how this stuff works and those who are undecided can look at both arguments and figure out what suits their needs best.

I don't "babysit" my batteries either. I just don't leave them unattended. I just go through my before-run-checklist while they're charging. No time is wasted this way. I wouldn't leave SMART batteries unattended either and, to my mind, it's a false sense of security to think that nothing can happen with SMART batteries. Lipos bring with them inherent dangers that we're all aware of and deal with in one way or another.

At the end of the day what I'm saying is, there are better arguments to make than calling detractors "haters". We're all here to learn from one another and this just isn't a constructive way of going about it.

 

[sandblaster]

When I see a topic and there are only negative comments, that is not a positive thread. Call it what you want. It does not help the hobby. Stating both sides on a topic helps one decided. Moving on to enjoying not baby sitting and worrying about batteries when on the charger. Enjoy the hobby.

 

[Diem Turner]

When I see a topic and there are only negative comments, that is not a positive thread. Call it what you want. It does not help the hobby. Stating both sides on a topic helps one decided. Moving on to enjoying not baby sitting and worrying about batteries when on the charger. Enjoy the hobby.

When that's the case, then my first question is, "Is there a reasonable explanation given for the negative comments/reviews/opinions?" and not whether the thread is negative or positive. I just don't look at it in those terms. I assume that if there are positive things to say about something, someone will come out and make those arguments, which you did and, FWIW, I think they're perfectly reasonable. If they do what you need them to do, that's fantastic. Hell, if this helps more people get into the hobby, I'm all for it. I don't dislike them for the sake of disliking them. They just don't suit my particular use case and I just find them expensive for what they offer.

 

[Senton_Prime]

Yo I love my smart lipos.. I wish everyone knew exactly what all you got with them.. I run full spektrum setups just for the telemetry.. Its amazing all the features that most don't know about!! They def outperform zeee and my cnhl's so far that I know!! Spektrum fanboy here!!

 

[AaronF]

well, this turned toxic quickly... Not even 12 hours.

So the take away from this is, no there are no other manufacturers outside of Spektrum and Traxxas offering a smart type battery yet we have smart capable chargers that don't work with either, unless it is made by the same manufacturer.

Found a note in the box with my charger saying that the BattGo function has been authorised exclusively to Horizon Hobby and that it won't communicate with BattGo batteries.

As far as the tech goes, I can see this being how things turn out if the companies who control the tech and the batteries can agree on an open standard. People said the same thing about electric vehicles and now they're everywhere.

I like the idea of not having additional redundant cables hanging out of batteries and making it annoying to charge then having to tie them down in the truck to prevent them getting caught in the drive shaft and ripped up. Reverse compatibility with standard LiPos until manufactures no making them, then all this becomes irrelevant.

 

[Diem Turner]

well, this turned toxic quickly... Not even 12 hours.

So the take away from this is, no there are no other manufacturers outside of Spektrum and Traxxas offering a smart type battery yet we have smart capable chargers that don't work with either, unless it is made by the same manufacturer.

Found a note in the box with my charger saying that the BattGo function has been authorised exclusively to Horizon Hobby and that it won't communicate with BattGo batteries.

As far as the tech goes, I can see this being how things turn out if the companies who control the tech and the batteries can agree on an open standard. People said the same thing about electric vehicles and now they're everywhere.

I like the idea of not having additional redundant cables hanging out of batteries and making it annoying to charge then having to tie them down in the truck to prevent them getting caught in the drive shaft and ripped up. Reverse compatibility with standard LiPos until manufactures no making them, then all this becomes irrelevant.

I don't really consider this toxic, more of a friendly disagreement. But then again, my toxicity tolerance might be a little higher due to prolonged exposure

FWIW, I'm not saying the idea itself is bad, but the execution is a little lacking. An open standard would be the first thing you'd need for wider acceptance and I just generally have a dislike for proprietary ecosystems. Maybe it'll go somewhere in the future. Time will tell.

 

[Senton_Prime]

I don't really consider this toxic, more of a friendly disagreement. But then again, my toxicity tolerance might be a little higher due to prolonged exposure

FWIW, I'm not saying the idea itself is bad, but the execution is a little lacking. An open standard would be the first thing you'd need for wider acceptance and I just generally have a dislike for proprietary ecosystems. Maybe it'll go somewhere in the future. Time will tell.

I do actually wonder how many people have actually got to experience the full smart setup and hate it or don't like it or whatever.. dx5c or better with sr6100at or sr6110at, motor/esc, lipos/charges.. its fantastic to know in real time how exactly everything is operating, and I mean everything!!

 

[AaronF]

I guess if one major manufacturer or at least a popular one decided to go with an open standard the others would quickly follow; Think the whole Android v Apple scenario both companies have their pro's and con's. If you were to consider Spektrum and Traxxas to be the Apple and everyone else to be Android we would find some really good competition coming out, prices dropping and companies coming up with some innovative products.

 

[Diem Turner]

I do actually wonder how many people have actually got to experience the full smart setup and hate it or don't like it or whatever.. dx5c or better with sr6100at or sr6110at, motor/esc, lipos/charges.. its fantastic to know in real time how exactly everything is operating, and I mean everything!!

Sure, but this is exactly what I was talking about. It locks me into an ecosystem and I'm not a fan. I'm not saying that it's necessarily a bad thing, it may very well be exactly what some users (including yourself) want in which case, by all means, use it. But it's just not for me. I know everything that I want to know in real time using a mix of Castle (which is pretty much the only manufacturer that makes ESCs with the capabilities I need, Spektrum doesn't produce anything even remotely comparable), Futaba, ISDT and motors/batteries of my choosing. If I'm not mistaken (and please correct me if I'm wrong because I might be), the Spektrum/SMART setup should work with any motor (or do they make SMART motors too?). Again, that's just me. YMMV