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Hi folks,

My son recently received a Traxxas Bandit for his birthday. It came with a battery and 12 volt car charger. However this doesn't help him when I am not around. I remember back in my days I had Hobbico charger but the plug on it to receive the battery was different. Are Traxxas batteries proprietary to their cars? Do I have to stick with Traxxas brand batteries and chargers? Or is there and adapter I can purchase that will allow different batteries and chargers to be used? If so what all do you folks recommend?

Thanks

Duder

It should be just a standard 6 cell nimh, If you plan to stick with that as they are fairly robust and you wish to go fairly inexpensive I would offer Hobbyking as a suggestion.

I picked up a few of these a few years back along with a basic charger from them and they have been working well for the past couple years.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=77939

They also have some 5000mah for about $5 more

As for the plugs, you can get plugs of any end you wish to use and if the batteries don't have compatable ones they are easy enough to change with a soldering iron and a bit of soldering.

For traxxas something like this in the correct gender for your application would be good.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-female-Traxxas-trx-type-high-current-plug-connector-for-lipo-nimh-battery-/172149119639?hash=item2814e31a97:g:hEIAAOxyVaBS5nkt

As for a charger, if you have the ability you can turn a used but good pc power supply into a decent 12 volt power supply for a DC only battery charger or you could pick up a cheap ac/dc charger. You would likely need to adapt it to your situation... but that is what makes it a hobby

As for one from Hobbyking, this one might be oki for a while?
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=95985

And for a tip with Hobbyking, you can get a bit of a discount on items there is you just loiter on a product page and wait for the popup... good for batteries where you plan to buy several

CLM,

Thats some good feed back. The battery you linked is like my old ones, connector and all. His actually came with a 7 cell battery. Which probably doesn't make much difference in this case. I do have a soldering gun and do know how to solder, as I am a big hobbyist my self. So modding anything isn't a big issue. I noticed a lot of the chargers now days all have banana plugs. Seems to make since to make something up that would adapt to that.

duder1982 wrote:CLM,

Thats some good feed back. The battery you linked is like my old ones, connector and all. His actually came with a 7 cell battery. Which probably doesn't make much difference in this case. I do have a soldering gun and do know how to solder, as I am a big hobbyist my self. So modding anything isn't a big issue. I noticed a lot of the chargers now days all have banana plugs. Seems to make since to make something up that would adapt to that.

I'd rather solder than use an adapter - more secure a solution Unless you use multiple types of connectors at home...

the "banana-like" plugs are 4mm bullet connectors - the modern racing standard Here's a couple of pics to help you!





And... yes, it's a hobby... modifying, drilling, adapting, boring out, repainting, and soldering your own connectors - that's the name of the game!

Paul