Paul,
I bought a gel cell at the LHS (the one west of Tammies that we visited), and it gave me trouble from the start. Everything worked perfectly except my half A starter (which was new at the time). Thought I had a bad starter, but decided to solder all the battery to panel connections to eliminate that as a problem.
After soldering, I recharged the battery with it still sitting outside my flight box, where I could measure voltage drops across the connections. Plugged in my starter, connected my multimeter directly to the battery tabs, and pressed the starter button. The meter immediately dropped to about eight volts!
This was an off the shelf alarm system battery, not a Hobby specific gel battery like Hobbico. Unfortunately, the battery had no warranty, so I had to buy another. I told them that if they didn't warranty the new one, they would get no more business from me! They said no problem, bring it back and we will replace it. The second battery has worked like a charm, and my Miller starter now cranks every engine I've tried, up to and including a 15 diesel.
Randy has good results with motorcycle batteries, and those are what I used for many years while flying R/C. They are more rugged, have good terminal studs instead of solder tabs, and last for years. The only problem is that they can vent acid inside your flight box, so you have to charge them with care.
By the way, I found a gem of a charger at Batteries Plus for twenty bucks. It has an attached led module that indicates charging (yellow), fully charged (green), and open, or connected in reverse (red). Mine is made in Germany by "Werker". The best part, is that it does not say "Made in China"!
Bill
Topic: Battery for flite box? (Read 2293 times)