John Ferguson wrote:
Been reading this thread and found the discussion quite
interesting, interesting enough to go looking. I found
this site selling L-ION batteries, charge protectors
and special L-ION chargers all at very reasonable prices.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...WCATS&Category
=489

One part of this discussion has been about not doing
it yourself, would making a battery out of these parts
constitute doing it yourself for someone reasonably
proficient and capable of taking care in assembly of
such a pack.

I don't intend to be facetious when I say "If you have to ask, don't do
it yourself!" Assembling the pack is not the issue, but charging it
properly and protecting it from overheating, mechanical damage, and
probably other issues I'm not familiar with. Li-ion cells are not
tolerant of poor charging methods compared to lead acid cells, ni-cads,
or even Ni-mh cells. The external laptop batteries we are discussing are
packaged units designed and manufactured expressly for that use, and
come with a charger matched to the unit, so I think they would work
better and be much safer than most of us could construct. Even so, it's
not obvious (yet) that they are actually compatible with glider usage,
given the temperature and altitude ranges we fly in.

I fly a turbo and regaining about 6 kilo of battery
weight is attractive as I stand about 90 kilos ready
to fly.

Are you thinking of using a Li-ion battery for the starter battery?
Don't even think of going there!

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA