Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-38362264-20190302005336/@comment-27306930-20190314040712

Sorry, I may have been somewhat "abrupt" earlier, so let me try to explain Lithium batteries in a simple, calm, self-evident way.

When the time comes that you're ready to graduate from regular grocery store alkaline batteries, rechargeable Lithium cells are the next step. There are basically three types of lithium batteries these days; LiFePo, LiMnO, and LiPo. There are a couple other weird ones I'm not going to talk about, so don't jump down my throat.

LiFePos are technically Lithium-Iron-Potassium batteries. They're cheap and they're good for thousands of charging cycles. But they're not really very powerful. They don't produce a lot of amps, which is important for applications like Nerf blaster motors that draw lots of current for a short period of time.

One step up you've got LiMnO batteries, also known as IMRs or 14500 cells. They are Lithium-ion-manganese-oxide batteries. They too have thousands of charge cycles, but they also produce a lot more instantaneous current (aka amps). Basically that means they're stronger, more powerful batteries.

So let's go on a tangent for a second. Almost all batteries are rated in milliamp hours, aka mAh. Think of it as the size of a bucket. Batteries that have higher mAh have larger buckets that hold more electricity. The bigger the bucket, the more electricity they can hold. The more electricity they hold, the faster and longer your motors can run.

At this point we're going nuclear. The next step is LiPos, which stands for Lithium Polymer cells. They come in two types; 2S meaning two in series, and 3S meaning three in series. These batteries produce a huge amount of power. They produce enough current to power extreme motors like 180s, Fangs, Hyperions, and other high drain motors for a long time.

That brings us to "stall current". Every type of motor needs a certain amount of power, aka watts, to start rotating. Bigger more powerful motors have larger stall currents. So your batteries need to be matched with the stall current of your motors. Bigger motors need bigger batteries.

So matching the motors and the batteries is a complicated process. You needs to provide the right number of volts, the proper stall current amps, and the appropriate mAh to enjoy your blaster for the maximum amount ot time.

I guess that wasn't simple. was it.