Hey guys just wanted to get some hype going about the great products provided by Team Orion. Even though they are primarily an on/off-road company, they often help support oval events when asked. I know they supplied a few lipo packs and stuff at the 2007 ARCOR Worlds in July.

I'll do my best to answer any questions that you may have regarding any Team Orion product.

Make sure you check out their website (www.teamorion.com) and pick up Team Orion products at your local hobby shop.


Adam Liehr
Team Orion :thumbsup:

My charger requires me to set the voltage at which the change over from constant current to constant voltage occurs and it requires me to set the current at which the charge terminates. What are the proper settings for your 3200 and 4800 mA lipo packs? Thanks.

Stroker Ace:

The 3200 should be charged at 3.2amps and the 4800 should be charged at 4.8amps. Those are the only settings you should have to change on your charger.



Adam Liehr

Adam,

Ive spoke via email to Cliff Black @ ORION and he said that charging their lipo's at a 2c charge was perfectly fine...and was supposed to be added to the ORION web site.

This lets the 3200's get charged at 6.4 amps, and the 4800's at 9.6

I know it is published on the ORION site someplace that you can actually charge these at upto 3c, but it can/will shorten the expected life of the battery.

Joe, please read the cut and paste below, it is from the Orion site

What is the maximum charge rate?
Kokam certifies a charge rate of 1C (.1A for every 100mAh ex. 3.2A for a 3200mAh battery) This means the recommended maximum
charge current is 4.8A for 4800’s and 3.2A for 3200’s. The batteries are known to be capable of accepting 2C or even 3C charge rate.
However, this will reduce the useful cycle life. Therefore, Kokam and Team Orion do not recommend using a higher charge rate.

Because I have never used a lipo battery I had to consult Team Orion regarding Stocker's question. That information was direct from a Joe Pillars at Team Orion.


Adam Liehr

Make sure you guys keep an eye on Orion. I just caught word that they are going to release some stuff that I'm sure you guys will like. It's in the final testing phase in Sweeden right now and should hit the States in roughly a month (depending). There has been some extensive testing done and from what I hear it's all good and everyone is really impressed.


Adam Liehr

`Good job on your answers Adam


Rick

Thanks Rick.... doin my best!



Adam Liehr

Hey Adam, now that you're onboard with Orion, are they going to offer more oval based products, or are you going to join the darkside and begin racing On-Road.

I've actually been running on-road for about a month or so after I got hooked up with Schumacher. Orion is probably going to remain mainly an on/off road company, frankly because thats where the majority of the market is.

I'm not sure if they will make any oval specific products, however, my main purpose on the team is to promote and help develop orions products for Oval. If the industry ever goes completely brushless then there won't necessarily be oval spec motors, because we would probably be running the same motors that they do in road (depending on how far brushless motors can be tweaked). As far as brushed motors go, I think that they will do what they can to make their products fast in oval, because then they can take that knowledge to make them faster in road. You guys would be suprised about how much the onroad guys watch what the oval guys do for horsepower.

I'll be honest and say I don't exactly know everything that Orion has in store for their electric racing program, however I am very much looking forward to see what happens; and am extremely excited to be part of it.

Keep an eye on Orion, hopefully you'll like what you see in the future! :thumbsup:


-Adam Liehr

Stroker Ace:

adamliehr

It's a Pro-Trak charger and believe it or not, the constant voltage to constant current change over voltage and the charge termination current are adjustable.

adamliehr

It's a Pro-Trak charger and believe it or not, the constant voltage to constant current change over voltage and the charge termination current are adjustable.


Stroker,

I guess I would just put it back to the factory settings and just adjust the charge current to the appropriate pack.



Adam Liehr

try 8.00 cc to cv and then 8.40 for cut off!

Not sure those are the best but should put you close enough that you won't blow anything up!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to inform you about the new cell comming from Team Orion! This is one of the great new products that I couldn't wait to tell you about.
Here is a quote found on redrc.net about the new cells from redrc.net:


Team Orion are close to releasing 2 new revolutionary, self developed, competition level cells. Set to take the EP world by storm are these 4200MAh SHO, super high output, competition cells that have been specifically developed by Oscar Jansen and the company’s Chinese Engineering development team to be chemically stable, which elimates explosions and cell failure due to self discharge. These are the first cells to be actually made by Team Orion themselves and they promise to deliver great power and long run times, and as an added bonus they can be purchased as hand made packs in saddle or straight 5 or 6 cell configurations, as well as loose. Team Orion have also announced new 2/3 A type cells that use the same chemical structure as the 4200 cells and are great for powering your micro racer or configured as receiver packs that offer long run time and can easily cope with high current servos in both off road and on road cars. Both types of next generation cells will be available to buy in the next 2 weeks.

I can't speak about their performance as of yet because only a few drivers in the world currently have them. I should have mine in about two weeks, and then I'll be able to let you know about their performance personally. It was stated in the quote but just for clarification, these cells are NOT IB, EP, EB. They are completely and exclusively produced by Team Orion.


Adam Liehr
Team Orion

Adam,
are these the same as the EP4600's that are supposed to be high voltage cells.
and is Orion going to offer them in 4cell packs

No, these are not the same as the EP cells, they are not the same as any cells out there.

I'm pretty sure that they will offer them in 4 cell packs.


Adam Liehr

OK..don't flame me...and I don't want to turn this into a this vs. that debate, but I am curious. As to me, Orion is a leader in the lipo push. Does Orion see the nimh battery still have a lot of life yet. As I read thread after thread about the nimh vs. lipo, it's interesting that the company who is having success w/their lipo's, are investing in their own nimh cell. Any thoughts on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

What would be the reason Orion would do this?

Thanks,
Aaron

What would be the reason Orion would do this?



Well, the WORLD is a huge market, and regardless of how successful LIPOs are at moving into that market, there will be a place for NiMh's for probably several more years... So thier reason would probably be...as most business reasons are "TO PROFIT"

OK..don't flame me...and I don't want to turn this into a this vs. that debate, but I am curious. As to me, Orion is a leader in the lipo push. Does Orion see the nimh battery still have a lot of life yet. As I read thread after thread about the nimh vs. lipo, it's interesting that the company who is having success w/their lipo's, are investing in their own nimh cell. Any thoughts on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

What would be the reason Orion would do this?

Thanks,
Aaron


From they way I see it, Orion is investing in a NIMH cell because that is the only type of cell allowed for racing at a national or world level. Team Orion is a competition/racing based company, and for them to not have a product to use to compete would contradict that.

Also, and I have heard this direct from Orion, they are tired of the junk batteries as much as we are. They want to provide the customer with a fast and reliable battery, that won't blow up and hurt anyone or anything.


No reason to "flame" you, that is a legitamite question. :thumbsup:


Another side note about the cells, I have heard from other drivers that were given some to test and were told to abuse the heck out of them to see if they would blow. So far.... knock on wood... none have that I am aware of and all are experiencing more power from these in back to back testing with new IB cells.

Adam Liehr

The Norwegian Federation has taken the rather drastic measure of calling a halt to all races and training for electric powered classes following 3 charging related ‘explosions’ at a 1/10th scale National last weekend. According to the source on oOple.com, a lot of the failures have occured in the past with the IB4200 cell, however the most recent failures that prompted this ban on racing were LRP VTecs and Team Orion 4200, both IB made cells. All racing will stay suspended until January 2008, although I’m not sure what will be different from then until now, perhaps a list of approved cells?



this is from the same redrc.net site... Orion doesn't have there own chinese battery making company, IB has just offered all companys to have own shrink wrap

At this moment Team Orion is selling IB 4200 cells. True.

However their new cell will be available next week from what I have been told. Just in time for the Indoor Champs in Cleveland. The new cells that Orion will be produced will not be re-labeled IB cells, that I have been garunteed. If Orion wanted to do that, they would not bother with spending the money on new shrink, because they are already selling these cells. Also there would be no reason to re-release a cell that everyone hates. That doesn't make good business sense.

Please try them when they become available before you try to discredit them.


Thanks,
Adam Liehr

adam what are the #'s like on the new cells and how much per pack? also are they ROAR legal?

adam what are the #'s like on the new cells and how much per pack? also are they ROAR legal?


I'm not sure about the numbers yet. They are being matched in Switzerland as we type. There will be 80 packs at the Indoor champs next weekend. I should have mine then. The only performance information that I have been given is from on track testing, which their results were great.

The price will be right along with the price of Orion's IB cells. Approx $53 from Horizon.

ROAR has sample cells now and they should be approved soon.

Where can I buy the Orion Avionis Lipo balancer ORI62204

Cliff Black and TEAM ORION came through with support for our 2007 SWTour Series Champions...and ALL 4 of these champions received a Brand New ORION 3200 LIPO battery to help them get ready for our 2008 Season.

Along with ORION's support we also received from Team Novak for each of these champions a Brand New Brushless Motor for EACH of the 4 classes we offer.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR OVAL SUPPORT ORION and NOVAK!

Thanks Team Orion for your support of The Southwesttour Oval Series. Going Lipo has given me time to work on my car but also actually watch some racing. Really am enjoying lipo although I did fight it at first. K........

Can the Orion Advantage charger be upgraded to charge the a123 li ions pcaks

Well, we kicked off our 2008 Oval season last weekend at the Encino Velodrome.

This was our first "OFFICIAL" Lipo/BL race...and the word from the pits was "AWESOME"

Everybody really enjoyed the ease of which recharging and no motor work was...

We were able to keep the program moving along quick enough we even got to sneak an extra round of qualifying in.

I just wanted to bring this thread back to the top to show my appreciation for the great customer service that i received from Joe Pillars at Team Orion over the last few days. I had a 4800 lipo pack that I had messed up and i sent an email to Orion through their site and got a response the same day from Joe, This was early last week. He asked me to send the battery into them to take a look to see what had gone wrong and include a copy of the email that i had sent to him. I sent it to them in CA on the 9th and they rec'd it yesterday. I got an email from Joe yesterday that he had already had a chance to look at the battery and told me what was wrong with it and how we could resolve the situation. It was amazing to deal with only one person from beginning to the end of the entire process and I just want to say thanks to Joe as this is not what i was expecting. Thanks Team Orion!!!

Jason Abernathy