Lead Acid Batteries

[aurora83]

I am looking for a 10v 850mAh lead acid battery as a replacement for a remote control car. However i can't seem to find any 10v. Only 6v or 12v.

I'm not sure sure which one to go for. I think 6v might not be powerful enough, but i don't want the 12v to burn our the motors in the car.

Also, does it matter if i go for a higher mAh? I know that this just states current per hour, so you divide stated mAh by the amount used. This will tell you how long the battery should run for.

Any thoughts please.

[ianmunt]

the mAh doesn't matter,other than it will physically be larger so may not fit.If it does fit in ,higher will mean longer duration between charges.
You may have to connect 5x 2 volt units in series if you are unable to find a somewhat specialied 10 volt item.
Very likely a 6 volt unit will power up the car,but performance will be reduced

[ianmunt]

As a further thought,are you sure its lead acid?Many battery powered models use a NiCd battery pack with a nominal 9.6 volt output.They need a different charging set up.

[aurora83]

If the RC car was using a lead acid battery, could i just replace it with a similar rated Ni-Cd?

[rccatnap]

Yes, though your limitation may be the physical space that the battery pack takes up in the car.
Nickel Cadmium batteries are slowly being phased out of the retail market and being replaced by Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH). All the cell sizes remain similar to the ordinary alkaline cells, e.g. AA; AAA; C etc.
All are still available from Maplin < www.maplin.co.uk > and check out batteries.
The individual lead-acid batteries that I remember went by the 'Cyclon' name and marketed in the USA. They were 2V each and to get 10V all you needed were five wired in series, but they were on the large size.
Using 12V on a 10V motor would not normally be a problem as you would usually be going at full power for only short periods, the limiting factor might be the speed controller; can that handle 12V?
The newer cells on the market are Lithium-Polymer (Li-Po) and three cells in series would work fine. They have far more storage capacity for the size than all the other cells. However, you would need a specialist charger unit for it, under NO circumstances use a Ni-Cd or Lead Acid charger. West London Models < www.westlondonmodels.com > should be able to answer all your queries. Good luck.