Upgrades to allow a Combat Machine to fit a LiPo

[CommonComrade]

Hi, I've had my CM16 for a while now and I've been looking at LiPo batteries. I know that stock internals won't work with it. So, what would you recommend I do to allow it to fit one?

[Sitting Duck]

carbine - battery upfront ????

 

best use hobbyking's battery locator and work out what you can get in there 7.4v atm

 

make up rolled up cardboard - sticky back plastic washing up bottle blue peter style

serious make up something like the battery size - a tiny bit bigger to be on safe side

 

my guess zippy compacts are good compact lipo's but turnigy nano tech are also good compact lipo's

[Colonel Kurtz]

The dif with LIPO (rather than nimh) is they can output a much higher continuous current. This will turn the motor faster and can put stress on stock internals, but only really if you use an 11v lipo will it potentially damage it. Some more fragile or high-speed/rof guns might take a bit of wear from a 7v lipo, but you can always get one with a lower C rating if you're worried (i use 20c 7v lipo on my TM high-cycle)

 

Basically to use a lipo all you need is to plug one in, you might have to change the plug depending on what battery connection you've got. With LIPO it's recommended you install a MOSFET, a little electronics bit designed to bypass the trigger and stop the contacts burning out eventually from the higher current compared to NIMH. There's lots available and wiring diagrams floating around. If you're not comfortable with soldering then perhaps take it to an airsoft store to do for you.

 

In terms of the internals, as far as a gear box goes you kinda have to upgrade it all, or you're left with a weak link in the chain and that'll be what takes the brunt and breaks if your motor is kicking out more force than the gun was designed for.

 

In summary all you need is; 7.4v lipo battery of appropriate size, mosfet, perhaps dif battery connectors, and a gun that's internals are made of metal not plastic.

[Adam3088]

Stock internals will be fine with a 7.4v lipo, to run an 11.1v you will need to do some internal tweaks and personally I think if you want an AEG which is going to last a good amount of time without having to replace various parts of the gearbox every now and then, I'd stick with 7.4v.

Get yourself a decent smart charger such as a turnigy accucel 6 and check out the manual before using, in certain circumstances lipos can explode/combust (but they're pretty safe really).

Component shop is a good source of lipos + chargers and all that electrical stuff.

 

Would recommend a non-active braking MOSFET at some point as well, even a 7.4v causes quite a bit of arcing which in the long term damages trigger contacts.

[Guest PT247]

aye, what Adam said, grab a 7.4v LiPo and a balance charger, pop it in the gun.... jobs a good-un. No need at all to do any mods for a 7.4v LiPo

[Sitting Duck]

I can just squeeze a 2200mah zippy compact 25c 7.4v in my ics 42w's front handguard

(like a long cm carbine - except the 42w is fixed stock rear wired but looking at rewiring one to front & use a folding m4 stock)

 

So I say it might just just squeeze into a ics m4 front wired BUT it is tight and might not fit exactly into another G&G carbine

 

so please have a butcher's n make up a dummy battery thingy majig to check yourself

no point buying a battery that don't fit in there

i have ballsed up a couple of times and I'm supposed to be a little wiser - pahh still screwing up as I stumble through life

[Airsoft_Mr B]

7.4V = No upgrades really needed

11.1V = Lots of upgrades needed

[TheFull9]

OP doesn't make a lot of sense to me, is the problem fitment or function? As mentioned, a 7.4 will be fine. If the issue is physical space then we need more details of the gun, but if it can fit a NiMh somewhere it'll definitely fit just about any airsoft lipo.