what battery are you guys use?

[RCtech]

what kind of battery do you use for rocketry? lipo? NIMH? Nicd? and what capacities?

[OverTheTop]

LiPos from hobbyking.com, typically Turnigy brand. 2S 120mAh for deployment, 2S 180mAh for the altimeters (Ravens), 1S 18650 cell for powering the TeleMega.

[aardman]

For really critical stuff, a 9V Duracell is hard to beat. Cheap and extremely reliable.

[SpaceManMat]

Lipo, similar to what OTT said. These have ver good energy density so there’s a weight saving for the same operating time.

[CATO]

Turnigy Graphene Panther 500mAh 3S 75C Battery Pack

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/graphene-500mah-3s-75c.html

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[drew]

This thread on TRF might help.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/favorite-lipo-battery.152615/

And quoting Adrian A. from that thread. Emphasis mine.

Lipo batteries are like disposable gloves in that the main consideration is to get the right size. The right battery will depend on the electronics you're powering, and both voltage and capacity are important. The batteries in this thread so far have 2 cells in series, which makes them higher voltage than ideal for all Featherweight products, which run best with 1-series batteries. For the Featherweight GPS tracker, larger 1S batteries are better, and a 400 mAhr 1S battery will last pretty much all day. For a Featherweight Raven firing deployment charges, A battery with too much capacity can produce too much current if the ematch shorts, which sometimes happens. So for Ravens, the best size is in the 160 mAhr to 180 mAhr range.

The other consideration is whether they have cell protection circuitry built in. It's generally a good feature, except when powering altimeters doing deployment charges, because the cell protection may cut off current when you're trying to fire an ematch. RC hobby batteries generally don't have cell protection, because they are trying to maximize the current they're getting out.

For me, I use single cell LiPos for my flight computers that have to fire e-matches. Lowest I'll go is 138mAh for powering the Raven in a tight space. If space isn't as much of an issue I'll chose a 240mAh or 350mAh battery. For powering my TeleGPS boards I use single cell 400mAh batteries. The device can run over 7 hours continuously on a single charged 400mAh battery. For high power BRB GPS I use either 850 or 900mAh batteries as that's the default that comes with the unit and given they're 100mW radios having some extra juice won't hurt.

Remember that all AltusMetrum products (excluding the TeleMini) can ONLY be powered by single cell lipos otherwise you'll let the magic smoke out!