Battery charging/discharging questions

[Plaidfish]

what rates should I charge, discharge and what times do you use for cycling, and how often should I do all that for 6-cell gp3300s???? I just got a good charger so i can get the most out of my batteries and all the tags on my packs w/ that data are gone......

 

[bigfreak]

Is this an electric RC? or like a hump pack? Hump packs can be charged over night at a rate of 1/10th of their capacity. If you have a 2200 mah hump pack, you should charge it at 200 mah or 0.2 amps per hour.

 

[Plaidfish]

No I have a yokomo YR 4m-2 pro, I just play w/ it in the cul de sac in front of the house....I've been using an old (20+ yrs Old) MRC charger for the batts and I just finally got the good charger, cause I'm lookin at getting a TC3 soon...I have never done any real battery maintenance and I'm lost at what I should set all the limits on the charger to for really any of my batteries including Rx Packs.....this thing has got a limit for everything on it......I tried to search for Battery maintenance and didn't really find what I wanted...if you have a link to a good source for that type of info I'd appreciate it.....and do you know what I should charge a glow ignitor at? and where i can find or how to make a plug for it for the charger?.....I always stayed off the electric stuff because of the cost of pit equipment.....I'm just getting into electric now and wnat to do it right this time......also, how do you cycle the battery pack? meaning what time delays between charge / discharge, how many cycles? I know there is a good site for this info I just can't find one that is comprehensive......I feel like an idiot reading some of this stuff....LOL....oh well live and learn and learn and learn then die.....

 

[Lessen]

no fret Plaid. I feel like an idiot when it comes to electrics also. what charger
did you get? a Triton? If so, Towerhobbies as connectors for glow plub
ignitors and connectors for different style connectors like Futaba style.

great planes adaptors

 

[sl0eg1n]

it all depends on how the cells were matched. i have a losi xxx-s graphite plus and use race level matched packs. with my pulsar competition 2 charger i charge my 6 cell packs at 6.0 amps with 50mV peak detection.

you shouldn't need to cycle them because it usually doesn't do anything. i never cycled my packs but i do equalize them before charging. this ensures that the cells have an equal starting point.

 

[Plaidfish]

do you need to take the pack apart to equalize them?
I just asked the local electric guy and he recommends 5A charge, 30A discharge.....no need to cycle them cause they're gp3300 NiMH battery pack and those arent't NiCD......is the 50mV peak like a point that it gets to and shuts the charge off? I have so much to learn about battery care & maintenance....

 

[RustlerDood]

the 50mv refers to the drop from the peak voltage the charger sees before it shuts off. For example, your battery goes up to 9.7v and starts to drop and when it drops 50mv then the charger shuts off...you can adjust this setting on the pulsar comp chargers. I charge my matched battery packs @ 6amps with 20Mv cutoff

If you are serious about racing the TC3 get a battery discharger and then an equalizer so all your batteries start at the same point which should be 0.9v. Discharge and equalize your batteries regularly and your batteries will last longer and give you more juice over the long run.

Also make sure you store your Nimh with a full charge if you are going to be letting them sit for longer than a week. In fact I always charge all my batteries to full before putting them away for storage. Also you should get a fan where you can rest the batteries while they are charging so they can get some cool air across them as they charge.....the cool air helps them get a little more peak charge.

 

[Plaidfish]

I have a bunch of 12VDC server fans I can wire up to my Power Suppy....I'm not really serious about any racing....yet LOL.....I just enjoy performance in anything I do.....however there is the line I draw when it's becoming more work than play.....my charger has a 15mV/C is the highest peak drop I can set....and the highest discharge current I get is 10A......I was told to discharge at 30A.....how do I get that?...also what is the ideal current to trickle charge packs and glow ignitors at?

 

[Plaidfish]

Anyone have answer?

 

[sl0eg1n]

to discharge at 30A you can use a bulb discharger with cutoff switch. racer's edge has a 24A discharger with cutoff and it usually sells for $40. just add more bulbs to get 30A.

here's the link for the bulb discharger with cutoff.
http://www.racers-edge.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=22951&cat=330&page=1

 

[Plaidfish]

O I thought the charger would discharge it at the correct rate.....WTF...why can't they make something like that built into the charger...now I have to buy another pit tool?!!?!?!? What is the damage incurred to the battery if use the discharge at 10A?

 

[sl0eg1n]

welcome to the world of electric racing. i have spent about $1000 on electric racing equipment, not including the kit. there is also more maintenance involved regarding motor and batteries. the great things about electrics is that it only needs to be bought once. you could use the equipment on all of your electric kits, current and future. if you want a charger that does basically everything needed, the turbo 35 gfx ($420) is what you would be looking to invest in.

in regards to discharging, it is recommended that the discharge current be set at approximately the amp load at which the batteries will be raced. For example, if you race 12th scale and figure that the average amp draw for your track is 20 amps then that should also be your discharge amp setting. Discharge the batteries to 0.9v per cell after racing. In the case of a 6 cell battery pack that would be 5.4 volts and 3.6 volts in the case of a four cell pack.

 

[Pinblaster]

For your glow charger 1.5 volts at 125ma or 0.12amps. (+/- 1amp). Battery matchers only work for parallel packs >(IIIIII)and will not work on stick packs >(===). As far as cycling the packs, you only need to cycle Nicd packs when they have been stored for more than a week and only need to be cycled a few times to bring them back to life. Set the delay time long enough to allow the packs to cool completely between charge and discharge cycles. You may want to set your delay to 4 hours and 3 cycles for Nicd's and the last cycle to discharge the packs then let them sit for 24 hours before you recharge them (Always store the Nicd's discharged) unless you plan to run them anytime soon, wait until you plan to use them before you recharge. You can repeak the packs at the track before you run them.