Battery question

[Gundragon]

I have a 6-cell 3600 battery that I am charging at 4 amps and notice that it is getting hot to the touch when charging. Should I lower the Amps to another setting or is this normal that it gets that warm. It is a new battery so am really wondering if there is something I am doing wrong on the charge or not. Also, how do you test the temperature on something like this, if you don't have a temperature gun? And one more thing...what does "equalizing tray" do and how do you get one? Is it something I should think on getting at a later time? Any thoughts would be helpful!

Thanks again!

Thanks to Fast Eddy for the Battery Article.

 

[Rolex]

We need to know the brand of the battery and if it's NiCd, NiMH or LiPo, and what type of charger you are using.

 

[Gundragon]

I will look at the battery name and reply to that tonight, but I am using the Prophet Plus for the charger. All I can remember is that the Batter is a 6-cell 3600 battery (I think it is a NiMH or NiCd? Definatly not a LiPo.). My LHS said it was a good battery to use and has had no complaints on it. But I will get that tonight and post it when I get home.

 

[Gundragon]

Here s the information on the Battery:

It is a NiMH battery, made by Dynamite, it is a 6-cell flat, on the battery itself it says intellect sc-3600 High drain type.

Also would like to know how and if I need to drain the battery too.

Thank you everyone!!

 

[abadk9420]

It is normal for the battery to get fairly warm by the time it is done charging you might if you can drop down to 3.6 amp charge rate but 4 amps should be ok, Equlizing tray dose just what it says, it balances all the cells in the pack but I would not say it is needed, As long as you discharge the battery down to 0.9 volts per cell or 5.4 volts for the 6 cell pack once in a while you should be fine, nimh cells don't have as much of a problem with building up a memory like nicd's do. As far as temp goes some chargers have a temp probe you can plug in and will cut off at a certain temp, I have my intellipeak Ice set for 130 degrees.

 

[Gundragon]

Is it important to discharge the cell when you are not running the truck? I have not been doing this yet and want to know should I be now or does it matter at the moment? If so what is the better way to discharge the battery?

 

[sweetdiesel]

Nimh packs do not need to be discharged for storage. It is impossible to equalize cells in a stick pack unless you disassemble the pack. abadk9420's advice on discharging down to 5.4 volts is good.

If the pack temp gets hotter than 120-130 degrees F at the end of a charge cycle, you need to lower the delta voltage cutoff rate on your charger.

 

[Gundragon]

Can you tell me what equipment I would need to do that discharge?

Also, the Propeht Plus shows three amps... 1, 2, or 4. I charged my cell pack back up at 2 amps and it was still warm to the touch so I assume that is ok. But want to make sure I am doing all I can on this.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Yeah it's normal for your battery to be warm like that. I had the same charger, it's a great charger. As fas as discharging, as long as you run it down pretty low once in a while when it's in the truck you should be ok. If you were into hardcore racing and needed to know exactly what was going on with each matched cell it might be different, but I think you're just fine with the equipment that you have for now. I charged similar batteries on the same charger. I would charge mine at 2 amps unless I was in a huge hurry, and then I would charge it at 4 amps.

Are you making sure to let the pack cool down after running it in the car before you charge it? That may explain for some higer temps. You should always let the pack have a cool down period after you get done charging and before you run it, and also after you've been running it before you charge it.

 

[Gundragon]

I actually have been doing that Charlie, not that anyone told me (until you mentioned it) to do this but just thought it did not make sense since reading everything about heat being an issue with batteries and could cause damage to the engine. So I just left the battery unplugged for about 10 minutes or so to let it cool down and then would run the battery after that or try and get the battery to peak again making sure that the battery did not heat up like it was when charging to the max.

I am thinking of later on going hard core racing but will not get to that point till I know enough about the truck to know a, there is something wrong, or b, there is a problem with the charged battery or batteries in the controller. Either way, I know I am a long ways away from being ready to truely run a race, but at the same time I wanna know what I can ahead of time to say to myself, I knew this was going to happen and I am ready for it. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying I can be prepared for ALL circumstances, no one can truely be that set, but it would just be good to have that warm fuzzy feeling in the stomach knowing that I at least was prepared for something