Cycling Packs.

[ohmygahitscoby]

When discharging them, do I want to discharge them all the way until they are empty, then charge them all the way up again? If so, how many times should I do this? It's for a NiMH pack, but I'm also going to be doing it to my NiCD packs. LMK. Thanks!

 

[abadk9420]

I have never noticed any big gains from cycling battery packs, the best advice I can give you is run them down to 0.9 volts per cell, for a 6 cell battery that would be 5.4 volts for the pack, any lower then that and you start running the chance of damaging your cells, or rvesing ther polarity, I just use my chargers discharge function set to 0.9 volts per cell.

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Well, I'm not sure about that. My discharger is just a basic Tamiya discharger with no options, just plug it in and let it discharge. I did accidentally discharge my pack all the way, I thought it was gonna be dead and not working anymore. Plugged it into the charger and it did charge.

 

[yngwie]

I heard somewhere (years ago) that using 1156 or 1157 automotive bulbs was a decent method of discharging packs. If I remember correctly the 1157 consumes about 2 amps.

Does anyone know what the 1156 consumes? Right now I'm discharging my Reedy 1600 mah Rx pack with one 1156.

I made a "discharge device" years ago using 10 1156 bulbs for my nicads to cycle them. I used 1156's becuse they were cheaper than the 1157's.

Yngwie

 

[RC Addict]

Conventional wisdom has it that NiCd's should be fully discharged while NiMH's should be stored with at least a partial charge and should be checked periodically for a partial charge while in storage. If your NiMH packs do go dead for an extended period of time it is likely that you will have to cycle them several times before they will maintain a charge.

If you are wondering about a discharge for the sake of just trying to drain NiMH's completely before a recharge that should not be necessary, but should be done for NiCd's.

 

[yngwie]

I'm not discharging for storage, but when I do I'll leave some charge in it. Thanks for the info.

It's a new pack and just cycling to get the most run time out of it. I've heard that they should be cycled a few times to get the run time up to par.Sound right?

Thanks

Yngwie

 

[RC Addict]

I'm not discharging for storage, but when I do I'll leave some charge in it. Thanks for the info.

It's a new pack and just cycling to get the most run time out of it. I've heard that they should be cycled a few times to get the run time up to par.Sound right?

Thanks

Yngwie

Opinions vary on new packs. If they are fresh you shouldn't need to cycle them. If they are stale (been on a shelf for a long time at the LHS) they might need cycled. It really can't hurt IMO but remember that the more you cycle a pack the more you wear it out. Battery storage is finite--sooner or later it will no longer hold a charge. Could be 1000 cycles but why waste 50 running cycles on maintenance if you don't have to.

 

[MonsterCowpower]

Cells have a limited lifespan,the idea is to keep these cells in optimum recharge for for the life of the cell.

To me recharging unused cells is not wasting cycles. cells left uncharged with a low voltage for extended periods of time will be of little worth when you try to charge them...as the capacity (mAH) will drop to the pits.

I made tests with the same brand,model and batch. The charged and discharged...cycled packs fare a lot better than packs that were just waiting to be finally charged and used.

Even if you do use 50 cycles to keep the cells alive,or lets call it busy state,you will still be a winner.As what are unused packs witha fraction of the initial capacity worth?

 

[Scrogg]

Makes sense cowpower. All my Nicd and Nimh packs get topped off every two weeks if they are not being used. i have a cheap 3300mah Nimh Ebay pack that refuses to die. I have been using it for over 3 years!