what is cycling

[nitrost]

what is cycling a battery? is it dicharging then charging

 

[Diver6127]

Yes, cycling of battery packs is the charging and discharging of a battery in order to condition or "Wake up" the cells.

 

[Rolex]

Normally 3 cycles required. NiCads only, not NiMh.
Diver, check me on this, but isn't it a maximum 1 amp discharge, then charge at it's own rate? ie: 1500s at 1500.

 

[Diver6127]

I really coudn't tell you and "know" that I am correct. I do what the guys who have been doing this for a longer amount of time tell me to do after a pack is built which is, equalize the pack in a smart tray discharger to .9 amps before the first charge, then do a full charge according to the battery specs for your pack type (4 and 6 cell packs are different as well as manufacturer specs); Dishcarge at least at 10 amps; Cool the packs and repeat. Yes this is with a Nimh pack.

When I got my Fusion packs, it said to charge and go because the packs would wake up little by little by themselves.

Regardless, I will ask the guys on Monday for a more accurate answer. Cycling was mainly done on NiCad for "memory" purposes. For Nimh, I just charge and go. Just make sure to bring the individual cells down to .9amps before charging.

 

[Lessen]

I'm gonna but in here for sec and ask a newbie question. I don't know anything about electrics really so I'm curious... how do you know when your batteries are at .9amps?

 

[Diver6127]

I use the Novak Smarttray. It has an auto cutoff that you set for individual cells. There is a digital readout.

 

[Rolex]

I really coudn't tell you and "know" that I am correct. I do what the guys who have been doing this for a longer amount of time tell me to do after a pack is built which is, equalize the pack in a smart tray discharger to .9 amps before the first charge, then do a full charge according to the battery specs for your pack type (4 and 6 cell packs are different as well as manufacturer specs); Dishcarge at least at 10 amps; Cool the packs and repeat. Yes this is with a Nimh pack.

Was that a typo? did you mean NiCad?

 

[Diver6127]

No that's what they said they do with their Nimh packs. No typo. That's why I have to go back to them to make sure. Me, I just charge and go.

 

[Rolex]

News to me. NiMh does not retain a 'memory' which is the reason for cycling.
Who's "they", the hobby shop or the battery manufacturer?
If it's the guy in the store, it's total non-info.

 

[UltegraSTI]

shoot thought a bicycle question of some type that got lost haha

-Ult

 

[Rolex]

shoot thought a bicycle question of some type that got lost haha

-Ult

I haven't cycled in years, maybe that's why I'm losing my memory. Getting back to the battery thing, ah, um, um...what were we talking about?

 

[Diver6127]

They don't do it for the memory, since as you said, Nimh has no memory. It's mostly to wake up the pack. As I said, I mainly just take it out and start charging and use it as I would when I race.

 

[RCDad]

I've read you can discharge the batteries just by running the car until it barely crawls. Usually I hold it up and just let it go until the wheels stop entirely?

 

[Diver6127]

The reason I stick mine on a smart tray is to make sure each cell get's an exact starting point for charge. Also helps keep the pack at optimum performance.

 

[sl0eg1n]

During highly competitive electric car races, the final minutes are usually a battle between batteries. Also since each pack is $70 and above, batteries should always be well taken care of.

The following was taken from the fusion batteries website regarding using a discharge tray. The complete write-up can be viewed at http://www.fusionbatteries.com/Fusion_Instructions.pdf

"First and foremost almost every discharge tray is considered an equalizing device. That means that if you tray your batteries they should all arrive at the same point in the discharge curve when they are complete. This means that when you charge your batteries all of the cells should arrive at the peak almost at the same time. This is good. This means that you should not get a weak cell that will become reversed by the others discharging through it while you are running. If you tray your batteries to 0.9v per cell regularly you will see that the runtime should start to stabilize and the voltage start to go up some."