RunRyder - Handling NIMHs?

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e-Electric Batteries & Chargers > Handling NIMHs?

Heli_dude979
Senior Heliman
Location: College Station, TX

Hey Guys, I got a brand new 4000Mah receiver pack and I want to make sure I don't mess it up. What kind of a charge rate should I charge it at? Discharge? I'm using a triton - how do I know when it gives a "false peak" or just won't take any more juice? Any suggestions? this is my first Nimh pack.

12-16-2003 Over year old.

Ross R
Veteran
Location: Rochester NY

For maximum life I would recomend cycling it first. Setup a charge/discharge cycle at 1/10th of it's capacity (C/10) in your case that would be .4Amp.
Let it completely charge, and discharge at this slow rate. It may take 12-14hrs per charge. After that let the pack rest for a day and repeat for best results. Otherwise it should be fine to throw it in after the first cycle. Of course this is not necessary, but it will provide maximum life.

False peaks usually occur when batteries are not completely cycled, or broken in. If the battery takes significantly less than it's capacity after being fully discharged, start charging again until it reaches full capacity, they will get warm, but if the pack gets hot immediately disconnect it.

After cycling it I would charge it at about 1.5-2Amps whenever possible. There should be a recomendation on the charge rate on the pack.
Hope this helps

12-16-2003 Over year old.

Heli_dude979
Senior Heliman
Location: College Station, TX

I set it on a charge rate of .4 amp this morning and it just ended at 1745 Mah - should I just set it to charge again and add up the charges between false peaks to know when it reaches 4000?

12-16-2003 Over year old.

Ross R
Veteran
Location: Rochester NY

Try again and add it up, also make sure there is no max input set.
Otherwise it may have already been partially charged.
NiMH packs get very warm near the end of a charge, thats another way to tell if they are fully charged.

12-16-2003 Over year old.

Heli_dude979
Senior Heliman
Location: College Station, TX

Great! Thanks a lot Ross!

12-16-2003 Over year old.

Glenn in Den
Key Veteran
Location: Longmont, Colorado area

There is another thing the Triton does with nimh that I'm not crazy about:

The "top off" feature. . . . . it charges the nimh until it peaks and then there is a delay of a few minutes. After the delay it goes into the "top off mode" which is user adjustable. The problem is the mah counter resets so you don't know how much of a charge your battery received unless you are there during the delay.

I'm having a problem with my new 6 cell GP3300 pack. I did a slow charge all the way and then ran it in the car (MAN!, it went FOREVER!).
Then I tried to do a fast charge and it got up around 900-1000 mah and then stopped and went into that "Top Off Mode." I played with the settings but so far no luck.

What are you nimh Triton folks using for peak sensitivity settings and peak delay settings? I set it from 3 to 10 mv and no change. I set the peak delay at 15 and still had the same "half charge" result (now it is set to 0 to disable it).

Ideas?

Thanks.

Glenn.

I'm not really an R/C pilot, I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night!

12-21-2003 Over year old.

Heli_dude979
Senior Heliman
Location: College Station, TX

That's true, the top off featuer really is a pain in the butt. I just check the readout often to see how much the battery was charged.... It would be nice to find a way around that!

12-21-2003 Over year old.

Ruff
Veteran
Location: Queen Creek, AZ

Glen/Dude,

When charging nihm packs, when it is complete. Hit the battery type button and scroll it. It will tell you the total charge.

Kind of a pain, but it is there....

Ruff

12-21-2003 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Glenn in Den
Key Veteran
Location: Longmont, Colorado area

Thanks for that tip.

It turns out it was just the battery needing break-in. On the second charge, it stopped at 3500mah (because I set that as a limit) on the GP-3300 pack.

Those batteries are AWESOME!

Glenn.

I'm not really an R/C pilot, I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night!

12-23-2003 Over year old.

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e-Electric Batteries & Chargers > Handling NIMHs?

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