Trickle charge/household timer?
06-23-2012, 11:37 AM
#1
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Trickle charge/household timer?
What would be an adequate amount of time to set my household timer for (daily) to keep my nicads in a "ready to go state of charge" This will be after a full C-10 charge. I will use my standard C-10 wallwarts for chargers. My trusty old TME Auto-Trickle Adapter just bit the dust (after over 10 years of reliable service) and they are no longer in production. So the daily plug in timer will have to take it's place for the time being. The nicads in question are my 4 cell ignition packs for my gas engine planes. I'm thinking maybe 1 hour a day should keep them reasonably topped off and ready at a moments notice. Any suggestions?
06-23-2012, 01:08 PM
#3
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RE: Trickle charge/household timer?
Completely off the top of my head I would go for 20mins at 0.1c per day. Better off would be charge once per say 5days but not possible with your timer?
06-24-2012, 06:19 AM
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RE: Trickle charge/household timer?
I would never presume to know more about battery care then Red, but will offer my humble opinion anyway. I tried the 1 hour/day trickle routine several years back and ended up with unusable battery packs. Packs that were less than 2 yeas old lost their capacity after a couple of months of the 1 hour/day routine. At that point I purchased a peak charger and my routine now is; charge just before going to the field, after 4 or 5 flights, and upon returning home after the day. I have since had no more battery problems. With this experience, I would recommend that you get yourself a peak charger and forget about the 'timer' method.
Later;
D.w.
Later;
D.w.
06-24-2012, 08:13 AM
#7
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RE: Trickle charge/household timer?
I'm not a big fan of trickle charging either, but an hour a day 1/10c blast is better then a constant 1/50c trickle. I charge my batteries using a 1/2C peak, cycle them a couple of times a year to check for capacity. I also charge them when I get home from flying, and peak them, before I go flying again if it been more then a week. This method shows up things like shorted cells etc if you let the batteries sit for a day or so before flying.
