Zorak

I read on the misbehavin' rc website an interesting way to tell if your nicads are discharged enough. it said that when you see a considerable decrease in speed or when on grass, the car barely moves, it is time to let the batteries cool and then charge. how reliable would this be?
then for charging, it recommended charging until the nicad felt warm.
i drive an electric rustler from kit btw, and id say im on the borderline between newbie and....normal rc-er
any comments on the battery stuff?

tunnelvishon

Although i don't do the cars (yet), I would say that the site is more or less correct. I notice with my planes/e-gliders that the power goes down just before the BEC kicks in at 5 volt cutoff. As for the car barely moving in grass...it would depend on the load on the motor, gearing, size of tires ect.. The problem with driving the cells right down too low is if one cell is greatly out of voltage balance. You could risk reversal of that cell. Older/worn out batteries are at geater risk for this. As for charging till they are warm...this is a good guidline. Peak chargers are a great investment and you will notice quite a difference in power/capacity from a freshly peaked pack.