Crazyrcer

I'm considering a couple of different planes. One of them uses [link=http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/128509.asp]this[/link] battery. I already have two chargers for my cars so I don't want to have to get another. Will a peak detection charger with Deans plugs work for that battery if I made an adapter?

Thanks

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

As a rule of thumb, you want to charge NiMH packs at their C rate, that is, charge them at a rate equal to their capacity in mAh. Your 300mAh pack should be charged on a peak detect charger at .3 Amps, or 300mA. What you need is a charger that is capable of charging at least 8 cells and has an adjustable current such that it can be lowered to .3 Amps.

Car chargers generally only charge 6 or 7 cells, and generally charge at extremely high currents. Most of them are not suitable for charging park flyer batteries. Check yours to make sure.

Crazyrcer

My charger is a Black Widow Pro AC/DC peak charger. It can do 6 or 7 cells at 1, 2, 3 or 4 amps, so I'm geussing that won't work. It's made for charging sub C size cells, so would it work for the cells in that battery because they are smaller?

Thanks

latch66

You'll have a good chance of frying that pack with that charger. Those batteries are on the small and delicate side.

Nimh's need to be charged differently than a Nicd to get the best performance/life out of them.

There are several inexpensive chargers capable of handling both Nicd and Nimh's.

My 2 cents is to pick up one of them for your airplane pack.

Crazyrcer

I forgot to mention that. My charger can charge NiMh or NiCd. I charge both on it.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

Doesn't matter in this case. The minimum charge rate is far too high, and the maximum cell count is too low.

You can get a Hitec CG340 for less than $40 from most vendors. It's a nice compact easy-to-use field charger that handles up to 16 cells and has an adjustable current from 0 to 1.5 Amps for NiMH cells.

Crazyrcer

Ok. What about [link=http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/128519.asp]this[/link] battery? I don't think it would work on my charger because it's an 8 cell battery (my charger can only handle 7), but would it work on the Hitec CG340? Is there some other charger that it could work on that can use DC and AC power?

Thanks for all the help!

latch66

Yes, it will work with the Hitec Charger. You are right, you will still have problems with your current charger because of the cell count.

If you need a charger to have DC and AC, I think one of the "Brain" series will do both DC and AC. But I'm not sure.

Most airplane chargers are DC only. We use power supplies to use them as bench chargers.



What planes are you looking at? There is a big difference in the two battery packs you've shown.

The first is a Nimh mainly for parkflyers. The second is a 500AR Nicd pack that was popular for speed planes a few years ago.

I hope this helps.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

If you look at the features of the CG340:

- Charges 1 to 16 NiMH or NiCd cells
- Charges NiCd at 0 to 3 Amps
- Charges NiMH at 0 to 1.5 Amps

Your cell count (8) and required charge rate (.3 Amps) fall right in the middle. I think you can make the call.

One thing you don't want to worry about is if a charger has AC. The highest cell count on an AC/DC charger that I've seen is 8, and then it can only charge 8 when it's connected to AC power so it's useless at the flying field. You need a separate field charger anyway, so you may as well buy a field charger like the CG340 and an external power supply. For about the same price as the MRC SuperBrain, you can get a CG340 and a Radio Shack 3 Amp power supply. Now you have a nice compact lightweight charger to take to the field, and you can leave the brick of a power supply at home.