gms

Purchased my first r/c electric plane last august (Aerobird Challenger) and only have flown it for about 1 hour in total air time before I had to put it away as I was attending school out of town and then when I returned it was winter here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

My problem is as follows:

I took out my plane for the first time in about 5 months and went to charge the 7.2v 6 cell 900mh NiMH battery and in about 10 minutes the HobbyZone battery DC Peak Charger light came on to indicate it had full charge.

When I went to run up the plane (on the ground in a static position), the engine ran fine for about 5 seconds and then started to sputter when it was above half throttle, then it started cutting out anytime I would try to accelerate above half throttle. Shortly after it started running out of steam even below half throttle. Would not run for more than 5-10 seconds without running out of steam. Everytime I would bring the throttle back to zero and then back on it would run very briefly and then cut out.

In the manual this behaviour appears to be consistent with a feature that cuts off the power when the battery is weak and allows a little bit of power to land it.

I checked with a battery meter and I'm reading 7.3v even after running it till it is out of steam....not knowing much about batteries and new to the game. Is it possible to read 7.3v and not have enough power? Is it possible to have a battery die after sitting for 5 months and only 1 hour of air time?

Any help would greatly be appreciated as I'm not fond of the thought of having to packup and mail the plane back to HobbyZone and miss out on valuable flying time.

Bevo

Yes, a battery can die if it sits too long without being charged. You could try a deep cycle and see if the battery will come back. If it doesn't you may want to purchase a new battery and give that a try. It sounds like a battery problem but you wont know until you try a different battery.



Bevo

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

With NiCds and NiMHs, the voltage reading tells you nothing about the condition of the battery or how much charge it contains. It could be 90% full, or it could be 10%... The chemistry of these two technologies have the characteristics of a very "flat" discharge curve, where the battery stays at a certain voltage level for about 90% of its charge.

It is certainly possible for one or more individual cells in the pack to go bad just sitting there. That plane comes with an 8.4V pack, right? IF it's reading 7.3V, then it sounds like maybe one of the cells did indeed call it quits over the winter... That would also explain the false peak after only 10 minutes of charging. To check you could peel back the shrink wrap and check each cell individually.

gms

Thanks for all the valuable input, I have the plane at the local Hobby shop to check out the battery and or charger. I now have a better appreciation for how the battery can measure a certain voltage and not have anything to handle a load.

Thanks again

x030399

Also, ditch that stock PZ charger. They're awful and consistently false peak. I bought the Duratrax Pirahna charger and it's a great value and works wonderfully. I've got 5 PZ planes, and the last two, I didn't even bother with the stock chargers, just cut the plugs off (never know when they'll come in handy) and threw the chargers away!