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Charging 1/2A Ni-Cad and Nimh flight packs - 12/6/2012 9:55 PM   
glowtime


 

Posts: 32
Joined: 1/4/2007
Last Login: 5/18/2013
From: Park River, ND, USA
Status: offline 		I charge my 4.8 270mAh( Ni-Cad) battery with my Futaba and Hitec wall charger. My question is can i charge 4.8 volt( Nimh) 220mAh charge rate 1 Amp with the same charger!

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RE: Charging 1/2A Ni-Cad and Nimh flight packs - 12/6/2012 10:17 PM   
PeterC


 

Posts: 469
Joined: 5/1/2002
Last Login: 5/15/2013
From: Edmonton, AB, CANADA
Status: offline 		Your wall charger puts out 50 mah. It would therefore take 10 hours to fully charge a discharged standard 500 mah flight pack. Because of inefficiencies in charging systems and built in saftey limits the factory recommends a maximum of 16 hours for a standard pack from a fully discharged state (not dead). Your packs are approximately 1/2 the capacity of a standard pack so I would probably charge them for 1/2 or somewhat less time with the wall charger. Note that this applies to a discharged pack (1.25V per cell). Most of us charge the packs way too often and way too much and this is what shortens there life. (also running them down to zero does them no good). My recommendation is to get yourself a peak detecting charger which is adjustable for different size battery packs and quit worrying about it.
Peter

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RE: Charging 1/2A Ni-Cad and Nimh flight packs - 12/6/2012 10:28 PM   
glowtime


 

Posts: 32
Joined: 1/4/2007
Last Login: 5/18/2013
From: Park River, ND, USA
Status: offline 		Thanks . Good advice. I was wondering if you could charge a Nimh battery with an older Ni-Cad charger. I should of explained that part of the question more clearly.

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RE: Charging 1/2A Ni-Cad and Nimh flight packs - 12/6/2012 10:51 PM   
MJD



Posts: 5679
Joined: 5/28/2003
Last Login: 5/13/2013
From: Orangeville, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		I just made the switch to 200mAh LiFe batteries because I can charge them on my field charger at the recommended rate, and I just don't get the warm fuzzies from small NiMH batteries without a regulated charger at C/10 or less. Time will tell whether I did the right thing or not.

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RE: Charging 1/2A Ni-Cad and Nimh flight packs - 12/6/2012 11:12 PM   
Tee Bee


 

Posts: 1768
Joined: 2/22/2007
Last Login: 5/17/2013
From: Angleton, TX, USA
Status: offline 		For all my NiMH and NiCd packs, I use a Hobbico Accu-Cycle Elite charger I got at Tower. It allows you to charge, discharge, and cycle packs to peak cutoff. Once I learned to use it, it was the bee's knees for maintaining packs in all my glow planes. It will tell you how much capacity the pack has before it peaks. Has identified several packs over the years that would have likely crashed my plane if I had flown with them. It allows you to go flying with a shorter lead prep time since most packs can be charged in an hour or two. The computer charger really made my hobby experience much better. For LiPos, it's old tech and not as useful as other LiPo-specific chargers on the market.

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RE: Charging 1/2A Ni-Cad and Nimh flight packs - 12/7/2012 2:32 AM   
MJD



Posts: 5679
Joined: 5/28/2003
Last Login: 5/13/2013
From: Orangeville, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		I have decent chargers in my arsenal, but I was always troubled by the inability to charge at C/10 rates for form charging or just routine overnight charging. I think I am somewhat jaded by some less than stellar life-cycle experiences with NimH packs in the past.

BTW - on the subject of "putting out" 50mA - are these small wall chargers actually current-regulated, or is the charge rate on the label simply stating the typical current when connected to a 500-700 mAh 4 cell NiCd pack? There is a significant difference between the two.

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