Swallow Battery Charger.  
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All Forums >> Radios, Batteries, Clubhouse and more >> Batteries & Chargers >> Swallow Battery Charger.
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Swallow Battery Charger. - 11/27/2007 10:56:52 PM   
suzukiboy


 

Posts: 138
Joined: 6/6/2007
From: Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		Brought a Swallow AC/DC2 and just tried it out tonight.

On the 1.00A charge it took 10 mins to charge 4 AA Powertech 2300 mAh NiMh batteries. (all flat)
And I noticed no heat in batteries after charge.

Secound set of 4 AA Vapor 2700 mAh NiMh batteries took a hour and a half. (some charge left)
Some heat in batteries after charge.

Third set of 4 AA Powertech 2300 mAh NiMh batteries took 8 mins to charge. (some charge left)
No heat after charge.

Does this sound normal?
The Powertech batteries should have taken a lot longer?

Is there something wrong with the Swallow charger?

Or is there something wrong with the way I am doing it?

< Message edited by suzukiboy -- 11/27/2007 11:28:57 PM >
       Post #: 1

RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 11/27/2007 11:05:04 PM   
guver


 

Posts: 9217
Joined: 3/7/2003
From: LaGrange, OH, USA
Status: offline 		1 & 3 stopped too early (I guess you knew that) The question is why?

Did the battery drop in voltage? If so then charger did what it is supposed to do.

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 11/27/2007 11:24:29 PM   
suzukiboy


 

Posts: 138
Joined: 6/6/2007
From: Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		Not sure if the batteries droped in voltage. How do you check, by the readout on the swallow after it is finished??

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 11/28/2007 7:22:17 AM   
mrasmm


 

Posts: 4422
Joined: 1/9/2007
From: Sometown, Northern Utah, USA
Status: offline 		yeah I would agree

you might try a forming charge, c/10 for 14 to 16 hours and see if that helps. If not the packs may just be bad news or sat around too long or something

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 11/29/2007 12:33:22 AM   
suzukiboy


 

Posts: 138
Joined: 6/6/2007
From: Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		I tried the Cycle Function out on a fully charged Ni CAD 7.2 V 1800mAh pack.
Was on for 2 hours and the voltage had only dropped a little.

And the Swallow unit was gettin hot.

Should you only Cycle a used battery?
How long should it take to Discharge then Charge?

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 12/1/2007 4:21:13 AM   
mrasmm


 

Posts: 4422
Joined: 1/9/2007
From: Sometown, Northern Utah, USA
Status: offline 		to form a pack you cycle it when it's new, so yeah you can do either way. Yes the charger will get warm, should be under about 130F though, if not you're probably going too fast, try putting a fan pointing at it and/or going slower. Charging and discharging depends on the rate, so there will be a big range. If you mention specifically what rate you are using I can tell you a better ball park

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 12/3/2007 1:11:32 AM   
suzukiboy


 

Posts: 138
Joined: 6/6/2007
From: Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		Yes I had the discharge on 1.0A

(in reply to mrasmm)
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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 12/3/2007 7:32:28 AM   
mrasmm


 

Posts: 4422
Joined: 1/9/2007
From: Sometown, Northern Utah, USA
Status: offline 		it should take you just less than 2 hours to discharge the pack then =)

1.8 hours for 1800mAh @ 1A discharge or 1 hour 48 min =)

Nothing should really be getting too hot at 1A though, I guess depending on your discharger and if it's got a fan in it or not.

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 1/2/2008 2:41:20 AM   
jimbyjoe


 

Posts: 148
Joined: 2/19/2006
From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: suzukiboy

Yes I had the discharge on 1.0A


hi mate
OK i got one of these chargers for Christmas and i'm still having problems sorting it out; maybe you have some answers to my confusion! I put an 8.4v 7 cell nicad on to discharge to 1v (yes I know that's stupid but i can't figure out if the discharge voltage you put in is per cell or for the whole pack); so it discharged at about 0.8A for about 75 minutes, and then when I took it off, I tested it with a multimeter and it said 8.4v!!!! so i don't know what's going on. i don't know if it started charging after it was discharged but it wasn't on a cycle.
it's all just a bit confusing for me at the moment eh. maybe I just have bad batteries but for an expensive charger you'd want it to do the right job. But then again - just like with computers - it's not the machine, it's the operator....
ta
k


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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 1/11/2008 6:38:46 AM   
simmo8


 

Posts: 476
Joined: 1/10/2008
From: mandurahwestern australia, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: jimbyjoe


quote:

ORIGINAL: suzukiboy

Yes I had the discharge on 1.0A


hi mate
OK i got one of these chargers for Christmas and i'm still having problems sorting it out; maybe you have some answers to my confusion! I put an 8.4v 7 cell nicad on to discharge to 1v (yes I know that's stupid but i can't figure out if the discharge voltage you put in is per cell or for the whole pack); so it discharged at about 0.8A for about 75 minutes, and then when I took it off, I tested it with a multimeter and it said 8.4v!!!! so i don't know what's going on. i don't know if it started charging after it was discharged but it wasn't on a cycle.
it's all just a bit confusing for me at the moment eh. maybe I just have bad batteries but for an expensive charger you'd want it to do the right job. But then again - just like with computers - it's not the machine, it's the operator....
ta
k


hi i got a swallow 2 ac/dc charger and i was going to charge a 2170mah 11.1v flight power lipo pack so i conected it all up through a flightpower v-balancer and presed charge ,the screen said battery check and then said no battery does anyone know why it is not working


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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 1/11/2008 9:07:28 AM   
jimbyjoe


 

Posts: 148
Joined: 2/19/2006
From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		are you connectors coming out the right polarity?

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 5/14/2008 6:05:27 AM   
Pijuvwy


 

Posts: 41
Joined: 4/18/2007
From: BundabergQueensland, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		Simmo, did you find out your answer?

Same happened to me on Hyperion balancer. It was MY fault: I forgot to set the balancer to connection mode. In other words, the way I had my balancer set up did not allow a connection to be completed with the charger.

A question for people: Do you think that a discharge voltage of 1.0V per cell is appropriate for a NiCd pack? Maybe 1.1, maybe 0.9V ?

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 5/14/2008 7:13:08 AM   
simmo8


 

Posts: 476
Joined: 1/10/2008
From: mandurahwestern australia, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		G-Day Pijuvwy

yea i feel real stupid now same problem as you had lol
happy flying

simmo


_____________________________

Why do my parents always tell me i dont want another plane!!!!
Fine with me ill just buy me a new heli

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RE: Swallow Battery Charger. - 7/7/2008 10:28:16 PM   
castaway_bill


 

Posts: 9
Joined: 6/11/2006
From: Manchester, UNITED KINGDOM
Status: offline 		Yes there is something wrong with the swallow charger!! If its like mine, its wrong by design/manufacture

I've got one (its badged up as a Jamara but its the same thing) It doesn't work properly on NimH's (never tried with NiCads) What happens is it cuts off too early. I lost a model which had been "charged" by this unit, which prompted me to investigate further.

I connected up a logging voltmeter and when I examined the voltage logs it is clear the unit is not detecting the peak charge voltage. Did some more digging and the problem is electrical noise, basically the unit contains a switching power supply and switching noise from that circuit is getting into the analogue voltage measurement in the microprocessor.

So far I've tried improving the power supply decoupling, but it still is crap on anything above 700mA charge current. Oh and its worse on 8 cell packs too. So now I'm looking at improving the filtering on the voltage measurement circuit, which is read in by the microprocessor. On the 8 cell packs the voltage is all over the place too, no wonder the peak detection goes haywire.

In short, this charger is a piece of unadulterated rubbish. It wasn't sold as a bargain basement unit, and what annoys me is, I was going to build up a delta peak charger of my own design, and wish I had! Its not exactly rocket science, most of the semiconductor manufacturers have reference designs which would be a great starting point.

Regards


Rob

PS I work as an electronics design engineer, 20 years+ experience in mixed signal design.


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