Night before flight charging..  
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All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> Beginners >> Night before flight charging..
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Night before flight charging.. - 7/22/2008 6:49:18 PM   
Popriv


 

Posts: 156
Joined: 5/5/2008
From: bellingham, MA, USA
Status: offline 		I flew 6 - 10 minute flights last week. When I get home tonight I will set up chargers for tomorrow nights flying.

Glow starter - I'll use the wallwart that came with it and charge it over night.
This is a rather large unit with a meter on the end that doesnt seem to do anything???

Chicken stick - should still be good!

DX6i TX - Also its own wallwart plugged in overnight. (in a pinch could I substitute 4 fresh AA batteries for the spektrum rechargables?)

RX 1200mha 4 cell NMHD - trickle charge overnight using field charger which is hooked up to a converted PC Power supply.
( this one I think I'm getting it? I'll set the charger for 1.0 somethings and after about 20 minutes it cuts back and trickle charges at i think .50 somethings??? Sorry I dont have it in front of me and not sure of my mha, apms, volts,,,etc..)

AM I CORRECT? there is no memory issue with these batteries and I dont have to worry about it? just use them and charge them the night before flying?
I did add a voltwatch to the plane to monitor the RX battery. It showed me how my servos were draining the battery and I made some adjustments.

ALSO - how do I " don't leave unattended" while charging????? Between sleep and work I dont have that much time...


Steve


       Post #: 1

RE: Night before flight charging.. - 7/22/2008 6:56:05 PM   
Allfat


 

Posts: 173
Joined: 4/22/2008
From: Portland, OR, USA
Status: online 		As for the "don't leave unattended," one thing you could do is charge your batteries in a fire proof container, such as a flower pot, old military ammo can, cassarole dish, etc... This will make sure that if something does go horribly wrong while you are charging a battery that you will not lose your house or anything like that. This really is not much of a concern for NiCd or NIMH batteries because they are really stable. But if you wanted to put your mind at ease, a fire proof container would be good to charge your batteries in.

When I am charging, I just plug them in and forget about them basically, unless it is a LiPo. But with your batteries, I would not be too worried about something bad happening.

(in reply to Popriv)
       Post #: 2

RE: Night before flight charging.. - 7/22/2008 7:01:57 PM   
mclina


 

Posts: 706
Joined: 12/27/2006
From: Westford, MA, USA
Status: offline 		I always plug my planes and TX into the wall wart the night before I plan to fly, regardless of how much charge the battery already has. That seems to be most folks standard practice.

You should not have to recharge your glow driver very often. Maybe once a month. I don't know if it hurts it to top it off, but it's definitely not necessary.

< Message edited by mclina -- 7/22/2008 7:02:23 PM >

_____________________________

If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron

(in reply to Allfat)
       Post #: 3

RE: Night before flight charging.. - 7/22/2008 7:21:33 PM   
Allfat


 

Posts: 173
Joined: 4/22/2008
From: Portland, OR, USA
Status: online 		That depends on what glow charger you have. I bought one and charged it up and took it out for the first day of flying, used it all day. Then a day later, I went out again and did not charge the glow driver during the night because I figured it would last a long time. It died after a couple of starts of the engine and I had to borrow for the rest of the day. I plug my glow charger in after every time I go flying.

(in reply to mclina)
       Post #: 4

RE: Night before flight charging.. - 7/22/2008 7:55:11 PM   
Stamper


 

Posts: 140
Joined: 9/11/2003
From: Bartlett, IL, USA
Status: offline 		I used to use the wall charger overnight until I did some math on my chargers. It would take about 3 days charging to fully charge some of my 2100 mah batteries at the rate the wall charger charged. I use a Triton and other nicd/nimh chargers now and get a full charge. Look into your charge rate and your batteries capacity and figure out how many hours it should take to charge your battery. You might be surprised.

(in reply to Allfat)
       Post #: 5

RE: Night before flight charging.. - 7/22/2008 7:59:12 PM   
mclina


 

Posts: 706
Joined: 12/27/2006
From: Westford, MA, USA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Allfat

That depends on what glow charger you have. I bought one and charged it up and took it out for the first day of flying, used it all day. Then a day later, I went out again and did not charge the glow driver during the night because I figured it would last a long time. It died after a couple of starts of the engine and I had to borrow for the rest of the day. I plug my glow charger in after every time I go flying.


That is good to know. I just recently got a rechargeable glow driver. I used to use one of those real cheap ones that used D-cells, and a D-cell would last me about half the summer. I figured the rechargeable would be good for several weeks at least. I'll have to check it before my next trip to the field.

Thanks



_____________________________

If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron

(in reply to Allfat)
       Post #: 6

RE: Night before flight charging.. - 7/22/2008 9:21:07 PM   
Allfat


 

Posts: 173
Joined: 4/22/2008
From: Portland, OR, USA
Status: online
quote:

ORIGINAL: Stamper

I used to use the wall charger overnight until I did some math on my chargers. It would take about 3 days charging to fully charge some of my 2100 mah batteries at the rate the wall charger charged. I use a Triton and other nicd/nimh chargers now and get a full charge. Look into your charge rate and your batteries capacity and figure out how many hours it should take to charge your battery. You might be surprised.

But that is only if you are charging back up from completely empty. This is usually not the case after a day of flying. You only have to put back what you take out.

So on the initial charge, then you need to charge it for the full time to get it full. But after that, you usually do not have to fill up the entire capacity of the battery because it is not completely dead.

Of course, a charger like the Triton or something like that is never a bad idea. One thing you can do is after a typical day of flying, take your battery home and discharge it using your charger. It will tell you how much you had left in the battery. Then using that number, you can figure out how long you need to put the battery on the wall wart charger after a typical day of flying. And always add an hour or two of charge time for safety.

(in reply to Stamper)
       Post #: 7

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