L0stS0ul

I've been flying my Parkzone j-3 for the past few weeks and it's always seemed like it was missing something in the power department. I was also noticing that my battery life has been around 8-10 minutes. I've read that most people are getting 15-20 out of their cubs.

I was actually watching my charger today (was in traffic) when I noticed that on a fully decharged battery it went from blinking to solid in about 10 minutes. I thought a full charge took 40 minutes. So I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Still was solid on the charger. Did it again only this time I wiggled the rate a bit and it started blinking again. It charged for another 10 minutes then went back to solid. Unplugged the battery. Wiggled the charge rate a bit and put it back to .8 or whatever it is for the battery, and then plugged the battery back in then plugged in into the car socket. This time it charged for about 30 minutes which would be about right.

I have a friend that has the hobbyzone Aerobird Challenger and it seems to have the same charger. He had the same problem with his charger when he got it. He took it back and got another one.

Could I have a defective charger or am I doing something wrong charging the battery? I have followed everything in the book to a T. It eventually did charge it up to full I guess. I did not fly the plane until the battery died tonight but I did fly it for about 7 or 8 minutes. It did seem like it was loosing power toward the end of the flight tonight.

Thanks

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

You have entered the PZ charger zone. There have been many posts on this charger either under charging or overcharging. Can you say smoking pile of batteries.[X(]
I personally destroyed 3 packs and made numerous trips to the field only to discover packs weren't fully charged, before I wised up and bought a real charger.
You get what you pay for, and since the charger was free..............
If you plan on staying with this addiction, and it will become one soon enough, buy a good charger, maybe even one with lipo capabilities, for the future.
As an add on, look up the old posts on the Cub for a lot of good hints/tips to make it fly better.
You'll soon be like me, all kinds of modified Cubs.
BJ

L0stS0ul

Thanks for the information. I went to my LHS at lunch to see about getting a new charger. We have a hobbytown here. They told me that the only chargers that they have for the parkzone/hobbyzone planes are the hobbyzone wall chargers and car charger. They do not have any other chargers that will work due to the type of connectors that parkzone/hobbyzone use. Although the dude did try to tell me that parkzone/hobbyzone are not affiliated with eachother which I thought was funny.

Are you all switching out the connectors yourselves and using more standard connectors or is there a charger out there that will charge these batteries. Obviously one of these is true.

I would also like to hear recommendations any good chargers around $50-$100 that would work with my current batteries. I have a HobbyZone FireBird Commander and the ParkZone J-3 Cub. I also have the Parkzone P-51 on order so a charger that could charge all 3 and also be good to have as I move up in planes would be great. I am new to this hobby and it's starting to go beyond pop battery in and go fly


-- After some research today...
After looking all day for a charger and trying to get the hang of what it will require to use a real charger I think I have an understanding of what will be needed. It looks like it would be good to switch out the connectors on the plane and on the battery. Might even get some more power out of it apparently. I've been researching starter chargers and it looks like the [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCTZ5&P=7]Hobbico Quick Field DC Charger MKII[/link] charger is a good one and not bad for around $50. Apparently it will even charge 3 cell li-po batteries.

Thanks for the help. If I'm being stupid please stop me now I believe this is what is needed.

Thanks

Eric

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

You'll also need a power source for charger, either a battery or a power pack.
And yes changing lead ends will work just fine.

Rat1

I bought a Dynamite Vision Peak Ultra (Horizon) for about 95.00. I made a pig tail for charging the PZ/HZ batteries but have since swapped all my battery connectors over to Deans Ultras.

The charger will charge three dif types of batteries ,Nicd, NiMh as well as Li-Po.

But you can easily make a pigtail for charging you PZ batteries by changing over one of the PZ pigtails to be used with the new charger.