RCWSO

I need help using my duratrax intellipeak pulse charger. I will be using 8.4V/4000-5000 mah NiMh batteries. I want to make sure that I am doing it correctly as not to ruin them. I have the manual and have read my threads but have not found the answers I need.

1. When I first get the batteries, do I want to "Slow" charge or "peak" charge them? Do I need to cycle the batteries initially?
2. What is the difference between "slow" charge and "peak" charge? I understand what the manual says but what does that really mean?
3. After running the truck and battery cools down, do I want to "slow" charge or "peak" charge if I want to run it again that day?
4. Next time, ie a couple of days later, I go out to run the truck do I "slow" charge or "peak" charge before going out?
5. I know that the charger says not to charge NiMh above 3.0A. Is it ok to set that specific charger to 4.0A-5.0A when using a 4000-5000mah battery?
6. What about when using DC power? Anything different to do?

Thanks,
RCWSO

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

1, you'll want to slow charge them to break then in a bit because they've been sitting for so long
2 slow and peak charges are really just rates, peak charges also know when the battery is full vs slow just keeps going, and disipates the extra power thru heat
3 you'll want to peak it, simple because of the speed
4 you'll want to peak your batteries after you're done running the truck, then right before you run or the night before you'll want to peak them again
5 i don't know what will happen if you exceed 3a, but i'm geussing the circutry can't handle more than that.
6 dc power you just plug the included aligator clips into the tam looking plug in the back and hook those up to your 12v batt. with DC you'll also be able to go up to 6.5a, on AC you can only do 4.5A, this is for NiCad only, nihm is still at 3A...

the lug

RCWSO

Lug,

Awesome info and explanation. Thanks.

1. Does charging at 3A vs anything higher affect anything with the charge, ie taking longer, ruining the battery or anything like that?
2. Would you recommend another charger type that would handle more amps for a 4000-5000mah battery or does that even matter?

RCWSO

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

the amps or A setting is the charge rate, and you can get a rough time estimate on your batteries, so your batties are giving a rating in MHA or mili amp hours 1000mha, per Ah or amp hour, which is what you select on your charger... so doing a little math say you have a 1000mha battery or 1ah (tho you'll often see mha) and you charge it at 1A or one amp per hour, it will take aprox 1 hour for that pack to be peaked so with your 5000mha batteries and a 3a charge rate, we can do the math 5/3= 1.667 or 1 hour 40 min, aprox...

you'll often hear about teh C rating of a battery, with charging 1c is equal to the mha rating of the batt, so a 5000mha battery charged at 1c is a charge rate of 5a or 5000mha, so as a rule of thumb, if you charge over 1c you'll see a higher finial voltage but a lower capasity, and below 1c higher capasity but lower finial voltage, now you won't really be able to see these unless you put a volt meter to things and use a timer, but even then its hard to say because the intellipeak doesn't give you that info... but your best bet will jsut be 3a,

my newest and probally one of the best chargers i have is a trinton EQ i got it off the marketplace here for $80 ($90 shipped) and it'll go up to 5A, which will be plenty, and does just about every other battery out there... but for now the intellipeak is a good starting charger, i started out on it, but once you go lipo you gotta get a nice one...

the lug

RCWSO

Lug,
So to clarify one piece of info for myself:

The time you mentioned makes sense but, is that for "slow" or "peak" charging time? I remember in the past when I would charge some batteries it seemed that the "peak" charge would take very little time, or so it seemed. Or do I just let the "peak" time run its course and when the charger "beeps" the "peak charge" is done regardless of time?

I just want to make sure that I don't ruin my new batteries on day one.

RCWSO

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

peak vs slow are two different types of charges, the most obvious difference is rate, then how you know when the pack is done, peak you know cuz the charger will beep, the charger knows that the pack is full based on on voltage, and how much power the pack is accepting, slow charging, you can do for a pretty much unlimited amount of time, because it is just pumping a low amount of power into the battery and whatever the battery doesn't accept is dissipated as heat.

So when charging trust your charger to peak your batteries and when its done it'll tell you, however sometimes you'll get whats called a false peak where the charger thinks the packs are full this will occur within a min or 2 of starting the charge, and you should just restart the charge, its often caused by trying to recharge the packs too quickly after running so they'll still be hot, and read a high voltage soon after the charge starts. just unplug the pack and start over, this doesn't happen very often tho...

slow charging pretty much when the pack gets warm to hot its done... pretty easy, and if you want a rough time estimate... (battery capsity (rating in mha)) / (charge rate, rating in mha, its given in A, so h have X by 1000)= time in hours, to conver to min, just multiply by 60.... this works for peak as well...

the lug