Turqui

My Feedback: (139)

i purchased a few months ago a futaba radio sistem wich i got in a good deal from tower, and since i have other sistems using at this time;im not planing to use it any time soon, what could i do to preserve the batteries and avoid them to go bad from sitting? how long can they last in great working order sitting in the packing box? can they be reliable if they have been sitting and never charged before? what is the rule in this case
they havent been charged at all, just the way that they come from seller(tower hobbies).
i have been going thru my stuff and found some batteries from old sistems (few years old) that i have never used and charged before' is there any way to test if they are reliable to use?
what is the general rule?
regards. and thanks.

Johnnysplits

You should cycle the batteries once a month if your not going to use them regularly.

BuschBarber

My Feedback: (2)

NiCad and NiMh batteries tend to Self Discharge while sitting on the shelf. Cycling them is the best way to determine if they still put out their rated capacity. Sometimes, it requires more than one Cycle to bring a battery back to a usable state. LiPos and LiFe packs hold their charge for months. They usually do not need to be Cycled.

Any battery has a life of so many Cycles before they are not usable any more. While Cycling NiMh and NiCad is necessary, you want to keep it to a minimum. During the Cycle, you want the Discharge Load to be similar to the load placed on the battery in your aircraft. For a simple setup with 4 Analog servos, you would set the Discharge Current from .35a to .5a. Your Cycling charger will display either the number of mah drained from the battery or the amount of time it took to Discharge the battery. If you have a fully Charged 2000mah battery and you then Discharge it at the proper rate, your charger should display close to 2000mah drained and close to 2000mah put back. If it is way off, Cycle it again and see if the numbers improve. If after a few Cycles you are not seeing the proper numbers, replace the battery. Once the battery Cycles properly, either use it regularly or Cycle it once a month, as was suggested.

Eneloops are a form of NiMh that hold their charge like LiPos. They are best used in Transmitters, which have a low Current draw. There is nothing worse than coming to the field and finding you left a Switch on or your batteries just need charging. NiMh and NiCad take hours to charge. LiPos and LiFe take 30 min to charge.