Larry Driskill

I have been lookin' at chargers and had about decided on a Great Planes Triton (about $129.99), but now Tower has a Hobbico Accu-Cycle Elite for $149.99 and it has a battery capacity range as low as 50mAh.

I have 50, 110, and 160 mAh packs in my 1/2As.

Does anyone know if the Triton will charge 50 mAh packs at the proper rate?

Other charger suggestions / experiences?


(I have the usual tangle of wall wart chargers and a HiTec CG-340)

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

The lowest charge rate on the Triton is .1A ,this C2 for 50mAh pack which is essentialy a quick charge. If there NiCd packs your talking about, you should be ok especially with your 110 and 160 packs as you can slow charge at C1 if you want to. IMO charging the 50mAh pack at C2 wont hurt it but you may want to make the initial charge on a new pack at C1 or less with a wall wart.

Darren

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Larry, looking at fancy chargers is one of the early warning signs of a guy who is fixxin' to jump ship and GO ELECTRIC[X(]!

Japanman

Wow... just imagine an electric combat C/L plane...silent death???

J.M

Larry Driskill

Really? Do you mean I only need my warts to charge TX and RX batteries? Wow! Just think of the $ savings.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Hi Larry! Yes, all you have to do is cut into either + or - lead coming out of the wart and insert a resistor. For example, I took a FUTABA wart rated at 55mah and inserted a 60 ohm resistor and the net result was a 30 ma current limitation. Radio Shack sells a big grab bag of assorted resistors for cheap. Your 50 mah pack would need only 5mah of current for a 14 hr charge, so off the top of my head you would need about 200 ohms of resistance to get close to 5 ma, don't sweat it if you are off a couple ma on the high side, but you don't want less than 5 ma. If you do like BRUCE suggests and make up a board with different resistor combos and a selector switch [or alligator clips] you will come up with a versatile appliance for all your batteries. Test your work while charging a totally dead battery, nothing should feel hot or give off that "burnt cookie" smell. I like to charge on an elevated cookie sheet anyway. Just think, with the money you save from building your own charger, you'll be able to buy yourself a couple of VAs!

Larry Driskill

Hey Pigg,

Thank you for the guidance.

I have been relegated to the dark side and off line for 3 days due to a disagreement with COX Cable involving customer service.[]

But I will sit here tonite and catch up.

Japanman

I was wondering where you had gone.

I guess it`s a bit like when all your glow starter batterys are flat.. [:'(]

J.M