There are industry standards for the rate and cut-off voltage, but using a rate and voltage similar to the rate you use in the model will mean a lot more, the standard rate is very low. It will not matter much how you charge the pack before a test, just make sure it's full and warm. The pack should read 100 % of capacity if it is in good shape, some say at about 80% is time to toss it. Usually at the max discharge current of the pack the max capacity will not be reached. It will be either one or the other, not both. (I'm assuming you have nickle batts)

Not real sure what you're asking about "holding" voltage for how long, maybe this graph will help.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attac...hmentid=888679

It was a nickle batt setting for a day, 1 week, 1 month 3month 5 months and as you can see the discharge rate of 10 amps pulls capacity down to 2800 for a 3000 mah batt. Had it been discharged at the industry standard rate the capacity would have been well over 3000.

This graph is showing the voltage hot off the charger and is incremented every second for a total od 2 hrs +

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attac...hmentid=889503