ORIGINAL: FatOrangeKat
Irony:
I posted this, then went to the field to burn some fuel. Wouldn't you know it, I had a problem with my Tx battery - I turned it on to open the throttle and prime the engine (10.1 volts), and turned it off again. When I turned it back on, it plummeted from 10 volts to 9 volts in about 5 seconds - the same thing it did the other day at the field. With a basic slow charger, I have no way of knowing what's going on with my battery. I have invested some money in this hobby, and it seems like investing a little more for a good charger will give me some good insurance for the future. So right now the battery is back on the charger, I have no idea how long it needs to charge before I should check it to see if its full, nor do I know anything else that's going on. I'm darn glad I had my old 600mah nicad all charged up - if I would have had to drive home...
Kat,
I'm not sure how long you are leaving your batteries on charge, but this may be the problem. Batteries aren't like a bucket. With a bucket you can put a gallon of water in and then pour out that same gallon later. Batteries don't work that way, you can't charge for an hour and then have an hour's worth of use out of them. These batteries need to be fully charged in order to get the proper use out of them. If you're not doing a full charge cycle on them they will act exactly as you have discribed above. From what you've been saying here it sounds like you're just not getting enough time charging them. I understand your frustration and want to buy an expensive charger, but it can only charge one battery at a time and it's going to take 10-12 hours per battery for a good charge on each battery. I've been flying for 12 years now and always charge between 4-12 batteries for a flying session and I've never used a smart charger to charge them with. As long as you charge them with the correct voltage, current, and time you will be fine. Heck, I didn't even OWN an intelligent charger until last summer, and I only bought that to charge Li-PO's with. Otherwise I use chargers like the the Hobbico charger I posted earlier in this thread. Honestly, I'm just trying to help here. I really hate to see beginners dump a ton of money on something they may not really need, at least until you in to the hobby a bit more.
Ken