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Old 08-02-2008 | 10:18 PM
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RCKen
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From: Lawton, OK
Default RE: cooked battery

Campgems,
Ni-mhs will go into cell reversal as well. With batteries these days there is no reason at all to cycle the batteries other than to find their capacity. So if you don't have a battery cycler that can measure the capacity of the battery you really are wasting your time draining the batteries and calling it cycling. You are better off just recharging the batteries.

Cycling batteries can be one of the best ways to find a pack that is going bad. When you first get a back you should cycle it to find the capacity of the pack, this is your base capacity. Then as the battery is used you should cycle it periodically, I do mine about once a month or so. When the capacity of the pack as dropped to 80% or less of the base capacity you should not use it any longer for flying your planes. Using it past this point is risking failure in flight.

A good charger for your needs would be the Electrifly Triton 2, [link]http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMAJ0&P=ML[/link] . This battery can be set to any charge voltage that is needed, including the C/10 setting you need for your pack. It also can discharge and measure the capacity of a pack. And lastly, it can serve as a field charger at the field to recharge batteries at the field.

Hope this helps

Ken