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Old 01-29-2009 | 08:50 PM
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RCKen
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From: Lawton, OK
Default RE: nicad battery question

What you are doing is just fine. If you maintain that routine you're batteries will be just fine. Although not necessary there is one thing you can add that will help keep your batteries ready to fly. Do a full charge on them and then put your wall wart charger on a timer that comes on for 1-2 hours a day. This will keep the batteries "topped off" and ready to fly.

With today's battery chemistry the only advantage you get from "cycling" them is to detect when the capacity of the battery is starting to fall. And you will need a battery cycler to detect that. Basically what you do is cycle the battery when it's brand new to determine it's capacity. Then periodically cycle the battery to check the capacity. When that drops to roughly 80% of the original capacity it's time to chuck that battery and get a new one. Other than that there isn't much benefit from cycling them.

Hope this helps

Ken