ORIGINAL: opjose
Most wall chargers only output either 50mA or 100mA which is a conservative ''trickle'' charge for any larger pack.
I regularly charge 3800mAh 6v RX packs with a 50-100mA 4.8v charger.
I just don't get a full 3800mAh out of the batteries... normally I get around 3600mAh when charged this way, and that's just fine with me.
The s-l-o-w-w-w charge also assure the packs last much longer as it is very gentle on the chemicals.
When you use a charger that's inadequate and even more so in both current & voltage, the battery charge will be very small.
For instance, a 5 cell(6volt)1400mAh NiMH 2/3A battery when connected to a 50mA 4.8V lead of a wallwort for three days or more will only accept about 350mAh worth of charge when discharge tested to a 6 volt cut off and 1/2 amp load. In effect if you don't get a full charge, your just flying extra weight around, even worse the, false belief of extra flight time.
A slow or over night charge for a nickel metal hydride battery is to charge at C/10 or below (10% of the rated capacity per hour). So a 500 mAH battery would be charged at 50 mA for 15 hours.
Everyone should use pocket sized field voltage meter with load before every flight, it only takes a moment.
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