s3nfo

My Feedback: (14)

I've got one of those smart field chargers that'll peak charge 3 to 30 cells and does all the setting automatically. Just plug it in and it blinks when it peaks. I charged my Rx batt on the way to the field and got one good flight on the plane, on the second flight the controls just locked and the airplane crashed (fortunately it was an oldtimer and just went into "freeflight" mode and there was minimal damage). Checked the controls after the flight and everything worked, but servos moved slow, like low voltage, so I put the batt back on the charger and it charged and peaked again and everything worked normal. Was concerned about the batt so when I got home I cycled it a couple times and it showed 80% rated capacity and charged and peaked everytime, so was just about to chalk it up to "bad luck" and put the batt back in service and decided to check the voltage (I know, shoulda done this earlier, but everything looked normal from cycling and charging). Well, fully charged voltage was 4.0. Turns out that one cell had died in dead short and the other 3 cells were in great shape so the charger "saw" a good 3 cell battery and charged it to peak and the discharger "saw" a high enough voltage to assume a weak 4 cell batt and discharged (may need to have my cycler calibrated though, I think it shoulda tripped off sooner).

Message here is be careful with automagic chargers, you still gotta be smarter than they are. Oh, and I'm gonna check voltage much more frequently from now on.

lnorris

My Feedback: (1)

One thing that also can happened is input voltage varying can cause the charger to false peek. I've even heard of the brake lights pulling enough voltage to cause this although I haven't seen it. I do make it a point to start my truck before starting the charging and it seems to work well.

Irregardless, you should always check the voltage before each flight to make sure you've got enough juice and nothing has gone wrong. That simple pre-flight check has saved me many of times. Mostly because I forgot to turn the plane off but...

zero244

My Feedback: (1)

Our chargers are automated and will handle just about any battery pack size. It never occured to to me that if the charger only recognized 3 of the 4 cells it would assume its a three cell pack and charge accordingly.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.....I will check voltage before going to the field.

rcdemon61

My Feedback: (7)

Got to check voltage after charging, but the cell could still fail, just a chance that we take with with 4 cell packs. In my opinion that's the biggest advantage of a 5 cell pack, if one fails you still have good voltage. !

bgi

My Feedback: (7)

Good information here. I'll be careful to pay attention to the charger. My MRC SuperBrain 959 has a voltage display. I'm guessing yours doesn't?

How old was the pack?

s3nfo

My Feedback: (14)

I got the plane from an estate (was willed to me). The airplane was about 2 years old, however I have no idea the history of the batt prior to that other than the fact that Cliffie was the Service Manager for Airtronics for many years and took good care of his stuff.

rcdemon,

I did not blame the charger for the crash, I did not name a charger and whine that others should not buy it cause it caused me to crash. I did not yell about how I would never use another product from X company because their charger caused me to crash like you see here so often. I simply explained a situation that happened to me that I thought others could benefit from. Matter of fact I was very specific in stating I should have checked voltage earlier.
It's moronic comments like this, made before thinking, that make the internet the cesspool it can be on occassion, so thanks, once again, for reminding me to take everything I see on the "net" with a grain of salt.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I will have to agree that you assume that an automated charger can recognize a 4 cell pack regardless of the condition. I never thought about the fact that the unit could get a false reading and not function properly. Thanks for bring this to our attention.

zero244

My Feedback: (1)

I think that might be a bit harsh for any comments made on this post.

rcdemon61

My Feedback: (7)

I would have to agree that the comment made by S3nfo is a bit harsh. Have you no sense of humor? Well I do!, and I do think about what I say before I say it. It is obvious that you do not. The title for your post is CRASHED BECAUSE OF SMART FIELD CHARGER. I did not personally attack you, why do you feel a need to attack me? No need to reply, I believe I know the answer.

JRozman-delete

My Feedback: (2)

Rcdemon, reread your first post. It read questionable to me.

Jess

rcdemon61

My Feedback: (7)

OK is that better, didn't know that one had to walk on egg shells around here. I unsubscribe myself from this thread. You guys are just to sensitive.

WreckRman2

My Feedback: (5)

Chargers are just another electrical devise that can and will fail you however I feel you failed yourself on this one because you neglected to check the battery after the charge.

I have a Volt-Watch on all my planes but I always double check my batteries with a loaded volt meter as well.

In rcdemon's defense you DID name the thread crashed because of... and I would consider that blaming the charger for your crash. I surely took it that way myself too when infact there's no one to blame but yourself and I think you already know that...

lnorris

My Feedback: (1)

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